Month: December 2013

Affordable 3D Printers Capable of Working with Metal on the Horizon

The march of technology cannot be stopped. When Solid Concepts unveiled their metal 3D printed guns people on both sides of the aisle agreed that the technology to print those firearms was cost prohibitive. As it turns out technology marches very quickly and we’re on the horizon of affordable 3D printers capable of working with metals:

So far affordable 3D printing has been more about using polymers. Yet we all know that the ‘real thing’ must be made of metal. But the price of 3D metal printers has been the major stumbling block towards making the use of this truly 21st century technology an everyday routine. That is why only wealthy scientific organizations, such as NASA, or the military can afford metal 3D printers that cost well over $500,000.

Now Professor Joshua Pearce and his team of 3D apostles from Michigan Technological University are proclaiming the era of Open Access 3D Printing, having published their “A Low-Cost, Open-Source Metal 3-D Printer,” article in the journal, IEEE Access. Practically anyone who is interested is now free to print objects and make a 3D metal printer of their own.

The team admits that this is only a beginning. The printer is quite basic, but it does print complex geometric objects, putting down thin layers of steel with its kit worth $1,500. The most important components are a small commercial MIG welder and an open-source microcontroller.

At this rate we’ll probably see a firearm printed with metal on an affordable 3D printer sometime next year. After that we can put the entire gun control debate to bed. Controlling easily reproducible goods is possible no matter how large or powerful the state is.

Streamlining the Killing Floor

What tools do the police need for these times of dwindling violent crime? How about a more streamlined process to kill the convicted? Apparently that’s what the unions representing police officer in Poway, California think is needed:

POWAY — A coalition of local law enforcement members met Thursday to discuss backing changes to California’s death penalty process, from streamlining appeals to finding an acceptable execution method.

“The death penalty, I believe, is broken in California. I also believe it can certainly be fixed,” Matt Clay, president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of San Diego County, told reporters.

Members of unions representing sheriff’s deputies, police officers and prosecutors in the county met in Poway with Assemblyman Brian Jones, R-Santee, as well as survivors of murder victims whose killers remain on death row to talk about backing a proposed death penalty initiative.

I guess better wages and benefits are no longer wanted. It makes sense. Modern policing really reflect thuggery more than it reflects peace keeping. Thuggery requires threats and there’s no better threat than death. Therefore it makes sense that the best way to help today’s police departments is to make it easier for them to threaten suspects with the death penalty.

We live in some seriously fucked up times.

Bitcoin Versus Gold: Or How I Learned to Stop Caring About Economic Internet Arguments

I think it’s time we took a moment to chat. If you pay attention to economic, crypto-anarchism, libertarianism, or other similarly intersecting online forums you have probably picked up on the recent Bitcoin versus gold debate that has been raging on. The latest exchange started with Peter Schiff posted this video touting gold over Bitcoin:

This kicked the Bitcoin community into holy crusade mode. The most well written counterargument to Schiff’s video, in my opinion, is this one from Reddit.

I have a problem with both sides of the argument. There is no reason one has to win. We, as a species, are actually capable of using more than one thing as a medium of exchange. For example, gold and silver have historically been found together as mediums of exchange in markets based on precious metals. Today we see the use of dollars, yuan, yen, pounds, euros, and many other currencies used to facilitate transactions. In fact I would submit that having a single medium of exchange is just as dangerous as any other monopoly.

Bitcoin is a new and exciting newcomer. It’s attractive to us neophiles, in part, because it’s an unknown quantity that could greatly shake the foundation of the current monetary systems. Neophobes tend to shy away from Bitcoin because it’s new and unproven. For them gold is a better option because it’s been around forever. I’m a fan of diversification. If Bitcoin takes a dump and gold excels then I’m happy to have gold. If the opposite happens I’m happy to have Bitcoin. If both excel as currencies I’ll be happy to have both. The only way this debate will be determined once and for all is when time leads us to a result. I just hope that whatever result we arrive at is unexpected by all involved interests. Nothing is worse than minds not being blown.

Exploiting the Mentally Disabled to Enforce Gun Control

When people develop the attitude that the ends always justify the means the doors open for some really heinous acts. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has developed a history of questionable actions during its existence. Recent revelations with Operation Fast and Furious, where the ATF and other federal agencies provided firearms to Mexican drug cartels, show just how wicked the agency’s enforcement methodologies have become. But I believe it has outdone itself. This time the ATF tatooed a mentally disabled teenager and used him in a sting operation:

They would even pay him and a friend $150 apiece if they agreed to turn their bodies into walking billboards.

Key, who is mentally disabled, was swayed.

He and his friend, Marquis Glover, liked Squid’s. It was their hangout. The 19-year-olds spent many afternoons there playing Xbox and chatting with the owner, “Squid,” and the store clerks.

So they took the money and got the ink etched on their necks, tentacles creeping down to their collarbones.

It would be months before the young men learned the whole thing was a setup. The guys running Squid’s were actually undercover ATF agents conducting a sting to get guns away from criminals and drugs off the street.

The tattoos had been sponsored by the U.S. government; advertisements for a fake storefront.

The teens found out as they were arrested and booked into jail.

Statists often ask who would take care of the mentally disabled without a government. I want to know who is protecting and providing for them now. The state seems to have a knack for exploiting the mentally disabled in its never ending quest to control our lives. This case not only shows the state’s willingness to exploit the vulnerable but also how corrupt the ATF has become. None of the high ups in charge of approving operations decided this idea was too extreme? Is the agency really operated entirely by psychopaths? Judging by the actions of the agency over the last several years I’m left to believe that it is.

Fabricating Controversy

I’m always amused when non-technology publications attempt to write about technology. They either get the details laughably wrong or they try to drum up controversy over nothing. The Washington Post decided to post an example of the latter:

BROOKLINE, Mass. — Researcher Garth Bruen long has investigated the seamier corners of the Internet, but even he was shocked to discover Rapetube.org, a site urging users to share what it called “fantasy” videos of sexual attacks.

[…]

Sickened, Bruen tried to determine who operated the sites, a first step toward possibly having them shut down. But he quickly hit a wall: The contact information listed for Web sites increasingly is fictitious or intentionally masked by “privacy protection services” that offer ways around the transparency requirements built into the Internet for decades.

Oh. My. God. These pornography sites are so seedy and evil that they’re concealing their WHOIS information! They’re up to no good and this proves it! Except it doesn’t prove anything. Many domain owners utilize privacy services to conceal their personal information from WHOIS look ups. In fact I use such a service. If you do a WHOIS look up for this domain you’ll receive the following response:

The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .EDU domains and
Registrars.
Domain Name: CHRISTOPHERBURG.COM
Registry Domain ID:
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.tucows.com
Registrar URL: http://tucowsdomains.com
Updated Date: 2013-02-26 07:56:55
Creation Date: 2009-03-06 02:30:35
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2014-03-06 02:30:35
Registrar: TUCOWS, INC.
Registrar IANA ID: 69
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone:
Reseller: Hover
Reseller: help@hover.com
Reseller: 416.538.5498
Reseller: http://help.hover.com
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0130416343
Registrant Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0130416343
Registrant Street: 96 Mowat Ave
Registrant City: Toronto
Registrant State/Province: ON
Registrant Postal Code: M6K 3M1
Registrant Country: CA
Registrant Phone: +1.4165385457
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: christopherburg.com@contactprivacy.com
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0130416343
Admin Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0130416343
Admin Street: 96 Mowat Ave
Admin City: Toronto
Admin State/Province: ON
Admin Postal Code: M6K 3M1
Admin Country: CA
Admin Phone: +1.4165385457
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: christopherburg.com@contactprivacy.com
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0130416343
Tech Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0130416343
Tech Street: 96 Mowat Ave
Tech City: Toronto
Tech State/Province: ON
Tech Postal Code: M6K 3M1
Tech Country: CA
Tech Phone: +1.4165385457
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: christopherburg.com@contactprivacy.com
Name Server: NS1.HOVER.COM
Name Server: NS2.HOVER.COM
DNSSEC:

Am I doing something nefarious? No. I simply don’t want my personal address and phone number accessible to anybody with enough know how to type whois christopherburg.com into their command line. Pornographers most likely want the same protection because their business is seen by many in this country as dirty, immoral, and deserving of punishment. In fact this story affirms the value of a WHOIS privacy service. It’s talking about a man who is on a personal crusade against so-called violent pornography websites. While that’s not my particular kink I see no reason to harass pornographers creating fiction for those with more violent fantasies.

Media outlets always try to insinuate that those utilizing anonymity tools are up to no good. In reality most users of anonymity tools merely want to protect their privacy. Time and time again we see media outlets try to drum up controversy over onion routers, encrypted communications, and location hidden services. These attempts are desperate grasps for ratings by old media outlets that are incapable of changing with the times.

Getting Paid to Play Video Games

For many people their dream job would be one that paid them to play video games. It used to be that play testing and playing in professional gaming leagues were the only careers that fulfilled such dreams. But now there’s another employer willing to pay employees to hammer at keyboards and mice in virtual worlds: the National Security Agency (NSA):

To the National Security Agency analyst writing a briefing to his superiors, the situation was clear: their current surveillance efforts were lacking something. The agency’s impressive arsenal of cable taps and sophisticated hacking attacks was not enough. What it really needed was a horde of undercover Orcs.

That vision of spycraft sparked a concerted drive by the NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ to infiltrate the massive communities playing online games, according to secret documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

[…]

The agencies, the documents show, have built mass-collection capabilities against the Xbox Live console network, which boasts more than 48 million players. Real-life agents have been deployed into virtual realms, from those Orc hordes in World of Warcraft to the human avatars of Second Life. There were attempts, too, to recruit potential informants from the games’ tech-friendly users.

There you have it ladies and gentlemen. If you want to get paid to play video games just sign up with the NSA or the Government Communications Headquarters (GHCQ). Both of those agencies are willing to fork over hard stolen tax dollars to agents willing to subject themselves to the rigors of sitting in a chair and operating a keyboard and mouse (I know that also describes programming but playing video games for a living is probably more fun).

I wonder how long it will take the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to take up this strategy. Imagine agents running around Minecraft servers trying to recruit players to take TNT blocks and blow up bridges and buildings. After the deed is done the FBI can get a warrant to reveal the player’s Internet protocol (IP) address, contact the internet service provider (ISP) that controls that address to discover the user’s name and address, and arrest the user for virtual terrorism. It would give a much needed boost to the agency’s terrorist arrest numbers.

Enable Two Factor Authentication Where Available

This type of news is why I encourage people to enable two-factor authentication on whatever accounts they have that support it:

The massive data breach was a result of keylogging software maliciously installed on an untold number of computers around the world, researchers at cybersecurity firm Trustwave said. The virus was capturing log-in credentials for key websites over the past month and sending those usernames and passwords to a server controlled by the hackers.

All in all some 318,000 Facebook, 70,000 GMail, and 22,000 Twitter passwords were part of the heist. All three of these sites allow users to enable one time passwords for two-factor authentication. Facebook and GMail both use Google Authenticator, which ties to an application on your phone. The application has a token that generates a new six digit password every 30 seconds. When you log into either of these sites you will be asked to enter the current six digit password before you’re allowed access to your account. What makes such a system useful is that you need access to your phone in order to log in, just having the password alone won’t grant access. Twitter uses it’s own system that ties to the Twitter smartphone app. When you attempt to log into your Twitter account a notification is sent to your phone and you have to authorize the log in from there. Once again it requires your phone in addition to your password to successfully log in.

It’s not always clear when your password has been compromised. Hackers have gained access to use password from website databases before. When such breaches are discovered most websites reset all their users’ passwords. But until the breach is discovered anybody with the list of passwords can log into the accounts that appear in that list, unless those users have enabled two-factor authentication.

Monday Metal: Kronos’ Heritage by Krampus

For many European countries December 5th is Krampusnacht. Unlike us pussy Americans many Germanic countries like to scare the ever living shit out of their children. Here in the United States Santa Claus brings gifts to all of the good children and leaves nothing, or perhaps a chunk of coal, for children who misbehaved. In Germanic mythology Santa brings gifts to the good children and lets the Krampus take the bad children to Hell where he eats them (or drown them in a river). Once again Germanic countries prove that they truly understand the metal way of life.

In recognition of Krampusnacht I decided we need some appropriately themed metal. Today we’re listening to Kronos’ Heritage by the band Krampus:

A Total Lack of Accountability

I believe one of the biggest problems with modern policing, besides the job description, is the almost complete lack of accountability. We see this whenever an officer is accused of using unnecessary force and receives a paid vacation. But some of the ways cops are unaccountable go unnoticed. For example, if police officers negligently shoot a bystander in response to a 911 call the perpetrator can be charged with the shootings:

An unarmed, emotionally disturbed man shot at by the police as he was lurching around traffic near Times Square in September has been charged with assault, on the theory that he was responsible for bullet wounds suffered by two bystanders, according to an indictment unsealed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Wednesday.

The theory goes that the perpetrator was responsible because he caused the situation. It’s a bullshit excuse. Consider a slightly different situation. Let’s say you’re at home one night and somebody breaks in your back door. The man is armed so you grab a rifle and fire at him. Now let’s assume the worst and say that one of your rounds exits your house and hits one of your neighbors. In all likelihood you’ll face a civil lawsuit for negligently hitting your neighbor. Even if you’re legally in the right you will still face the expenses involve of merely being accused of wrongdoing.

Cops, as the state’s enforcers, are imbued with special privileges. They can break the law in pursuit of enforcing the state’s decrees. These special privileges mean police officers are unaccountable. Even when they do something illegal they generally have department lawyers that are paid with tax money to deal with the legal aftermath. Without accountability it’s easy to see how modern policing has become little more than thuggery with a state issued costume.

The Psychopaths in Charge

Unlike many gun owners the so-called liberals in Washington DC aren’t the politicians that truly scare. The really frightening politicians are the war mongers. Their policies involve sending men and woman form this country overseas to kill men and women in foreign lands. Obviously the men and women of the foreign lands don’t take kindly to invasion so they fight back and put the men and women of this country in harm’s way. War mongers make this Ouroboros of death even worse by refusing to go overseas and suffer the same danger as the people they send. Once in a while a war monger even goes the extra mile and advocates the destruction of entire swaths of populated land:

But if push came to shove and US officials deemed strikes necessary, Hunter turned hawkish.

He said any American strike would be a “massive aerial bombing campaign,” adding that such a mission should not feature any “boots on ground.” Then, Hunter said the US should use its “tactical nuclear weapons” on Iranian targets.

How does threatening a nuclear strike help the situation? If anything such a threat will make Iran want its own nuclear weapons even more. After all, no nuclear armed country has suffered an invasion or a nuclear strike. When one nation begins to threaten another the latter country will want nuclear weapons to discourage the former. I think it would be a requirement of anybody entering public officer to watch several hours of footage of the aftermath of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After that any representative who throws around the idea of nuking a foreign country can be dismissed as a true psychopath.