Month: May 2014

Glenn Greenwald Demonstrates Leniency in Describing Hillary Clinton

Glenn Greenwald is a class act. The man manages to find very polite ways to describe horrible people. Read his recent interview with GQ. In it he describes Hillary Clinton and demonstrates a level of professionalism that I couldn’t achieve if asked to describe that war criminal:

Hillary is banal, corrupted, drained of vibrancy and passion. I mean, she’s been around forever, the Clinton circle. She’s a fucking hawk and like a neocon, practically. She’s surrounded by all these sleazy money types who are just corrupting everything everywhere.

Only one f-bomb? That’s being extremely charitable with Hillary. After all Greenwald is describing the same woman who was downright giddy over the killing of Gadaff. Just look at the joy on her face. That’s pretty sick. But Greenwald also hits another nail on the head during his interview:

But she’s going to be the first female president, and women in America are going to be completely invested in her candidacy. Opposition to her is going to be depicted as misogynistic, like opposition to Obama has been depicted as racist. It’s going to be this completely symbolic messaging that’s going to overshadow the fact that she’ll do nothing but continue everything in pursuit of her own power. They’ll probably have a gay person after Hillary who’s just going to do the same thing.

I’m fairly certain his prediction is correct and Hillary will be the next president. Why? Because the Democratic Party has been fawning over her forever and the Republican Party is too incompetent to field a candidate that isn’t an equally horrific human being. And like racism with Obama, criticizing Hillary will end with accusations of misogyny (I’m going to criticize the every living fuck out of her anyways because I don’t give a damn about the opinions of her supporters).

Why I’m Not a Collectivist Anarchist

In anarchist realms there are numerous subgroups. Two of the most well-known subgroups are collectivists and individualists. Although describing all of the nuances of the two groups would take ages their main divergence point is whether they focus on society or individuals. As societies are made up of individuals I tend to align with the individualist camp. But there is another reason I don’t align with the collectivist camp, the drama tends to run very high in their meetings. I believe drama is inherent in any collectivist movement because those movements rely on organization, collective action, solidarity, and other group strategies. These strategies require each person to be mostly committed to the group, which can cause major issues when the group decides to do something you don’t want to do.

I’ve been to a few collectivist anarchist meetings. Compared to the meetings I have with my individualist anarchist friends, which usually involved beers at a local watering hole, the collectivist meetings were pretty dramatic (also the meetings lacked booze as those meetings were declared “sober spaces”, which may have been 90 percent of the problem). A recent meeting of anarcho-syndicalists at Portland State University, although more severe than any of the collectivist meetings I’ve attended, does give a good idea of what tends to happen:

A meeting of Anarcho-Syndicalists devolved into chaos at Portland State University last week. The “Law & Disorder” conference presented by the Students of Unity was disrupted by protesters complaining about “survivor trauma” and the “patriarchal society” which is “prioritizing powerful white men.”

In my experience what usually happens at these meetings is a general assembly is arranged to make decisions related to the group. Everybody presents their pet issues and tries to convince the collective to agree on fighting for that issue. This usually devolves into a battle of wills as one or two members of the collective don’t want to fight for the issue. The winner is determined by the side that is most charismatic (which is a relative term when the meeting devolves into yelling and sometimes crying) because the group will eventually decided to vote for or against it simply to move on with things (this usually happens after an hour or more of debate). Oftentimes the following weeks will involve a great deal of animosity between those for and against the issue, which breeds more drama. And it’s not uncommon for that animosity to become an outright feud, which really cranks up the drama level.

Our individualist meetings tend to be much more laid back. Somebody presents an idea and those who want to join him do and those who don’t don’t. It’s a far more comfortable atmosphere for somebody like me who only enjoys watching drama, not participating in it.

In closing I do want to clarify that I’m not trying to insult my collectivist brethren with this post. Collectivism simply isn’t for me but if it’s your thing more power to you. And if you have a collectivist group that manages to get things done without a ton of drama that’s great. This post is based solely on my experience and a video of an experience that mirrors mine.

WristCoin Update

Remember WristCoin? It wouldn’t surprise me if you didn’t. I announced it in December and my last update was in January. Truth be told I got busy with other projects for a while and then Mt. Gox went belly up. I didn’t really care about Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy as I never did business with the site (due to its generally poor reputation within the Bitcoin community). But since the site was no longer an active exchange I had to remove it from WristCoin. After looking at the work that was necessary to remove the exchange I decided that the codebase in general wasn’t in line with my standards of coding.

Part of this was due to the fact that WristCoin was my first (and still only) Pebble project. When learning a new programming language, software development kit (SDK), application programming interface (API), or any other programming related thing I jump headfirst into a project. This is because writing little example piece of code bores me and I quickly lose motivation if I’m not working on a project that has a definite goal. The upside to this method is that I usually maintain my motivation to continue learning. The downside is that my first project usually looks like crap.

WristCoin, I’m ashamed to admit, looked like crap. I fell into the same trap many developers do, which is to start with quick and dirty code and an intention to clean it up later. But the second part, cleaning the code up later, seldom gets done. Instead I kept building on top of a poor foundation because I really hate to redo previously completed work (it is one of my biggest pet peeves). After reviewing the initial WristCoin code I decided a major rewrite was in order.

The previous codebase relied a lot on fixed length field, globally declared constants, and other things I’m generally not fond of. Both the Pebble app and the JavaScript code that runs on the phone contained a lot of knowledge about each featured exchange. This means removing Mt. Gox would require changing code in both the Pebble app and the JavaScript code, not an ideal situation in my opinion.

Each programmer has their own concept of what comprises beautiful code. Some programmers want the fasted code possible, others want to accomplish the most work with the least amount of code, and programmers such as myself strive for modular code that is easy to modify (due to our innate laziness). Each goal has its own set of pros and cons. The cons to module code that is easy to modify is that it tends to be over-engineered to some extend.

After a few days of work I finally finished rewriting the foundation of WristCoin. The Pebble app now knows all of jack shit about each exchange. Instead it asks the JavaScript code running on the phone to tell it every detail about the exchanges, which the JavaScript code is more than happy to provide. All of the information related to each exchange is stored in a single array of hash tables and a single function that knows how to fetch the current prices and send them to the Pebble app. To add an exchange I now need only add a hash table to the array and create a function to fetch its current prices. Removing an exchange is as simple as removing its hash table from the array (I can leave the price fetching function in if I really want to). Additionally this change will make it easy to allow the user to enable and disable desired exchanges from the phone side (the old code required the user to fetch prices and display information for every exchange at all times).

The Pebble app, which is written in C, no longer relies on fixed length fields, globally declared constants, or other such shenanigans. Memory for strings is now dynamically allocated. That means the title field (the field that displays the exchange’s name) and status field in the main screen (the field that displays the current price) are no longer of fixed length. Previously they were both fixed to 10 bytes, which was generally enough room but not guaranteed (if I had to add an exchange whose name was longer than 9 characters (because an additional byte is needed for a null terminator) would require me to increase the side of the field length constant. Now the application determines how many characters long the exchange name is and how many digits long the price information is, how may bytes will be necessary for the additional characters required to make the price display look pretty, and declares chunks of memory exactly the needed sizes. Computationally it’s a bit slower but maintaining it is going to be much easier, especially if all odds are defied and Bitcoin skyrockets in price (I don’t believe Bitcoin is going “to da moon” by the way, but stranger things have happened).

If you’re curious the main screen looks the same as it always has:

wristcoin-main-screen

I haven’t finished rewriting the extended information screen yet. It may look different than the old extended information screen but I haven’t decided on the details.

As always the code is in the public domain. You can download it, read it, criticize it, use it, abuse it, and fork it via the convenient Github repository. Likewise if you’re looking for ideas on how to do something using the Pebble SDK, and it’s something that has been done in WristCoin, I have documented this new codebase much more thoroughly than the old codebase (and since it’s public domain code you can just lift whatever you want). Do note, if you plan on looking at the code, that the rewrite is still in progress and I haven’t completed anything more than rudimentary testing. Some old code remains, some memory leaks are likely to exist, and some of the JavaScript code doesn’t work properly (namely error reporting).

Like the license, the release date remains the same. That is to say WristCoin will be completed whenever I damn well feel like releasing it. I don’t plan on charging money for this application so I have no motivation to stick to a scheduled release date.

I’m Not Sure Why She’s in Prison

There are times where I’m left completely baffled by a court decision (OK, truthfully it happens more often than not). Take the case of Maria del Carmen Garcia. When her daughter was 13 years-old she was raped. The rapist was sentenced to nine years in prison and was released on parol after seven. After being released the rapist ran into Maria:

While on parole he came in contact with Garcia after returning to the family’s hometown in Spain and asked her, “How’s your daughter?”

I’m sure running into her daughter’s rapist wasn’t a happy situation to begin with but asking how her daughter is doing is rubbing salt in an open wound. Maria then responded in a way that I feel was actually very lenient:

Locating the convicted rapist in a bar, she doused him with newly purchased petrol, and set him on fire, reports The Local. The man died a week later as a result of the burns.

Of all the horrible tortures she could have inflicted on her daughter’s rapist I must admit that dousing him with gasoline and lighting him ablaze was actually quite civil. It was certainly far better than the rapist deserved. Unfortunately the courts disagreed and decided locking Maria in prison was the best way to handle the situation. Initially she received a longer sentence than her rapist but at least the Spanish Supreme Court reduced it. Still the decision to cage Maria doesn’t appear to be very popular with the locals as thousands have signed a petition requesting clemency, which goes to show how popular people who rape children are.

The fact that Maria is sitting in a cage baffles me.

Patents Don’t Equal Implementation

There are some rumors that just won’t die. What’s worse is when these rumors are reported as facts. Take this article. It claims that Apple is implementing a method that would allow law enforcement agents to remotely disable an iPhone’s camera:

The rapid emergence of smart phones with high definition cameras leads to consequences for law-breaking cops.

Recently, law enforcement throughout the country has been trying to pass laws that would make it illegal to film them while they’re on duty.

But Apple is coming out with a new technology that would put all the power in a cop’s hands.

The evidence? Apple filed a patent on this type of technology back in 2008. Ever since that patent was filed people have claimed that Apple is implementing or has secretly implemented the technology.

What people seem to miss is that companies file patents on anything they can think. It doesn’t matter if a company plans to actually implement a patented technology, they file the patent to build up an intellectual property war chest just in case they get sued by another company over an intellectual property matter. So far Apple has made no indication that it plans to actually implement the technology covered in the linked patent. Claiming anything other then the fact that Apple has filed a patent for such technology is pure fear mongering and it really needs to stop.

Selling Rand Paul

Mondays are rough for blogging. The new cycle hasn’t ramped up to the weekly top speed so we’re left scraping the bottom of the barrel. In my quest to give you guys some content to read I’ve decided to go for the low hanging fruit of politics. Specifically the popular (in libertarian circles) political topic of Rand Paul.

Something has been bugging me about Rand’s supporters that I couldn’t quite figure out until now. Whenever Rand’s name is mentioned on a libertarian discussion board a handful of people always try to sell him. Any seemingly poor decision (poor in regards to libertarianism) made by Rand is justified as him needing to play the political game in order to generate neocon support that is necessary to win the presidency. When somebody expressed ideological differences with Rand one of his supporters invariably shows up to talk about how libertarians, whether aligned with Rand or not, must support Rand because he’s the only small government option on the board (it’s rather ironic that so-called libertarians feel that it’s appropriate to tell other people what they must do).

And this is what bugs me about Rand Paul’s supporters. In my experience if a politician has to be sold to an ideological group than that politician doesn’t support that group’s ideology.

In fact Rand’s supporters remind me of a sleazy used car salesman in a way. They approach you when you’re browsing their lot and point out a few cars that will supposedly fit you well. Listening to the salesman would lead you to believe that every car you’ve looked at is in excellent mechanical condition even if the body looks a little banged up. You’ll also be lead to believe that the previous owner (of which he assures you there was only one) was very strict about performing scheduled maintenance and drove like an old man. But when you run a CARFAX report you find that the vehicle was actually rebuilt after being totaled out due to an accident with a semi that pushed it into a river.

Like the used car salesman above, Rand’s supporters are being deceptive in the hopes of selling him to libertarians. The only part about this entire exercise that I don’t understand is why. Libertarians, unfortunately, make up a small percentage of Americans. A presidential candidate can easily win without their support. So why are Rand’s supporters investing so much time in trying to sell him? My guess is self-reassurance. If they can convince a majority of other libertarians that Rand Paul is in fact a super secret libertarian then his libertarian supporters can sleep well at night convinced that they are supporting a candidate who reflects their ideology. Either that or they’re just trolling the libertarian community, which would be hilarious.

Slacktivism, The Inability to Get Things Done

Here in the United States our attention span is effectively zero. In general there is a new cause every week and sometimes that cause can last a whole two weeks. Last week’s cause, which is looking to span into this week, is bringing back girls who were kidnapped from Nigeria. This means that a bunch of people, in lieu of doing something, have develop a catchy new Twitter hashtag and are posting pictures of themselves holding up signs with that hashtag on it. Larry Correia concisely explains how effective this will be at solving the problem:

I did a lot of research on human trafficking and modern slavery before Mike Kupari and I wrote Swords of Exodus. It is a horrible, evil, and surprisingly gigantic thing. One thing I’m fairly sure of about the kind of people who do that sort of thing for a living, is that they really don’t give a shit about a bunch of American movie stars taking pouty selfies of themselves holding up signs with hash tag give our girls back. The disapproval of fat, soft, Americans on Facebook really doesn’t move them. They care about getting paid or getting killed, that’s about it. The self-righteous pouting is useless.

The reason slacktivism fails in situations like this is because the perpetrators are truly evil individuals who gives zero fucks about what other people think of them and their actions. Why would anybody think that an individual willing to kidnap and sell young girls would care about other peoples’ opinions?

Problems like this, hell most problems, cannot be solved by pictures of people holding up signs with flavor-of-the-week phrases written on them. The only way problems like this can be solved is through action. In the case of kidnapping the only real options are provide protection for would-be victims and dedicate resources to saving present victims. These are solutions that almost always require the use of force, which is something many slacktivists have a problem with.

Either way this cause, like every cause before it, will fade from the memories of Americans within another week or so. We don’t have the attention span required for prolonged caring. And that, in my opinion, is a true tragedy.

Technology Companies Defying the State By Reporting Law Enforcement Requests

Rebellion is a beautiful thing. Several major technology companies included Apple, Facebook, and Google have decided to notify their users when law enforcement agents request their data:

Major U.S. technology companies have largely ended the practice of quietly complying with investigators’ demands for e-mail records and other online data, saying that users have a right to know in advance when their information is targeted for government seizure.

This increasingly defiant industry stand is giving some of the tens of thousands of Americans whose Internet data gets swept into criminal investigations each year the opportunity to fight in court to prevent disclosures. Prosecutors, however, warn that tech companies may undermine cases by tipping off criminals, giving them time to destroy vital electronic evidence before it can be gathered.

Fueling the shift is the industry’s eagerness to distance itself from the government after last year’s disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance of online services. Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google all are updating their policies to expand routine notification of users about government data seizures, unless specifically gagged by a judge or other legal authority, officials at all four companies said. Yahoo announced similar changes in July.

One thing I like about the technology field is that companies and individuals within it tend to have a greater problem with authority than most. Although I would have preferred to see this happen sooner I’m not going to gripe too much. Instead I want to congratulate these companies on doing the right thing.

It’s interesting to see the changes that have rippled through the technology market since Edward Snowden leaked those National Security Agency (NSA) documents. Security and transparency has traditionally been an afterthought for major technology companies but both have gained more prominence since we all learned that the NSA was unlawfully spying on each and every one of us. Google, for example, began encrypting data moving between its data centers. Experts in the security field boycotted the RSA conference because its namesake took $10 million from the NSA to use a knowingly weak random number generator in its BSAFE product. There has also been a race to develop more secure communication devices in an attempt to thwart the NSA surveillance apparatus. Basically the state royally pissed off the technology industry and it is now actively doing what it can to rebel.

I’m proud to work in a field that is actively giving the state a gigantic middle finger. Seeing companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google publicly change their policies to better inform their customers when the state is snooping makes me smile.

If You’re Doing Something Illegal Don’t Brag About It

I feel that this is something that shouldn’t need to be said but if you’re doing something illegal don’t go around bragging about it. Bragging is how people get caught:

YOKOHAMA – A 27-year-old man who allegedly made handguns with a 3-D printer was arrested Thursday on suspicion of illegal weapons possession, the first time Japan’s firearms control law has been applied to the possession of guns made by this method.

The suspect, Yoshitomo Imura, an employee of Shonan Institute of Technology in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, had the plastic guns at his home in Kawasaki in mid-April, the police said. No bullets have been found.

The police launched an investigation earlier this year after Imura posted video footage online of the guns, which he claimed to have produced himself, along with blueprints for them, according to investigative sources.

Emphasis mine. I completely support what Imura did. He lives in a country with very strict gun control laws. By manufacturing firearms he was able to bypass those laws and demonstrate how ineffective gun control laws really are. But he also screwed up by posting video of is escapades in a manner that didn’t preserve his anonymity.

If you’re going to break the law, something that I believe is moral so long as you’re not hurting anybody, either keep your mouth shut or brag about your caper anonymously (the latter being more risky than the former mind you). The desire to received credit is the biggest downfall of law breakers. Breaking the law is an act that will enter you into a conflict with the state. When you’re involved in a conflict, whether it be physical or just verbal, the first thing you should do is put your ego aside.