This is a very good essay by Richard Stallman showing a distopic future where the SPA/BSA and RIAA/MPAA have all their wishes, and citizens have, well, none.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read
I had to go to the DMZ protected network to get it, because it was on the blog.torproject.org site, which is blocked at work because it was on a filter bypass site (sigh)
Sounds a lot like stories of the Soviet Union in the 60's - where people were frightened of the secret police finding out they have unapproved books. Luckily it's not like that... is it?
[ Semi-obligitory smarmy comment: In his notes, Mr Stallman states: "The Republicans took control of the US senate shortly thereafter. They are less tied to Hollywood than the Democrats, so they did not press these proposals. Now that the Democrats are back in control, the danger is once again higher." ]
Perry
Friday, January 27, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
One News Story Shows All - SOPA/PIPA Isn't Needed, is Stupid, and Doesn't Work
Umm, I think the following post is incorrect - check the update
If you haven't heard, the day after the SOPA/PIPA internet protest, and the governmental retreat, the Justice Department showing their stunningly bad decision making (and timing), shut down Megaupload.com.
Anonymous responded, shutting down the RIAA and the Justice department ( this BTW is not really part of the story ) I do not condone this reprehensible behavior ( believe me ).
On the other hand, I can vouch for the fact that Megaupload is used for legitimate uses - it's where I get my home router firmware.
We shouldn't worry, in spite of our crack justice department work, megaupload was down for less than 24 hours.
Our taxpayer dollars at work. Sheesh
Perry
Update
One of the people arrested is Kim Schmitz. Not exactly a poster child for protected speech. Actually a global celebrity in Internet Abuse and Fraud.
Hey - If you've real lost work because you stored it on MegaUpload, did you do a little bit of research?
Update 2 It's probably worse than that
I haven't read the indictment, but Wikipedia has, and says:
"In Megaupload's case, the indictment asserts DMCA provisions were used for the appearance of legitimacy - the actual material was not removed, only some links to it were, takedowns agreement was approved based on business growth rather than infringement, and the parties themselves openly discussed their infringing activities. The indictment states that Megaupload executives "... are willfully infringing copyrights themselves on these systems; have actual knowledge that the materials on their systems are infringing (or alternatively know facts or circumstances that would make infringing material apparent); receive a financial benefit directly attributable to copyright-infringing activity where the provider can control that activity; and have not removed, or disabled access to, known copyright infringing material from servers they control."[46]"
Which, from what I know of Schmitz, is just him acting as himself. So he's making a business stealing intellectual property. This is illegal in a large number of civilized countries, which I define as places where I'd like to live. He was living in a mansion in New Zealand, and (allegedly) living off wholesale IP theft. Too bad for him.
OTOH if he was living in some sort of country where this wasn't illegal, well, our legal process just couldn't touch him, so that would be too bad for us. Oh well, let's see how it plays out in the courts.
Of course, that doesn't matter for Anonymous or Luzsec - they're just in it for the chaos or the Lulz
Perry
If you haven't heard, the day after the SOPA/PIPA internet protest, and the governmental retreat, the Justice Department showing their stunningly bad decision making (and timing), shut down Megaupload.com.
Anonymous responded, shutting down the RIAA and the Justice department ( this BTW is not really part of the story ) I do not condone this reprehensible behavior ( believe me ).
On the other hand, I can vouch for the fact that Megaupload is used for legitimate uses - it's where I get my home router firmware.
We shouldn't worry, in spite of our crack justice department work, megaupload was down for less than 24 hours.
Our taxpayer dollars at work. Sheesh
Perry
Update
One of the people arrested is Kim Schmitz. Not exactly a poster child for protected speech. Actually a global celebrity in Internet Abuse and Fraud.
Hey - If you've real lost work because you stored it on MegaUpload, did you do a little bit of research?
Update 2 It's probably worse than that
I haven't read the indictment, but Wikipedia has, and says:
"In Megaupload's case, the indictment asserts DMCA provisions were used for the appearance of legitimacy - the actual material was not removed, only some links to it were, takedowns agreement was approved based on business growth rather than infringement, and the parties themselves openly discussed their infringing activities. The indictment states that Megaupload executives "... are willfully infringing copyrights themselves on these systems; have actual knowledge that the materials on their systems are infringing (or alternatively know facts or circumstances that would make infringing material apparent); receive a financial benefit directly attributable to copyright-infringing activity where the provider can control that activity; and have not removed, or disabled access to, known copyright infringing material from servers they control."[46]"
Which, from what I know of Schmitz, is just him acting as himself. So he's making a business stealing intellectual property. This is illegal in a large number of civilized countries, which I define as places where I'd like to live. He was living in a mansion in New Zealand, and (allegedly) living off wholesale IP theft. Too bad for him.
OTOH if he was living in some sort of country where this wasn't illegal, well, our legal process just couldn't touch him, so that would be too bad for us. Oh well, let's see how it plays out in the courts.
Of course, that doesn't matter for Anonymous or Luzsec - they're just in it for the chaos or the Lulz
Perry
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Does Android have a Siri Competitor ?
Nuance (owns Dragon) has released a free product that's supposed to be context sensitive voice recognition for Android
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/nuance-dragon-go-android/#continued
Let's see what happens
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/nuance-dragon-go-android/#continued
Let's see what happens
Friday, December 23, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Alien Spaceship near Mercury
This is an amazing video (with amateur narrator). If I didn't already believe there's life out there, it would definitely move me closer.
From Space.com: On Dec. 1, a camera onboard NASA’s STEREO spacecraft recorded a wave of electrically charged material shooting out from the sun and blasting Mercury. Footage of this “coronal mass ejection” (CME), as such events are called, has caught the attention of alien-hunters, who say it has unveiled a giant, “cloaked” spaceship parked near the solar system’s innermost planet.
Full Disclosure - The space.com article does have some mumbo-jumbo about "image processing artifacts" and/or other things that are hard to understand, but let's just say the aliens are either watching, or, even better, have a vacant, operating, space station out there for us to pick technology off, as soon as we can get that close to Mercury.
Are we up to the challenge?
Perry
From Space.com: On Dec. 1, a camera onboard NASA’s STEREO spacecraft recorded a wave of electrically charged material shooting out from the sun and blasting Mercury. Footage of this “coronal mass ejection” (CME), as such events are called, has caught the attention of alien-hunters, who say it has unveiled a giant, “cloaked” spaceship parked near the solar system’s innermost planet.
Full Disclosure - The space.com article does have some mumbo-jumbo about "image processing artifacts" and/or other things that are hard to understand, but let's just say the aliens are either watching, or, even better, have a vacant, operating, space station out there for us to pick technology off, as soon as we can get that close to Mercury.
Are we up to the challenge?
Perry
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Chris DiBona at Google says all AV makers on Android are [crooks]
There's an interesting discussion on the web about whether AV products are needed on Android and Chris DiBona really got things going when he claimed all the AV makers "charlatans and scammers", and "IF you work for a company selling virus protection for android, rim or IOS you should be ashamed of yourself."
[ although these juicy quotes may change in subsequent edits ]
Then,
Antivirus makers responded on Ars - "We're not Scammers"
Unfortunately there was a small matter of 21 apps pulled from the Android market
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/03/malware-in-android-market-highlights-googles-vulnerability.ars
So is this simply a matter of Mr DiBona using a pedantic definition of AV?
1. AV has truly morphed to Malware detection
2. If you use Perry's Law of Malware - You can only respond to two kinds of problems - the kind you've seen and the kind you can anticipate. People who care about their data and IT need to address both - and we can't simply trust Google and the Carriers to do it for us.
Perry
Update 1/4/2012 - Maybe he means this?
http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/fake-antivirus-scams-targeting-android-users-122911
Update 1/28/2012
From Slashdot: Android Malware May Have Infected 5 Million Users
Oh really? 5 million users af[in]fected because a platform is
Hello? Anybody home?
[ although these juicy quotes may change in subsequent edits ]
Then,
Antivirus makers responded on Ars - "We're not Scammers"
Unfortunately there was a small matter of 21 apps pulled from the Android market
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/03/malware-in-android-market-highlights-googles-vulnerability.ars
So is this simply a matter of Mr DiBona using a pedantic definition of AV?
1. AV has truly morphed to Malware detection
2. If you use Perry's Law of Malware - You can only respond to two kinds of problems - the kind you've seen and the kind you can anticipate. People who care about their data and IT need to address both - and we can't simply trust Google and the Carriers to do it for us.
Perry
Update 1/4/2012 - Maybe he means this?
http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/fake-antivirus-scams-targeting-android-users-122911
Update 1/28/2012
From Slashdot: Android Malware May Have Infected 5 Million Users
Oh really? 5 million users af[in]fected because a platform is
- Totally insecure
- Has no AV or Malware detection
- Even though it has a single place to acquire software, the administrators of the distributor have completely abdicated their responsibilities for quality control
- Largely unpatched due to closed platform on customer dependence on suppliers who prioritize releasing new devices far above fixing the security of old devices?
Hello? Anybody home?
Friday, November 18, 2011
Google knows all, and sometimes it's easy to make them tell
This is interesting - a blogger uses google analytics to de-anonymize another blogger
http://waxy.org/2011/11/google_analytics/
Lesson- If it's important to keep your anonymity - link nothing together
http://waxy.org/2011/11/google_analytics/
Lesson- If it's important to keep your anonymity - link nothing together
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