Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

This really is a full service blog.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

This fight is for everything.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Everybody saw this coming.

I really should read my own blog.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Optimism opens the door to great things.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

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  3. 3.

    AA+ Bonds

    Everybody watch this documentary for a better understanding of Mitt Romney

    I mean, honestly, watch it for a better understanding of Iraq, of Blackwater, of the 1%, of the Wall Street crash, of pretty much everything immediately relevant to politics in the U.S.

    You won’t regret it, I promise you – just watch it in stages

  4. 4.

    Violet

    Sorting through boxes of books. Boxes and boxes and boxes of books. Why do I have so many books? Too many, yet I can’t get rid of many of them. Just like having them around.

  7. 7.

    Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)

    Open thread! ¡Muy bién!

    I’m steaming about a review I read on Amazon in which the reviewer went on about how what he called “Negro English” is “bad” and “sloppy” English. I hate that shit. When people made such a stink over Oakland teaching Ebonics 15 or 20 years ago, they were just utterly full of shit. Ebonics–what linguists call Black English Vernacular (BEV)–is every bit as subtle a dialect as Standard American English (SAE). It has complex rules of prammar, phonology, syntax and usage–no less complex than my own native Mid-Atlantic version of SAE has.

    I loathe hearing people bitch about somebody’s English being “wrong” or “bad”. It isn’t; it’s only different.

    It all has to do with standards. Yes, if your standards are SAE, which is kind of a narrow standard to judge some other dialect, then, I guess you could say BEV is “sloppy” or “bad” English; but then by that standard, so are Standard Irish English, Standard Australian English, Standard South African English… Well, you get the idea.

    In the same way, what would King Alfred the Great, who ruled Wessex from 849 to 899, and is credited with helping to standardize Anglo-Saxon (better known as Old English) as the leading language of England, say about our English today? Hell, we can’t even spell the guy’s name right. He spelled it “Cyning Ælfrǣd” (with the epithet it would have been “Cyning Ælfrǣd þe Grēat”. How lame does that make us? How bad does that make our English? Well, again, by Anglo-Saxon standards, we can do more than grunt barbarically. Cyning Ælfrǣd sure couldn’t have understood us; he wouldn’t have had any clue we were speaking a thousand-year-along variant of his own tongue. But, hey, guess what, we don’t speak Anglo-Saxon, we speak, all of us English speakers, some dialect of Modern English, so Cyning Ælfrǣd’s harsh words about how we speak today would mean no more than some lame-O’s ignorant rantings about supposedly lazy, sloppy BEV.

    I guess this is random enough to be off-topic, even for an open thread, but I felt a need to spout off a little…

  8. 8.

    Anoniminous

    href=”http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18238326″.

    A complex targeted cyber-attack that collected private data from countries such as Israel and Iran has been uncovered, researchers have said.

    Russian security firm Kaspersky Labs told the BBC they believed the malware, known as Flame, had been operating since August 2010.

    Windows is not a secure operating system.

    The Internet is not a secure network.

    ETA: HTML links no longer work?

  9. 9.

    AA+ Bonds

    @texascowgirl:

    Easy to explain: one poll doesn’t mean shit, especially when it’s Gallup, whose chief seems to be in the bag for Romney, given a recent NPR appearance where he mangled Gallup’s own numbers to make some drastically innumerate pro-Romney claims

    Reuters/Ipsos poll from May 14th says that Obama is up by seven points with veterans

  10. 10.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Anoniminous:

    Risk analysis/information assurance on this stuff now starts from the assumption that breaches on this scale have already occurred and are currently occurring in any system of that size

    As long as the people doing it for you aren’t incompetent or crooked, anyway

    Got to love the Kaspersky headline bait on that one, the “most complex” attack – naturally, on the objective 1-10 scale of complexity used by all professionals (the reality seems to be that it is simply more persistent than Stuxnet)

    Everybody can feel free to panic now

  11. 11.

    texascowgirl

    @AA+ Bonds: I thought I had heard of polls saying the opposite and that Obama was getting more donations from vets too. I thought it was an outlier, but wanted to hear someone else’s opinion.

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    Wow. The Krug is really shrill today. Here he is describing the governor of his state.

    Quick quiz: What’s a good five-letter description of Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, that ends in “y”?
    __
    The obvious choice is, of course, “bully.” But as a recent debate over the state’s budget reveals, “phony” is an equally valid answer. And as Mr. Christie goes, so goes his party.

  13. 13.

    AA+ Bonds

    Hahaha are you kidding me, Kaspersky is suggesting that Flame is a Quartz.dll exploit

    Not that I disbelieve it but man, sucks if so

  14. 14.

    Schlemizel

    Neighbors tree got hit by lightning last night. Its still standing but all of the bark is striped off the trunk (about 45 feet from ground to limbs). It followed a root to her outside light then the wire back to the house & blew a hole in the wall next to the light switch.

    It blew all the GFI circuits in our place. So that was pretty exciting.

  17. 17.

    gaz

    @Anoniminous:

    Windows is not a secure operating system.
    The Internet is not a secure network.

    I love it when people say stuff like this.

    Especially linux users. Easy marks.

    News flash: Nothing is secure. There’s no such thing as secure. Something is only as difficult to compromise as you make it. You can’t expect ANYTHING to be magically secure simply by virtue of what it is.

    I can make a hardened win95 box that is more secure than most people’s unix systems.

    Security is a factor of how much effort you want people to have to go through to compromise you, and nothing more.

    n00bs. When I was a teenager, I loved them.

    I rooted some douchebag’s SuSE box and stole his syslogs because he thought he was some r33t hax0r, and decided to annoy me by stealing my account at my ISP. I rooted him from an NT 4 machine. ganked his syslogs as evidence, and made his startup scripts force an infinite reboot cycle. He thought he was secure too.

  18. 18.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.):

    Standard English:

    Yes, indeed. “Standard” varies a lot from place to place. I’ve transcribed medical reports for doctors from various places and you can tell where they learned English. There is India English, which is a bit different from South Africa English, which is different from Israel English, and all are different from UK English.

    And then there are dialects. Bunches of them. Ebonics is not more exotic than Southern Hill Country and not nearly as difficult to understand as something like Cockney. Oy!

    I do think it’s very important for kids in the US to learn how to communicate in Standard American English, should they need to. Other than that, your mother tongue is just as valid as mine.

  20. 20.

    Anoniminous

    @AA+ Bonds:

    Granted it’s the usual journalistic ignorance but the fact is a computer will not be secure as long as the OS allows outside access to program memory or program disk space. This was first proven back in the BBS days and has been a constant since.

  21. 21.

    Both Sides Do It

    @gaz: “r33t hax0r”

    The hax0r thing I get. And I would have gotten “l33t”. But what is “r33t”? (I could make a racist joke about Asian dialects here, but I’m trying to restrain myself).

  22. 22.

    AA+ Bonds

    A list of Flame links

    The cum-gushing Kaspersky press release

    Wired pretty much reprints the release, sans critique, for page views

    Standard goofy overblown BBC story

    It’s still a little funny to read supposedly tech-savvy writers gasping at how Flame appears to be “five times the size of Stuxnet”, that is, 20 MB vs. Stuxnet’s 500 KB, as though the threat increased with disk space used like the yield of a nuclear weapon

    Kaspersky put stuff out like that specifically to snag the technologically illiterate, because it’s a hook for them to write vaguely about the defense-defeating complexity of Flame in popular periodicals even though few details have been released, which in turn allows Kaspersky to CYA about Flame being around since August 2010 if any clients are affected

  23. 23.

    Raven

    Wow Barry Mc Caffrey just said Obama’s remarks at Arlington and upcoming trip to the Wall are exemplary displays of patriotism. There goes his chances at VP.

  25. 25.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Anoniminous:

    Oh, I agree with you there

    As I said, it’s a given in RA for this stuff nowadays: You’re Not Secure, and the best approach is mitigation after the fact, because guaranteed, if you’re seeking solutions it’s after the fact

    It must have been pretty painful for certain actors in the industry to start admitting that to clients after promising them roses and candy indefinitely

  26. 26.

    gaz

    @Both Sides Do It: yes

    It’s an old gag. Conflating “engrish” with “l33tspeak”. They’re both bullshit. Both are ridiculous.

    If my choice of spelling offended anybody, I apologize. It’s not intended to poke fun at asians in particular, but rather the intentional bastardization of english in general – r33t wasn’t invented by me, it’s something I picked up in the 90’s and it just sort of stuck.

  28. 28.

    Anoniminous

    @gaz:

    n00bs. When I was a teenager, I loved them.

    I’ve only been programming since 1968 and doing hardware design and/or verification since 1977 … so what do I know?

    The point here is most people think their systems are secure and they aren’t.

  29. 29.

    AA+ Bonds

    @gaz:

    I rooted some douchebag’s SuSE box and stole his syslogs because he thought he was some r33t hax0r, and decided to annoy me by stealing my account at my ISP. I rooted him from an NT 4 machine. ganked his syslogs as evidence, and made his startup scripts force an infinite reboot cycle. He thought he was secure too.

    Did he think you were some helpless vic or something, or was he just practicing that business where childish engineers know retaliation is guaranteed and do it anyway because of self-destructive urges

    I mean, as far as I’m concerned, if he knew enough to steal someone’s identity, he know enough to know that the only way you’re “safe” is if nobody has any interest in attacking you

  31. 31.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @texascowgirl: I think Obama leads in support and polls from active duty personnel, Romney among Vets. Vets picked Dumbya over John Kerry in ’04, and the VFW has a pretty pronounced right-wing bias. I am a little surprised those numbers aren’t softening.

  32. 32.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Anoniminous:

    The point here is most people think their systems are secure and they aren’t.

    The killer to me is that the big players have made their money throughout most of their lives by claiming that

    1) your system isn’t secure, even though you think it is,
    2) until after you buy our product and then you’re fine,
    3) unless you fail to renew the contract in which case your company is going to collapse in Today’s Dangerous Environment

  33. 33.

    Hill Dweller

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I think Obama leads in support and polls from active duty personnel, Romney among Vets. Vets picked Dumbya over John Kerry in ‘04, and the VFW has a pretty pronounced right-wing bias. I am a little surprised those numbers aren’t softening.

    Tribalism.

  34. 34.

    gaz

    @AA+ Bonds: he was a script kiddie. Bragging was something that came naturally to the guy, but thinking? not so much. And yeah, I knew him personally.

    ETA: He called me after the incident and begged me not to turn his syslogs over. I didn’t. Instead I just mailbombed his mobile at&t account in perpetuity – his SMS inbox filled with messages saying It Must Suck To Be You. This was back in the early days of digital cellphones, when phones had crappy interfaces and it took no less then 4 navigations to delete a text message.

  35. 35.

    Anoniminous

    @gaz:

    OS doesn’t matter. Surface area does.

    Don’t know what you mean by “surface area.” Or, rather, there’s three things you could mean and I don’t know which one you’re using.

    :-)

  36. 36.

    AA+ Bonds

    In interesting and no doubt outdated related news from this month, here is a fun piece from McAfee about a root exploiting IRC bot that masquerades as Madden 12 for Android

    The only part of this I had trouble believing was that Madden 12 for Android exists

  37. 37.

    gaz

    @Anoniminous: It depends on context, and I’m using it in the most general sense.

    The sense that the more points of access your system has, the more avenues of compromise are available.

  38. 38.

    Alison

    @Violet: Quoth the Gorey: “There’s no such thing as too many books.”

    I whole-heartedly agree, as I too have a rather massive book collection, about 2/3 of which is still in boxes in storage from many moves ago…one of these days I gotta go digging through those, maybe if/when I ever have my own place again and thus have the room to house them with me…

  39. 39.

    AA+ Bonds

    @gaz:

    he was a script kiddie.

    Even then he should have known better, but

    This was back in the early days of digital cellphones

    probably explains it, because it likely means he started this back before kids knew what was up (all those many many years ago!!)

    And yeah, I knew him personally.

    In this case, I agree – what a fucking idiot

  41. 41.

    AA+ Bonds

    @gaz:

    The sense that the more points of access your system has, the more avenues of compromise are available.

    In this case we seem to be talking universities in the Middle East so it’s probably an absolute mess on a lot of levels

  42. 42.

    Anoniminous

    @AA+ Bonds:

    Ack.

    This stuff drives me crazy because there’s no reason for it. The InterTubes© could be made more better secure-ish (there ain’t no cure for a loose nut on a keyboard) with a minor effort of hardware, firmware, and software design. NecroSloth, & etc., don’t want to do it because it would cut into their profits, both support and New Release.

    BTW Cambridge Computer Lab is reporting they’ve found a backdoor in a MilSpec chip allowing a hostile take-over.

    UFB

  44. 44.

    gaz

    @Anoniminous: Clearly, we both agree that there is no patch for human stupidity.

    I don’t want to waste a lot of intellectual effort and money designing better hardware to fix a problem that begins and ends with the operator.

    Hacks are a product of an ID Ten T error. You can’t fix that with hardware. The internet is fine. If you want to solve computer security issues the only real solution is user education.

    ETA: PEBKAC

  45. 45.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Spike TV is doing their Band of Brothers marathon, minus the first episodes, I guess they need more time to show their reality shows, I wonder if those guys will ever show the series The Pacific, one of the subjects,in the series,the story of John Basilone, the Marine hero of Guadacanal, is a compelling story.

  46. 46.

    Anoniminous

    @gaz:

    Got it.

    One cure for the Surface Problem, off the top o’ me head, is to put an AND gate in the digital input to strip Bit 8* (assuming ASCII) throughout the system and use analog circuitry for voice and video. The first would cost about 27 cents. The second would be more costly; dunno how much, been decades since I played around with Op Amps & etc.

    —————————————————————————–

    * or Bit 7, depending on how ancient you are (LOL)

  47. 47.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @gaz:

    I rooted some douchebag’s SuSE box and stole his syslogs because he thought he was some r33t hax0r, and decided to annoy me by stealing my account at my ISP. I rooted him from an NT 4 machine. ganked his syslogs as evidence, ..

    Wow. Wha? That’s not SAE. What dialect are you speaking, here?

  48. 48.

    gaz

    @Anoniminous: History tells us that when you close that door, people will find a window. There’s always another way. Also, this opens up the possibility of hacking the filtering hardware ITSELF.

    There’s a constant battle between the crackers, and the security “experts”. The crackers are always a step ahead by definition, because the nature of security solutions is reactionary. Always. That will never change.

    Also, eliminating bit 7 (get off of my lawn =), ) can and probably will introduce compatibility issues, because it’s almost certain that some existing systems rely on it.

    It’s a mugs game. I’m not saying that filtering, etc are completely useless, just mostly useless, and fraught with both upfront costs and hidden costs – while the cost of user education is pretty straightforward to compute, doesn’t create compatibility issues, and is far more effective.

    I’m all for providing tools so that security minded people can employ them. I don’t take issue with that. But in the end, there always seems to be a vast ocean of morons who don’t use them at all, don’t use them effectively, or actually use them in a way that makes the problem worse.

    So in the end, it’s still about educating the users.

    Following the arc of the evolution of computers and software, we can easily observe that hardware and software solutions have been introduced over and over again, and yet it doesn’t even make a dent in terms of compromises. As access increases, compromises increase. That’s pretty much a LAW.

    There is no silver bullet, and there never will be one. It’s just chasing the holy grail.

  50. 50.

    Eric U.

    We live on a dead-end street paralleling Main Street, and for some reason the township decided we didn’t need a “no outlet” sign. Every time there is an event downtown, idiots drive down our street, find out it doesn’t go through, and then go back as fast as they dare. It’s more than a little annoying.

    I really can’t believe how effective some of the phishing schemes are. The one about your cancellation at Amazon almost got me to click because the spam catcher didn’t pick it off on the first try. After 100 emails, I guess it got picked up in the spam filter. I can’t imagine keeping a large number of users from clicking on stuff like that. I finally took away my wife’s admin privileges on her computer because it was too virus-ridden. Everybody wants admin privileges on their personal account, would be nice if windows would just adopt sudo and be done with it.

    I always worry a little about Linux viruses, and I’ve had a system rooted back before the university firewalled all of our computers. I really can’t shake myself of the idea that some of the antivirus software companies are funding the virus writers. Think about the revenue stream that would open up if they could convince all Mac users to buy anti-virus software. Although now there are actually revenue streams from rooted computers they probably don’t have to pay, their work is done for free.

  51. 51.

    dr. bloor

    @Raven

    Did he give his remarks before or after he spraypainted “KENYAN SOSHULISM NOW!!!” on the Tomb Of the Unknown Soldier?

  52. 52.

    gaz

    @dr. bloor:

    would be nice if windows would just adopt sudo and be done with it.

    It does. Upgrade your copy of windows. Microsoft calls it User Account Control (UAC).

    I’m sure they could just rename the feature to “sudo” and maybe that would appease you, but it wouldn’t actually make it more secure.

  53. 53.

    PurpleGirl

    @Alison: I have a number of books in storage and need to deal with weeding them. I also need to weed the magazine collections I have in the apartment. I hate the idea of getting rid of books/magazines but I have so many that I haven’t looked at in ages (decades) and probably won’t look at again. Space will always been at a minimum.

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Anoniminous:

    Windows is not a secure operating system.
    The Internet is not a secure network.

    The only secure computer is one in the original, unopened shipping container.

  57. 57.

    gaz

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The only secure computer is one in the original, unopened shipping container.

    You are no fun. How do you expect bored teenagers to get their rocks off when people like you insist on being all mindful and intelligent about it?

    Spoilsport.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Raven:

    Earlier McCaffrey opined that Obama has a good record on foreign policy and national security.

  59. 59.

    trollhattan

    The house has cleared out so I’m finally getting around to playing The Richard Thompson Band “Live at Celtic Connections” Blu-ray.

    RT fans should get this, stat.

  60. 60.

    AA+ Bonds

    @gaz:

    Microsoft calls it User Account Control (UAC).

    And! it’s more secure than sudo, and I have no idea how even a Linux partisan would have missed the feature without living in a dark cave with their hands over their ears

  63. 63.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @gaz:

    Oh, well, he’s been on CNN as an expert.

    THAT is really a qualification. CNN has been social engineered on “experts” before.

    This means he’s good at getting his name onto producers’ rolodexes, when they need someone to be a talking head for whatever computer crisis is the in the cycle at the moment.

    Man, that seriously qualifies you as an expert.

    Hmmm…I may have broken my sarcasm tags. They were ROFLing.

  65. 65.

    Anoniminous

    @gaz:

    I agree 99%.

    Disagreement: I submit no amount of education can solve an inherent design flaw. Which, IMO, allowing external access to program space is. I concede I’m in a tiny minority, here.

    Have to say I have zero sympathy for people who don’t adhere to the goddamn specs. Anything above 127 is Undefined in ASCII and if some wankers want to use Undefined space for their own purposes then they deserve what is going to happen.

    And now … off to Magic Memorial Day Picnic-Land.

    (Thanks for the discussion.)

  66. 66.

    gaz

    @AA+ Bonds: This is why I used to love hacking unix weenies. They are so caught up in ideology and bubble-boy syndrome they make for some of the easiest marks on the planet.

  67. 67.

    AA+ Bonds

    @gaz:

    I’m all for providing tools so that security minded people can employ them. I don’t take issue with that. But in the end, there always seems to be a vast ocean of morons who don’t use them at all, don’t use them effectively, or actually use them in a way that makes the problem worse.
    __
    So in the end, it’s still about educating the users.

    I have to say that I’ve never understood the “luser”-blaming mentality – the majority of problems I’ve seen can most likely be traced to poor communication between development and sales/service, poor communication between sales/service and clients, or poor processes created by user-end management (usually after one of the previous two problems).

    Everyday users should not be expected to know things that they hire people to know for them and communicate to them clearly, or to make up for deficits in high-level processes that their bosses should handle as part of their overpaid jobs

  68. 68.

    gaz

    @Villago Delenda Est: We went to the same high school, and are about the same age, and we ran in the same circles when younger.

    Later on, he settled down, after throwing away some very promising music scholarships due to getting a criminal record for being CAUGHT ALL THE FUCKING TIME. He married, and settled a bit, then his wife got some sort of big settlement and he used the proceeds to found secure science.

    The reason he’s been on TV and stuff, is that if he’s good at anything (other than singing and playing the violin – i won’t begrudge him that) it’s shameless self promotion.

    Fun fact: He taught me how to play “Imagine” on the piano.

  69. 69.

    Phylllis

    @dr. bloor:

    after he spraypainted “KENYAN SOSHULISM NOW

    I originally read that as gaypainted, which would also be rather awesome for him to do. I might need a nap.

  70. 70.

    AA+ Bonds

    @gaz:

    This is why I used to love hacking unix weenies. They are so caught up in ideology and bubble-boy syndrome they make for some of the easiest marks on the planet.

    It’s crazy . . . if you have ever installed pretty much anything ever on a Windows 7 box, you’ve seen UAC

    People who only use their PCs for word processing and World of Warcraft have seen UAC

    And before that, we’ve had runas for over a decade now

  71. 71.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Anoniminous:

    BTW Cambridge Computer Lab is reporting they’ve found a backdoor in a MilSpec chip allowing a hostile take-over.

    Haha wow, nearly missed that, bad news bears for a lot of folks

  72. 72.

    gaz

    @AA+ Bonds:

    the majority of problems I’ve seen can most likely be traced to poor communication between development and sales/service, poor communication between sales/service and clients, or poor processes created by user-end management (usually after one of the previous two problems).

    You’re talking apples, and I’m talking oranges.

    Software is not a solution to security.
    Hardware is not a solution to security.

    I’ll make an analogy:

    You can make a safer car, pack it with airbags, etc. Sure it will sometimes mitigate injuries in a crash. But if you don’t know how to drive defensively, or at all, all of that tech will not only NOT save you, it will often do more harm than good – like putting your small kid in the front passenger seat of an airbag equipped vehicle.

    It may seem like I’m blaming the users, but that’s not my primary point here. My primary point is that while most of the focus on security among most people seems to be on hardware and software, it SHOULD be on education. If you can’t be bothered to learn how to use your computer – or if there are no resources available to teach you, you can expect to be compromised. A car that holds your loved ones is dangerous if you don’t know how to use it. Similarly, a computer that holds your personal information is ALSO dangerous if you don’t know how to use it.

  74. 74.

    AA+ Bonds

    @gaz:

    I think we’re agreeing with each other for the most part, but I’d add to this

    If you can’t be bothered to learn how to use your computer – or if there are no resources available to teach you, you can expect to be compromised.

    that on the business level you can also expect to be compromised if your employees have no reason to apply what they know about security, or nothing beyond the vague threat of action taken against them individually after a major compromise

    Businesses that fall into this category include pretty much any business with more than five employees

    I believe the #1 security risk to firms remains the exploitation of workers and that it’s been that way since well before the “digital age”

  76. 76.

    gaz

    @AA+ Bonds: I can get behind that.

    My best defense against 3rd party compromises essentially is this: I have NO expectation of a 3rd party agency to protect my information. I’ll only submit information I know can and probably would eventually get compromised and spread around.

    If this information is submitted voluntarily, like in the case of say, Facebook or gmail, I can expect no security. Any good faith efforts on their part are a GIFT, not something I can expect.

    If the information I submitted is COMPULSORY, like with the IRS or government stuff, I would explore actionable legal recompense for their failure to protect my information.

    In the end, the Usage Agreement basically says it all.

    That said, some information I voluntarily submit, I’d like to be protected. But it’s always a risk/reward calculation. I use my debit card (w/ VISA logo) to make online purchases for example, full well knowing that they could turn around and steal my info. That’s why that account never has any money in it before I plan to make a purchase – AND – I’ve fully read and understand VISA and my bank’s reimbursement policies as they apply to fraud. Important stuff. Nothing to do with software either, and everything to do with taking an informed risk.

  77. 77.

    Schlemizel

    two things
    Have to amend the earlier post – seems the lightning killed all the electronics in our car – dead as hell.

    For a different look at war read a bit of Peter Fussell. He was a rifle squad Lt. in Europe – his unit took 150% among its Lt’s as they crossed Europe. He did not find it brave, or glorious or anything as neat as even Band Of Brothers. Here is a bit:
    http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/bookauth/battle/pfint.htm

  79. 79.

    Riilism

    It’s amazing. I only quit my job a week ago and already I’m outa the work/off-work routine. I’m sitting here (after a lovely 2 hr nap) wondering why posting is so fucking light today. Damn you BJ FP’s, entertain me, I’m bored…

    ooohhhh, right, Memorial Day….

    BTW, quitting a job you hate working for people you despise is teh awesome, even if I have dip into retirement savings….

  81. 81.

    gaz

    @Riilism: I just quit my infotech job recently. Fives to a fellow “willfully unemployed” person. Less stress, jobless. Takes massive stones in this economy too, or a destructive streak, or a bit of both =)

    In my case, it was 100% telecommute – and paid better than median wage in my area, leading many people to raise their eyebrows at me. Hehehehe. It was still worth it because I have more important things going on right now, and I need the space.

    I plan on working as a barista. No more computers for me. I actually hate them, and have for a long time. I’m not qualified for much else, but OTOH peace is more important than money. If there’s anything Infotech taught me, it’s that.

  82. 82.

    Riilism

    @gaz:

    Less stress, jobless.

    Amen to that. Fives to you as well. Myself, I’ve been malemployed for going on 3 years now and getting back into the field of my educational background is unlikely and not altogether desirable.

    At 45, I’m looking at going back to school for 2 yrs and starting a new career. Career?? Feh, I’m just looking for a relatively low stress job that pays decent and involves a minimal amount of manual labor (I’m delicate, dontcha know, and my last job was making it look like I was gonna spend retirement in constant physical pain. The fuckers that want to raise retirement to 70 should be forced into manual labor for the next 5 years and then, at the end of that time, politely asked if they still cling to such absurd and ultimately cruel ideas).

    Anyhoo, good luck wit yer future endeavors. Sometimes you need to walk away in order to start walking forward…

  84. 84.

    AA+ Bonds

    @gaz:

    Kind of depressing that so many jobs now include social media functions and employers now want to see a meticulously maintained semi-fictional identity online so they can judge how well you will do the same for them

  85. 85.

    Mnemosyne

    @Lojasmo:

    I’m not sure it fits the requirements of “low stress” and “no physical labor,” though. My friend’s husband is an RN and he left psychiatric nursing for a less stressful job in the cardiac ICU.

    There’s a whole other story in the reasons why working with extremely ill and/or dying patients is so much less stressful than working in the psychiatric wing of a large public hospital. For one thing, he doesn’t have to wrestle any patients to the ground in his current job.

  86. 86.

    gaz

    @AA+ Bonds: LOL. They’ll have to start with my fictional meat-space identity. And maybe, I hope they never find my blog. But then again, I hope they do.

    People suck. Employers, doubly so. =)

  87. 87.

    gaz

    @Riilism:

    Anyhoo, good luck wit yer future endeavors. Sometimes you need to walk away in order to start walking forward…

    You too. And I’m gonna steal that saying. It’s eloquent. =)

  88. 88.

    Kyle

    Has there been any discussion of the possibility that our reluctance to take a harder stand against Syria is influenced by the fact that Syria was a rendition sight and therefore has embarrassing information that can be used against the US?

  89. 89.

    quietstorm

    Hey, I just thought I’d let you guys know that whoever is serving you ads has let at least one fraudulent phishing site through for Australian audiences. I’ve got a screencap of the offending ad and can give you the details if you email me.

    It was the fact that a university here was supposedly offering a Bachelor of Arts in “Security, Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism” that made me suspicious. :P

  90. 90.

    Riilism

    @Lojasmo: Thanks for the suggestion. I’m kinda thinking physical therapy right now. We’ll see what life brings…

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