Category: Aside

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Aside Quotations

2013.4.7

Robert Edwards had been on the popular dating site OKCupid.com for about six months when the administrators asked him to be a community moderator. “They wrote and said I am a responsible user, whatever that means,” he recalled, admitting that at first he was befuddled. Though fairly active on the site, Edwards, a medical professional who lives in the Mission District, had remained a confirmed bachelor.

But curiosity drove him to click the “moderation” button, and within minutes he was reading people’s messages to each other and perusing profiles flagged for possible terms of service violations.

Online love-seekers might not be aware of it, but OKCupid has deputized random strangers to gain access to intimate conversations between others — correspondence that many users, as well as Internet privacy experts, assumed to be private.

Testing Online Privacy Limits, OKCupid Lets Strangers Read Intimate Messages | San Francisco Public Press (via new-aesthetic)

Well, this is interesting. I mean, I get why the company is outsourcing this to free laborers, but wow. I wonder how many of these services’ users are aware of how moderation is performed

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Aside Links

Don’t Use Linksys Routers

cleverhacks:

multiple remote root exploits for some of Cisco’s latest consumer-grade gear – and remember, if your router is pwned, it doesn’t matter if all your computers are patched and ultra-secure; your traffic can still be silently MITM’d and your connection hijacked for nefarious purposes.

Ah…another set of router exploits. At least all the major routers that run traffic in the core of the networks are secure from these kinds of vulnerabilities because of high degrees of security-first coding, right?

Categories
Aside Quotations

2013.3.30

The determination by Congress and President Barack Obama’s administration to protect networks of critical U.S. industries from hackers and cyberspies is creating an explosive growth opportunity – for lobbyists.

There were 513 filings by consultants and companies to press Congress on cybersecurity by the end of 2012, up 85 percent from 2011 and almost three times as many as in 2010, according to U.S. Senate filings. Twelve firms have submitted new registrations this year on behalf of companies including Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Motorola Mobility unit, Symantec Corp. (SYMC), United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) and Ericsson Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Stockholm-based Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson.

Eric Engleman & Jonathan D. Salant, “Cybersecurity Lobby Surges as Congress Considers New Laws”

I’m sure the lobbyists are only there as good patriotic Americans, aiming to best ensure that Americans are kept safe and Congresspeople and Senators (and their associated staff) just get the best information possible. No way that, in the wake of US scaremongering, lobbyists are looking to massively expand ‘security’ projects to the detriment of Americans’ privacy and (almost comically) security interest. Right?

Categories
Aside Humour

Cat vs Packing

thefrogman:

[video] [h/t: cineraria]

And in this biology video, we see the white cells of your average packing box surround the intruder, with the effect of excising the hostile specimen from the otherwise healthy host organism/box. It’s amazing how organisms in nature develop extraordinary defences!

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Aside Links

New credit cards vulnerable to electronic pickpockets

Fortunately, only ‘advanced payment cards’ are currently affected by this. Well, and the BC Services Card once it’s in people’s hands and the chip has been activated.

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Aside

Brazilian BBQ

imathers:

nudewave:

Ian and I are going to Texas De Brazil in less than two weeks:

Treat yourself to our 50-60 item seasonal salad area including appetizers, gourmet vegetables, soups, and salads. Turn your place card to green and prepare to be swarmed by a troop of carvers generously serving various cuts of seasoned beef, lamb, pork, chicken and Brazilian sausage, all accompanied by traditional side items and house-baked Brazilian cheese bread. As you dine endlessly on Brazilian fare, let one of our in-house wine connoisseurs select the perfect pairing from our extensive, award-winning wine lists, or sip on a freshly-made signature cocktail-the Caipirinha. Complete your dining experience with one of our many decadent dessert selections, and then relax with an after-dinner drink, steaming espresso or a hand-rolled cigar and enjoy the ambiance and service perfection that is uniquely Texas de Brazil.

So, I mean, if we die in Ron Swanson’s wet dream, it’s been real, y’all. I’ll just be singing MEAT to the tune of LMFAO’S SHOTS until then (EVERY ANIMAL!).

Apologies to my non-meat-eating followers, but “Ron Swanson’s wet dream” is right; next to being in the same room as my wife, this is the thing I’m most excited for. As I said to Anaïs, we are going to feel so awesome/horrible after.

Brazilian BBQ is just a terrific experience. Was sad to not get a chance to enjoy it last time I was in Rio.

Categories
Aside

Application, In!

Well, first faculty job applied for. This finishing the dissertation and moving on in life stuff is feeling a lot more pressing now.

Categories
Aside Quotations

2013.3.24

With drones, the question is how long before the dozens of states with the aircraft can arm and then operate a weaponized version. “Pretty much every nation has gone down the pathway of, ‘This is science fiction; we don’t want this stuff,’ to, ‘OK, we want them, but we’ll just use them for surveillance,’ to, ‘Hmm, they’re really useful when you see the bad guy and can do something about it, so we’ll arm them,’ ” Singer said. He listed the countries that have gone that route: the United States, Britain, Italy, Germany, China. “Consistently, nations have gone down the pathway of first only surveillance and then arming.”

When the Whole World Has Drones – NationalJournal.com (via thisistheverge)

It’s the creeping use, combined with perceptions of citizens’ inability to affect government behavior that, combined, arguably are provoking resistance to drones in Canada and the US.

Categories
Aside Quotations

More Visibility, Less Privacy

While admitting that increased surveillance was “scary” and that governments will have to be thoughtful with their laws, [Bloomberg] seemed to side with prioritizing radical transparency, especially through the use of automated drones, “but what’s the difference whether the drone is up in the air or on the building? I mean intellectually I have trouble making a distinction.”

…

Lest Bloomberg be labeled as a surveillience hawk, the interview took on a tone of inevitability, rather than advocacy: “Everybody wants their privacy, but I don’t know how you’re going to maintain it.”

Gregory Ferenstein, “Bloomberg: ‘We’re Going To Have More Visibility And Less Privacy,’ Drones And Surveillance Coming”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but his sentence “Everybody wants their privacy, but I don’t know how you’re going to maintain it” indicates a failure to understand his role as a politician. If everybody – including, one presumes, residents of New York city – “wants their privacy” then it is his job, and that of council, to protect and preserve those constituents’ privacy.

To be clear: it is not his job to authorize enhanced surveillance, and then throw his hands up and say that he doesn’t get how his constituents are going to realize their wishes as he and council march against those interests.

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Aside Links

2013.4.13

Attempts to strike a deal on pandas have been floated for more than a decade, but only began to progress quickly when Prime Minister Harper personally raised the matter with Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the National People’s Congress, in Beijing in December 2009, and former Minister Prentice signed a letter of support on behalf of the Government of Canada.

Hey so remember how ridiculous it seemed when Flaherty was calling up banks and haranguing them about mortgage rates? Turns out he’s got nothing on Harper and Prentice who called up the Chinese government and asked for pandas. And then the government tried to artfully redact the correspondence when the media asked for copies, in order to maximize the political impact of the pandas. but now the Information Commissioner has ruled that they can’t do that, so we get the whole story of what happened.

Anyway we’re now paying the Chinese government tens of millions of dollars and giving them photo ops with high-ranking Canadian elected officials for the privilege of taking care of some of their pandas for a couple years. Apologies to all that Canadian wildlife that isn’t getting protection due to chronic underfunding at Environment Canada, but you know how it is.

(via jakke)

I don’t have the time to do this – I just looked at a few, and got sick – but really: read the redacted/non-redacted documents against one another. Then, have open Canada’s Access to Information Act and see how various sections of the act are used to redact elements of the document.

And then get upset at how redaction-happy the government is, and how they justify the initial round of redactions. Also: realize what a big deal that so much goes through Cabinet and Ministers these days: It gives wide berth to using S. 21 of the Act, which often limits information associated with senior members of government (effectively) communicating with one another, or being mentioned as having communicated with one another.