Year: 2005

I came across this late as it was written a few years ago.

Is Your Son a Computer Hacker? a brilliant spoof advisory for parents that is made even more hilarious by the numerous comments from supposedly intelligent people that have failed to get the joke.

This article is the biggest crock of sh*t I’ve ever read.

I could argue every point, but let’s just say that being argumentative and surly in social behavior does not make hackers… it’s a behavior of everyone. I’m 22 and STILL act like in such manners when IDIOTS make comments like this and generalize about people without ANY sense of intelligence.

As far as AMD processors and upgrading to new technology…. People always want their systems to be FASTER so they can get more done in less time… not because it helps us break your computer faster. Oh and I *did* buy my AMD at a local computer shop NOT by ordering online.

As for academic ability… well, let’s just say I graduated in the top 5% of my class. Nevermind my appearance which has radically changed as I matured from baggy jeans to more professional work clothes and parted hair-cut to something more modern.

And what the heck is Lunix? Do you mean Linux the Operating System designed to compete with Windows? And oh my god let’s not talk about Quake, the popular game that kids like to play online with friends.

Oh and as computer technician and network administrator… I spend more than 10 hours on a computer per day.

As for the hacking manuals… yes I do read them… I like to know how to protect my systems, so people AREN’T stealing my data.

If you wanna call these behaviors hacking… by all means do so… just don’t expect the INTELLIGENT people in the world to be blinded by your ignorance and generalizations.

Aaron M. Hall

You may have graduated in the top 5% of your class but as you didn’t understand that it was a spoof Aaron M. Hall I suspect you have an autistic spectrum disorder such as Asperger’s Syndrome.

Tags: games

We keep hearing that irony is dead, and that we must embrace a new age of sincerity. Supposedly, the current world climate is such that irony is a luxury we can’t afford.

But maybe when they say that — you know, “they” — they’re being ironic. It’s hard to tell; maybe they’re just really deadpan. Maybe what they’re trying to tell us by proclaiming the death of irony is that tough times require us to be even more arch, and even more suspicious of the seemingly benign. And maybe a statement decrying irony should be interpreted as meaning the exact opposite!

If so: yay! We love irony!

Or, we don’t, and we’re being ironic.

I also [heart] Charlize Theron as Aeon Flux.

Tags: love

Adverts have been appearing in the run up to the switch over to chip and PIN.

Keep forgetting your PIN?
It’s easy to change with chip and PIN.
To something more memorable like a birthday or your lucky numbers. You can change your PIN at the cash machine. Easily. Or by simply contacting your card issuer. The new chip and PIN cards will make life easier and safer. If you haven’t received one yet, you soon will.

I have my doubts about the whole switch to chip and PIN especially the message they are peddling that it will make life easier and safer. It isn’t really fundamentally any more secure it just changes the threat model and offers no increase in security for the card user at all.

Plus as Ryan points out about the advice in the advert

Right, so when the thief steals my wallet, the first PIN combination they are going to try is DDMM or MMYY of my birthday, which is on my driving license and they are now also telling us that we can change our PIN by phone!

I believe it probably will cut credit card fraud in the short term until the fraudsters come up with a new strategy and inevitably I think it will lead to customers forgetting to sign their cards and that will result in further avenues for fraud.

Tags: computer security, identity theft, security

The excellent three-part BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares is to be broadcast again this week.

The Power of Nightmares will be broadcast over three nights from 18 to 20 January at 2320GMT on BBC Two. The final part has been updated in the wake of the Law Lords ruling in December that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial was illegal.

I watched it when it was originally broadcast and believe it to be an eye-opening experience for those people that have been convinced by their governments dire warnings of the threat of global terrorism.

The three part series tries to get to the truth of the threat facing us behind the politicians rhetoric and the media’s sensationalist headlines.

In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares.

The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares.

In a new series, the Power of Nightmares explores how the idea that we are threatened by a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion.

It is a myth that has spread unquestioned through politics, the security services and the international media.

Part I: Baby It’s Cold Outside
Part II: The Phantom Victory
Part III: The Shadows in the Cave

Tags: Adam Curtis, security, terrorism, TV

It looks like the movie adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s seminal comic book series V for Vendetta will be going ahead with Natalie Portman in a leading role.

The film will be produced by the The Wachowski Brothers and Joel Silver, the creators and producer of the revolutionary, $1.6 billion-grossing Matrix trilogy and directed by James McTeigue.

I’m feeling very positive about this production and I’m confident that the Wachowskis will deliver a truly excellent adaptation of one of Alan Moore’s works as the previous movie adaptations, From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have been below par.

Tags: comics, movies

City of ghosts
In a joint investigation for the Guardian and Channel 4 News, Iraqi doctor Ali Fadhil compiled the first independent reports from the devastated city of Falluja.

December 24

In the morning we went back towards Falluja and heard that there were queues of people waiting to try to get back into the city. The government had made an announcement saying that the people from some districts could start to go back home; they promised compensation. About midday we got a mile east of the city and saw that four queues had formed near the American base. They were mostly men, waiting for US military ID to allow them back home.

The men were angry: “This is a humiliation. I say no more than that. These IDs are to make us bow Fallujan heads in shame,” one of them said.

I met Major Paul Hackett, a marine officer in the Falluja liaison base. He said that the US military was not trying to humiliate anyone, but that the IDs were necessary for security. “I mean, my understanding is that ultimately they can hang this ID card on a wall and keep it as a souvenir,” he said.

They took prints of all my fingers, two pictures of my face in profile, and then photographed my iris. I was now eligible to go into Falluja, just like any other Fallujan.

But it was late by then, somewhere near 5pm (the curfew is at 6pm). After that anyone who moves inside the city will be shot on sight by the US military. Tomorrow, we would try again to get into the city.

So the security of Falluja is maintained by biometric ID cards is it. We don’t have the full story here but then Dr. Ali Fadhil’s report isn’t considered with the issues of ID cards it is concerned with the devastation of Falluja.

Is the US military demanding people identify themselves whenever a patrol comes across an individual in Falluja?
Do they have a list of suspected insurgents at the ID processing centre in order to prevent those individuals gaining ID cards?
What happens to the data once law and order has been restored to Falluja and Iraq in general?

I doubt that the use of biometric information in this system has an increased security effect over the simple photo-IDs that could have been issued to returning Fallujans. It seems to me that this merely an experiment to test the biometric ID card system in the field as it were by a US government which is intending to introduce such a system in some form or another for it’s own citizens.

In other fingerprinting news we have this from Bruce Schneier on the Security issues with Fingerprinting Students.

Tags: ID_cards, security

I received an email from NO2ID.net giving an update on the National ID cards Bill as it passes through parliament.

Revolts.co.uk has produced an analysis of the Second Reading backbench rebellion (PDF file).

We urgently call on all supporters to contact their MPs, Councillors, AMs and MSPs to make them aware of your concerns and to point out that ID cards are not a popular measure, despite what a number of them believe. If you get a response then please pass on details of their position to our
Parliamentary Liaison, Rachael Marsh ([email protected]).

List of MSPs – http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/index.htm
List of AMs – http://www.wales.gov.uk/who/constit_e.htm
Fax Westminster MPs – http://www.faxyourmp.com/

In addition to contacting your MP you may wish to support the campaign by either signing the petition or by making a donation.

Tags: ID_cards

Bill Gates compares free culture advocates to communists in this interview with News.com, it gets picked up by BoingBoing and then all hell breaks loose.

News.com – In recent years, there’s been a lot of people clamoring to reform and restrict intellectual-property rights. It started out with just a few people, but now there are a bunch of advocates saying, “We’ve got to look at patents, we’ve got to look at copyrights.” What’s driving this, and do you think intellectual-property laws need to be reformed?

Bill Gates – No, I’d say that of the world’s economies, there’s more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don’t think that those incentives should exist.

Whilst there are undoubtedly some people advocating abandoning intellectual property laws altogether, I would think that the majority of people seeking IP reform believe in the principle just not in the current form of those laws.

The disparity between the term of protection offered by patents and copyrights is huge. For patents it is 20 years and for copyright it is life of author plus 70 years , which could mean well over a century. Yet the principle is the same – To benefit society by encouraging and fostering innovation and invention through offering a limited monopoly to authors of creative works. In the words of the United States Constitution.

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

The extension of the term of copyright can only have a extremely limited effect in encouraging new creative works to be produced. I’m sure it would be a challenge to find an author in the UK who would not be prepared to publish something because the copyright would only last 50 years beyond his death rather than 70 years that it has now been increased to in The Duration of Copyright and Rights in Performances Regulations 1995.

In fact such extensions to the duration that copyright lasts for can have a detrimental effect as it discourages investment in new ventures which can be risky in respect to long established profitable products. The relatively short period of protection afforded to patents encourages pharmaceutical companies to constantly research and develop new products to replace those drugs that will move into the public domain and which will then be produced in generic form by other companies.

In this case the competition drives down prices for generic drugs and through encouraging innovation improves the health of the human race. I personally wouldn’t advocate a term of 20 years for copyright, I believe that a term of 50 years would be a sufficient duration to balance the benefit to both author and society.

Tags: copyright

A hauntingly beautiful and disturbing animation.

Bombs, Crows and Corpses. Who could ask for anything more?

More here http://www.abc.net.au/arts/strange/

Tags: video

Enter the Public Domain is my new weblog where I shall publish works that have just entered the public domain.

The first thing I have published is Elvis Presley’s That’s All Right and Blue Moon Of Kentucky first recorded on July 5, 1954 and released on July 19, 1954.

Tags: copyright, Elvis, music