Month: August 2010

When We’re Big Brother

There are many things I’m not a fan of including the surveillance state. Apparently Ramsey County thinks differently than me since they now have a new service available via their web page. Yes by going to Ramsey County’s Web Cop page you can gain access to cameras dispersed throughout Ramsey Country:

We need your help. Join our “Neighborhood eWatch” and help prevent crime by reporting any suspicious activity you observe on one of our cameras. Log into the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office “Web Cop – View Commander Software” to view 10 of our wireless surveillance cameras. To enter the site click here. When prompted, enter the following:

Username: public
Password: public

If you witness suspicious activity, call the East Metro Real-Time Information Center (EMRIC) at 651-266-9450, where analysts are able to pan, tilt and zoom the cameras to get a better look at the incident.

If you see a crime in progress, call 911 immediately and ask for Ramsey County Dispatch.

Thank you for helping to make our community a safer place.

So Ramsey County is now trying to get average people to be Big Brother in their place. Beyond the obvious surveillance state implications here there is another problem with this system. Ramsey County is essentially relying on amateurs to be a front-line security force. Bruce Schneier did a nice write up explaining why relying on amateurs for front-line security will only nab you amateur results. In other words all the money spent on this setup will be meaningless because the police will most likely receive more false positives than useful reports of crime.

With that said there is one useful feature on this site, the crime reports. They post up reports on crimes that have occurred in Ramsey County and do a glorious job of justifying why you should get a carry permit and have a firearm on you as often as possible.

It’s Not an Anti-Jailbreaking Patch

I don’t get the iPhone and anti-iPhone communities. Seriously what the fuck do either of these groups of zealots think? Oh that’s right they don’t. One side is rabidly for the iPhone and can find no ill-will in anything Apple does. The other side of the fence has the rabid dogs that can find no good in the iPhone. Personally I’m between the two (with a gun so I don’t get bitten of course) as I’m logical enough to find both pros and cons to the platform (although my main problem is with Apple’s draconian practices I fully admit it’s a very nice device).

Recently an exploit was found that allowed people to jailbreak their phone via visiting a website. A day or two ago Apple finally released a patch that fixed that vulnerability and now the anti-iPhone zealots are claiming they only patched it to stop jailbreaking. That’s bull shit.

The reason they patched it is because of how the vulnerability allowed jailbreaking. Due to a flaw in the PDF reading software included with the iPhone malicious code was able to elevate to root privileges. One on hand this allowed jailbreak. There is of course the other hand which is the vulnerability allowed the running on any arbitrary code as a root user. That means a root kit could be uploaded and installed onto an iPhone by just getting the user to visit a web page.

I’m all for jailbreaking and believe if you buy a device you can do whatever you want with it. I also think Apple are complete assholes for how restrictive they are with the phone (but it is their device and they can make it however they want, I just won’t buy it in this case). But this hole they’re fixing is a major security issue and needs to be fixed. Ironically if you went to the jailbreak website and jailbroke your phone there was a patch already available to correct the vulnerability but could only be installed via jailbreaking. Now that’s irony you just can’t buy!

Why I Don’t Contribute Money to Politicians

Says Uncle made a post exemplifying why I never made campaign contributions. Not only are politicians crooked and back away from their promises the second the gain power but most of the time they do something I like but also something that pisses me off.

Target recently donated $150,000 to Tom Emmer. Tom Emmer’s main campaign promise is to build jobs here in Minnesota through attractive businesses. Because he actually wants to improve conditions for businesses here businesses like him (strange huh). I’m willing to bet money that’s the reason Target donated money to his campaign but of course Tom Emmer isn’t liked by gay rights activists so they now hate Target.

No matter who you donate to somebody is going to hate them and thus in turn hate you.

Also I’m not one to defend a politician but I need to point a few nuggets of information (they aren’t verifiable facts, just hearsay and information) I have at hand in regards to this article. The article states the following:

Follow the money. At least, that’s the message delivered by an article at sfist.com by Matt Baume, who tracks $150,000 from Target’s coffers, through a political action committee (PAC) known as Minnesota Forward, all the way to Tom Emmer, who himself supports a Christian rock band in Minnesota that travels around the state saying that it’s moral and righteous for religious people to kill gays and lesbians.

The group they’re talking about is You Can Run But you Cannot Hide. It’s a “band” with at least one member who goes around spewing anti-homosexuality propaganda. From an article posted on a Minnesota liberty group I partake in the following was stated with one of the “band” members on a ministry radio show (I can’t back this up and fully admit it is hearsay, don’t take it as actual evidence but me providing the information I have at hand):

‘Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America,’ Dean said on a ministry radio show May 15. ‘This just shows you that they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in Bible of the Judeo-Christian God., but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination.’ “

So yeah not a nice guy and I can see why gay-rights activists are alarmed by anybody who associates with this group. What has been reported is Tom Emmer has had Dean over to his home at least once. There hasn’t been any mention of him giving money or support to the group or even talking to them since that one meeting. It could mean Emmer is a huge Christian who believes in pushing his religious agenda or, more likely, it could just mean the group asked to meet with him once and he obliged.

I’ve mentioned Tom Emmer on here before. Another pro-liberty group I hang out with met with Mr. Emmer and did a question and answer session. I walked away with the impression that he’s pro-liberty enough not to push any religious agenda but of course being a politician he could change the second he gets into office. Either way I figured I should present the information I have at hand so you know all the cards on the table.

Swine Flu II: The Revengance

Jay over at MArooned found that scientists have discovered a new super mega plague that is going to kill use all! It’s swine flu all over again! Millions will die! HIDE THE CHILDREN! OH ODIN HAVE MERCY!

Seriously we’ve played this game all ready. The new bug is being labeled as NDM-1 and apparently “there are almost no drugs to treat it.” I’m putting money on there being a convenient vaccine released next month (after the bug has been hyped as black plague II) from a major pharmaceutical company.

iPhone Users are Whores

A graphic has been going around as of late claiming to depict that iPhone users get more sex than Android and Blackberry users. Of course they don’t actually read the y-axis that is labeled “avg. number of sexual partners @ age 30.” Going by what that graph actually says iPhone users are whores while Android users are far more faithful to their significant others.

Game, set, match!

The EFF’s Review of Verizon and Google’s Net Neutrality Proposal

The EFF has released their review of Verizon and Google’s recent Net Neutrality regulation framework. They have made many good points and I must say I agree with much of the review. I’m glad to see they are concerned about using government regulation as well:

Efforts to protect net neutrality that involve government regulation have always faced one fundamental obstacle: the substantial danger that the regulators will cause more harm than good for the Internet. The worst case scenario would be that, in allowing the FCC to regulate the Internet, we open the door for big business, Hollywood and the indecency police to exert even more influence on the Net than they do now.

Being their in the communist block country of California this mention of potential regulatory abuse shows me that they aren’t going to run to government blindly. The biggest concern the EFF has is the mention in the proposal of “unlawful traffic.” This is a point that has been eating at me in the proposal as well, they mention a difference between “lawful” and “unlawful” traffic but never define that difference. If you’re going to propose a framework for future legislation by Odin you should define all of your terms precisely.

It’s a good and concise read to click the link and read the material.

Freedom isn’t Free

It costs $250. At least according to personal reports found by Days of our Trailers Chicago is charging $250 for a handgun license. It’s nice to see your rights are for sale in Chicago and priced at such a level that those poor peasant can’t hope to afford any firearms. But when you think about it that makes a lot of sense. You don’t want the slaves overthrowing King Daley.

Your “No Duh” Security Story of the Week

Apparently PC Pro likes to be late to the game. They are reporting that modern smart phones are vulnerable to “smudge attacks.” So what is a “smudge attack?” It’s a fancy term for saying you can look at the finger prints on the touchscreen of a phone to determine the password or unlock pattern for the phone.

Of course the simple and free solution; just wipe your phone’s screen off on your shirt periodically. Hell I do this naturally already because the finger prints make the screen hard to read.