I think you're correct that the CAs would not hand out fake certs to the NSA willingly. Unless they had plausible deniability. So, the NSA is probably A) bringing their brute force computing power to bear on the CA's public key and reverse engineering their private key, which they then use to sign whatever certificates they like. Or B) simply stealing it from the CA. I have no idea how long it might take to brute force a CA key, though. I wouldn't put it past the NSA, however.
Sure, more data means more resources are needed to process it & take care of it (human & computer). Not to mention the opportunities for less scrupulous folks to abuse said data. I'm definitely not defending the idea of grabbing every scrap of data you can lay your hands on. I'm a software guy and I can't count the number of times I've heard "Just capture everything. You might as well since we just might need it and there's little additional cost." There's always additional costs & complexities & the additional "bad" data just tends to obscure the "good" and/or make the good harder to dig out. Bad design based on lazy thinking by the business side, usually.
Well, you gotta admit that it's a tough problem to solve. Many people to keep track of, with only a few liable to really go off the rails. They're simply throwing money at the problem to see what sticks. They're hoping that by gathering everything they can find good indicators in all that data. They then run into other very difficult problems because of simple data volume issues, so they need more money, etc. etc. They are desperate for solutions because the higher-ups know it's their ass if there's a terrorist strike on their watch. So, they spend your money and trample your rights because that's the lesser of two evils in their opinion and there are huge incentives to lean that way. Standard government reaction to difficult problems, unfortunately.
If anyone had a solution acceptable to the government, (i.e. that does not involve significant foreign policy changes) you'd probably have heard of them by now. In other words, they want to destroy the threat without addressing the true cause. The hard line wins, but is ultimately only partially effective.
I'm Canadian and it's not a good feeling to look down on American healthcare. I know that there's pressure to bring the awesome American healthcare system to Canada. I don't think Canadians would ever allow that (anyone attacking Canada's public healthcare system is basically unelectable thankfully), but it's still a frightening thought.
Also, the American healthcare system puts pressure on our system. Doctors will often move to the U.S. to make more money, we have difficulty getting affordable drugs and medical equipment when the American system pays so much, etc.
Apple wants the search for pr0n to be challenging. They know that the payoff for finding it is so much better that way. Easy pr0n is just so dissatisfying. This is public service! Thanks Apple!
No, Google was my idea! I came to me while I was drinking with a friend in university in 1990. I think I said "Wouldn't it be great to, like, be able to search for, like, information... and FIND it?" Although I passed out moments later after finishing my shot and some of the words were a bit slurred, the meaning was clear. From that moment on I owned all search related concepts so Google and every other search engine that ever existed owe me all their profits forever. Lawsuit coming.
Yeah, I was thinking of getting a WiiU to replace my kids Wii, but I think I'll pass now. Doesn't seem like much of an upgrade, anyways. They're pretty casual gamers, so doesn't seem worth the money, especially if there's hassle involved.
Pandora is my favourite online music service. LOVE Pandora. I've found so many new artists there in the past because of the way its music recommendation engine works. No other service offers recommendations like it that I'm aware of, and I've tried last.fm and a couple others. Sadly, it's no longer available in Canada due to copyright issues, so the amount of new music I get exposed to has dropped off massively. Thanks RIAA! :(
P.S. Did I suddenly go back to the record shops when Pandora Canada disappeared? Nope. Still searching for an equivalent internet alternative.
Yeah, I love how you can snail mail in your parking ticket fees for free (excluding the stamp), but if you pay for them online or over the automated phone interface, you've got to pay a $1.50 "convenience fee". Inefficiency rules. Pure genius.
Can't blame that one on our current clown of a mayor, though, although he is a complete jackass.
HDMI cables are certainly less expensive and, correct me if I'm wrong, less susceptible to interference since they're all digital, no? I'm a bit fuzzy on this stuff, though.
The convenience factor is there, too. Audio is supported and it's a single connector instead of three.
Ah, the Disney "vault". My coworker and I (we both have kids) have had a few good laughs over that one. I.E. OMG, it's in the "vault"! Wow, there's no way of getting to that Disney flick now! What is a person who wants to see that movie to do? LOL.
I AM a programmer (20 years and counting) and we try to find the simplest solution to every problem and quite often they are new and innovative (at least to us). Is it possible that techniques we have come up with have been done before and infringe? Yes, of course. Do we search for patents that we might be infringing on? No freaking way. A) see "willful infringement" B) most patents are such a hodgepodge of gobbledygook and legalese that they could be used to cover a much wider range of software processes than was actually built. (IF it was actually built.) C) do you have any idea how long it would take to search these things?
We don't care if other companies use the same techniques as us. It's not our business model to sue someone who uses the same techniques. All we care about is serving our customers and building solid software. In fact, it would make no difference if they copied our entire codebase. Good luck with that as just having the same code doesn't mean you can run it, support it, or maintain/enhance it. For that, you need the people that built it. It's not monkey code that flips photos on your desktop. The patent system provides no incentive to us, nor most software companies when they focus on serving their customers and not suing their competitors.
Having sat in on a couple of patent submissions and watching the patent lawyer make the language as ambiguous as possible so as to cover the widest range of interpretations, it's an absolute fools game, unless you're looking to sue someone or build up a war chest of patents to use in the event that you are sued...
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Re: Re:
Re: Re: Re: This is supporting evidence that root CA is pwned
Re: Re: Re:
Re:
If anyone had a solution acceptable to the government, (i.e. that does not involve significant foreign policy changes) you'd probably have heard of them by now. In other words, they want to destroy the threat without addressing the true cause. The hard line wins, but is ultimately only partially effective.
Re:
Emergency services comms would be unaffected, I'm assuming, but 911 cell calls would likely be.
Re:
Also, the American healthcare system puts pressure on our system. Doctors will often move to the U.S. to make more money, we have difficulty getting affordable drugs and medical equipment when the American system pays so much, etc.
(untitled comment)
Re: I had an idea for a search site years ago (when using Webcrawler...)
willful infringement
Re:
Re: That won't work for everyone
Re: Re: Who's in charge of the DHS
Re:
P.S. Did I suddenly go back to the record shops when Pandora Canada disappeared? Nope. Still searching for an equivalent internet alternative.
Re: Canada Died Years Ago
Re:
Can't blame that one on our current clown of a mayor, though, although he is a complete jackass.
Re: Re: Component vs. HDMI
The convenience factor is there, too. Audio is supported and it's a single connector instead of three.
Re: Re:
Extruding
Re: Re: The trolls have found this weakness, and exploited it
We don't care if other companies use the same techniques as us. It's not our business model to sue someone who uses the same techniques. All we care about is serving our customers and building solid software. In fact, it would make no difference if they copied our entire codebase. Good luck with that as just having the same code doesn't mean you can run it, support it, or maintain/enhance it. For that, you need the people that built it. It's not monkey code that flips photos on your desktop. The patent system provides no incentive to us, nor most software companies when they focus on serving their customers and not suing their competitors.
Having sat in on a couple of patent submissions and watching the patent lawyer make the language as ambiguous as possible so as to cover the widest range of interpretations, it's an absolute fools game, unless you're looking to sue someone or build up a war chest of patents to use in the event that you are sued...
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Greg.
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