It's been a mandatory requirement for DECADES that, for example, postmaster@ traffic be received and replied to.
Mandatory, but often ignored. There's plenty of mailservers out there that roundfile all mail sent to postmaster. Thank the spammers for deluging them, filling them full of crap.
This needs you to set up your own email server, which requires a static IP.
I've not used this, but I've run mailservers for years on a dynamic IP. You point it at your ISP's mailserver ("Smarthost") or contract with another server out there. Sendmail, exim, and postfix (and I expect iRedMail) can all handle this easily. It's very nice to have the power to configure it to your specific taste.
... which is to focus attention on idiots who would otherwise be (rightfully) ignored.
Yes, TD's great for this. The problem is you and I dismiss them as clueless nutbars, but there's a lot of ignorant twits out there in positions of power whose opinion is swayed by said nutbars.
"Know thy enemy" and "forewarned is forearmed" are good, lasting truths. TD's a good barometer watching the collapse of civilization.
... we're going to nuke their entire country into molten glass.
I take it you're unfamiliar with the phrases "collateral damage" and "innocent non-combatants"? Doesn't it sound just a little insane to you to postulate that entire countries could be populated exclusively by terrorists or other sorts of bad guys?
Let Curtis LeMay rot in hell. We don't need anyone channeling that fool.
When will politician learn to say: "I don't know enough about this to have an opinion!"???
Humility and human fallibility is not in the job description. They sell perfection, and rely on it not being necessary once in office. Once in, they get a free four year ride to find funding for the next go-round.
Why anyone puts up with this is the question. I say bring back Mr. Guillotine. It'd beat the crap out of reality TV.
On the other hand, we know there are legitimate concerns about government intrusion, network security, and creating new vulnerabilities that bad actors can and would exploit.
But, ...
So we need Silicon Valley not to view government as its adversary.
Maybe government should start listening to people who understand this stuff, instead of airheads like Hillary Clinton. How did she manage to become the Democrats front runner? Who's paying her bills, and what's the quid pro quo?
My question is how many police officer's commitment to protecting communities and desire to uphold law can be so easily undermined by a camera?
... which their politician employers are bending over backward to ensure none of that footage ever sees the light of day. Why would the cops be threatened by something nobody's ever going to get to see? I smell paranoia, and police unions.
Just do your damned job, and re-read the constitution, ffs. You know, that thing you swore to defend?
But if there's not data of those things even happening (other than expressions of butthurt policemen) we can't even move into hypothesis.
I'm sensing a trend. Ted Koppel can write a book based around nothing but talking points from Beltway politicians, and Amazon gives it a glowing review. Is this somebody's crazy agenda at work, or are they just fools? Hard to tell sometimes.
Re: How easily the veneer of civilization falls away.
"Suspected Ringleader"
And the takeaway is, "We got him. We killed the fscker! We're sooooo good!"
Well, except for all the innocent victim's bodies lying around that is. By the way, do you have any proof he was the ringleader, and was he on any of your watch lists, and how'd he manage to pull this off if so? Just curious.
"Give us more money and maybe one of these days we can stop it from happening in the first place." Wait a second. How much more's it going to cost, 'cause I think you're already getting a !#$load of money, and look what we get from it? When do we see actual results, instead of excuses?
... cryptography is fairly advanced math isn't it?
The gory details of how it's implemented can get pretty complex (this algorithm, then this algorithm on top of that, yada, yada), but I think I learned all I needed to know about prime numbers in about grade three. The concept works no matter how big the numbers are. Happily, we've got these computer thingamahooeys that make that bit easy.
Based on what I've seen of their recent performance, it doesn't appear they can find their dick (or, you know) if you handed it to them. They're working from another playbook than we think they should be. "Results? What're those? Gimme more money!!!"
I hate to write this, but I think things will get worse -- MUCH worse -- before they get any better. I desperately hope I'm wrong.
I already accept that we're heading back into Dark Ages 2.0/dystopian future. With nitwits like these in control, could it be any different? They don't even appear to be trying. They're more fixated on growing their budget and keeping up appearances, not fixing what's broken.
I'm just glad I won't live to see it hit bottom. The rest of you have my sympathies.
Or, you could read the actual book it was based on. Hollywood's cartoon version was cute and easy to watch, but have you read the book? I've read lots more, far more entertaining, books in recent years than what Hollywood's producing lately.
I have a dream where all these Washington DC policy wonks make XKCD their home page. !@#$ like this wouldn't happen.
I've never understood why anybody thought Koppel was worth watching, much less insightful. I watched Sunday morning talking head shows for years, finally coming to understand it's just politicians' way of marketing themselves, and there's really no "there" there. Glad I got over that addiction. Amazon should be ashamed. What a stupid sounding book.
How does one effectively scan 5000 individual sites and identify relevance?
First, don't just dump it into an Oracle db. "Information" goes into the rdb, not raw data. First, spit it into site_datafile.txt, then grep each of those for keywords. If you get a hit, send an agent around to see what's really going on.
It's amazing how much capability we've lost in recent years. This should be a simple problem. I no longer believe they're even trying to solve this. They're far more interested in padding their budget. Terrorists are their justification for beefing up their budget, not what they're trying to do anything about.
Re: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something...
Their jobs, power, and money is on the line, why would they ever say anything other than 'We need more'?
Irrelevant. We elect people whose job is oversight to watch that we're getting our money's worth. They're the ones who're falling down on the job. We need a few R. P. Feynmans to slap these guys around when they fail this badly. Them pointing fingers all around and whining "It's not our fault! Gimme more money and it'll work this time." is hardly what I want to pay them to do.
They already have a list of these people who are potentially radicalised. They're already hoovering everything that goes across the backbones and through ISP's networks. So, ...
for each $(slurp list of terrorists) { # spit their transmissions appended to $terrorist_name_datafile.txt. # grep each file for keywords that look like terrorist plots. # for each hit, send a LEO agent around to watch them and see what they're up to. }
Or something like that, assuming they actually want to stop terrorists. What's wrong with their geeks that they're not doing this? Was Snowden the only one they had who had a clue? Run it as a cronjob and mail it out to the dispatch desk every morning. This isn't rocket science. What the !@# are they doing? Just trying to get more funding? It sure looks like it.
Of course, it has to be since ubiquitous spying just to help pick up pieces in an aftermath is even more ridiculous than prevention.
It does sound like they're far more interested in remaining funded, or increasing their funding, than in doing what they're supposed to be doing (stopping terrorists). Too bad we can't fire the bastards (so far).
All my employers & clients expected demonstrable results matching what they told me they were paying me to do. Obviously, the system these guys are going by is broken if that's not happening.
Accountability anyone? Who's watching the watchers? Just us?
On the post: Gmail Takes A Sledgehammer To The Techdirt Daily Newsletter When Not Even A Scalpel Is Needed
Re: Re: Re:
Mandatory, but often ignored. There's plenty of mailservers out there that roundfile all mail sent to postmaster. Thank the spammers for deluging them, filling them full of crap.
On the post: Gmail Takes A Sledgehammer To The Techdirt Daily Newsletter When Not Even A Scalpel Is Needed
Re: Re: people still use gmail??
I've not used this, but I've run mailservers for years on a dynamic IP. You point it at your ISP's mailserver ("Smarthost") or contract with another server out there. Sendmail, exim, and postfix (and I expect iRedMail) can all handle this easily. It's very nice to have the power to configure it to your specific taste.
On the post: Dumb Idea... Or The Dumbest Idea? Seize Terrorists' Copyrights And Then Censor Them With The DMCA
Re: Known nut says nutty thing
Yes, TD's great for this. The problem is you and I dismiss them as clueless nutbars, but there's a lot of ignorant twits out there in positions of power whose opinion is swayed by said nutbars.
"Know thy enemy" and "forewarned is forearmed" are good, lasting truths. TD's a good barometer watching the collapse of civilization.
On the post: Dumb Idea... Or The Dumbest Idea? Seize Terrorists' Copyrights And Then Censor Them With The DMCA
Re: No No No No
I take it you're unfamiliar with the phrases "collateral damage" and "innocent non-combatants"? Doesn't it sound just a little insane to you to postulate that entire countries could be populated exclusively by terrorists or other sorts of bad guys?
Let Curtis LeMay rot in hell. We don't need anyone channeling that fool.
On the post: Hillary Clinton Joins The 'Make Silicon Valley Break Encryption' Bandwagon
Re: When?
Humility and human fallibility is not in the job description. They sell perfection, and rely on it not being necessary once in office. Once in, they get a free four year ride to find funding for the next go-round.
Why anyone puts up with this is the question. I say bring back Mr. Guillotine. It'd beat the crap out of reality TV.
On the post: Hillary Clinton Joins The 'Make Silicon Valley Break Encryption' Bandwagon
Why does anyone listen to this woman?
But, ...
Maybe government should start listening to people who understand this stuff, instead of airheads like Hillary Clinton. How did she manage to become the Democrats front runner? Who's paying her bills, and what's the quid pro quo?
Hillary == sleazy. Run away.
On the post: Loretta Lynch Essentially Says The Ferguson Effect Is Bullshit
Re:
The last stat I read was about 10% of them were dirty. If the 90% would do something about the 10%, we wouldn't be talking about this.
Every prospective cop hire should be forced to watch Serpico. This isn't a new problem, and body-cams have nothing to do with it.
Okay, fire all of NYPD maybe. They've always lionized dirty.
On the post: Loretta Lynch Essentially Says The Ferguson Effect Is Bullshit
Re:
... which their politician employers are bending over backward to ensure none of that footage ever sees the light of day. Why would the cops be threatened by something nobody's ever going to get to see? I smell paranoia, and police unions.
Just do your damned job, and re-read the constitution, ffs. You know, that thing you swore to defend?
On the post: Loretta Lynch Essentially Says The Ferguson Effect Is Bullshit
Re: Re: Pedantically,
I'm sensing a trend. Ted Koppel can write a book based around nothing but talking points from Beltway politicians, and Amazon gives it a glowing review. Is this somebody's crazy agenda at work, or are they just fools? Hard to tell sometimes.
On the post: The Paris Attacks And The Encryption/Surveillance Bogeyman: The Story So Far
Re: How easily the veneer of civilization falls away.
And the takeaway is, "We got him. We killed the fscker! We're sooooo good!"
Well, except for all the innocent victim's bodies lying around that is. By the way, do you have any proof he was the ringleader, and was he on any of your watch lists, and how'd he manage to pull this off if so? Just curious.
"Give us more money and maybe one of these days we can stop it from happening in the first place." Wait a second. How much more's it going to cost, 'cause I think you're already getting a !#$load of money, and look what we get from it? When do we see actual results, instead of excuses?
On the post: The Paris Attacks And The Encryption/Surveillance Bogeyman: The Story So Far
Re: Basic
The gory details of how it's implemented can get pretty complex (this algorithm, then this algorithm on top of that, yada, yada), but I think I learned all I needed to know about prime numbers in about grade three. The concept works no matter how big the numbers are. Happily, we've got these computer thingamahooeys that make that bit easy.
On the post: The Paris Attacks And The Encryption/Surveillance Bogeyman: The Story So Far
Re: Re:
Based on what I've seen of their recent performance, it doesn't appear they can find their dick (or, you know) if you handed it to them. They're working from another playbook than we think they should be. "Results? What're those? Gimme more money!!!"
On the post: The Paris Attacks And The Encryption/Surveillance Bogeyman: The Story So Far
Re: Terrorism is not the problem.
I already accept that we're heading back into Dark Ages 2.0/dystopian future. With nitwits like these in control, could it be any different? They don't even appear to be trying. They're more fixated on growing their budget and keeping up appearances, not fixing what's broken.
I'm just glad I won't live to see it hit bottom. The rest of you have my sympathies.
On the post: The Paris Attacks And The Encryption/Surveillance Bogeyman: The Story So Far
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Or, you could read the actual book it was based on. Hollywood's cartoon version was cute and easy to watch, but have you read the book? I've read lots more, far more entertaining, books in recent years than what Hollywood's producing lately.
On the post: Ted Koppel Writes Entire Book About How Hackers Will Take Down Our Electric Grid... And Never Spoke To Any Experts
XKCD.
I've never understood why anybody thought Koppel was worth watching, much less insightful. I watched Sunday morning talking head shows for years, finally coming to understand it's just politicians' way of marketing themselves, and there's really no "there" there. Glad I got over that addiction. Amazon should be ashamed. What a stupid sounding book.
On the post: The Paris Attacks Were An Intelligence Community Failure, Not An 'Encryption' Problem
Re: Big Data 101
First, don't just dump it into an Oracle db. "Information" goes into the rdb, not raw data. First, spit it into site_datafile.txt, then grep each of those for keywords. If you get a hit, send an agent around to see what's really going on.
It's amazing how much capability we've lost in recent years. This should be a simple problem. I no longer believe they're even trying to solve this. They're far more interested in padding their budget. Terrorists are their justification for beefing up their budget, not what they're trying to do anything about.
On the post: The Paris Attacks Were An Intelligence Community Failure, Not An 'Encryption' Problem
Re: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something...
Irrelevant. We elect people whose job is oversight to watch that we're getting our money's worth. They're the ones who're falling down on the job. We need a few R. P. Feynmans to slap these guys around when they fail this badly. Them pointing fingers all around and whining "It's not our fault! Gimme more money and it'll work this time." is hardly what I want to pay them to do.
On the post: The Paris Attacks Were An Intelligence Community Failure, Not An 'Encryption' Problem
They need better geeks.
Or something like that, assuming they actually want to stop terrorists. What's wrong with their geeks that they're not doing this? Was Snowden the only one they had who had a clue? Run it as a cronjob and mail it out to the dispatch desk every morning. This isn't rocket science. What the !@# are they doing? Just trying to get more funding? It sure looks like it.
On the post: What's The Evidence Mass Surveillance Works? Not Much
Re: Re: maybe it's not about prevention
It does sound like they're far more interested in remaining funded, or increasing their funding, than in doing what they're supposed to be doing (stopping terrorists). Too bad we can't fire the bastards (so far).
All my employers & clients expected demonstrable results matching what they told me they were paying me to do. Obviously, the system these guys are going by is broken if that's not happening.
Accountability anyone? Who's watching the watchers? Just us?
On the post: What's The Evidence Mass Surveillance Works? Not Much
Re:
We used to have these things called newspapers who got off on fact checking these bogus claims. Whatever happened to them?
At least Pro Publica and TD are still out there. I wonder why Congress and the administration and the LEOs never seem to know about stuff like this.
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