On Thu, August 2, 2007 11:36 am, Stewart Stremler wrote:
> begin quoting John Oliver as of Thu, Aug 02, 2007 at 11:13:34AM -0700:
>> On Thu, Aug 02, 2007 at 10:16:22AM -0700, Lan Barnes wrote:
> [snip]
>> > I will share that I have become so cynical that every time I see a "be
>> > afraid -- be very afraid" news story, from bird flu to these cyber
>> crime
>> > panics, I suspect it's a plant to establish grounds for yet another
>> > government power grab.
>>
>> Isn't that the truth? What's next, the Homeland Department of Computer
>> Security? We all must register our computers, "for our own protection"?
>> there needs to be government regulation of computers to address the
>> threat to our nation from insecure computers?
>
> We *do* have a problem with insecure computers.
>
> Alas, switching everyone over to Linux won't help. SELinux would help,
> maybe, but training everyone would be prohibitive -- and if we don't
> get developers playing fair, we're doomed in the long run anyway.
>
> As I see it, we're being herded into a TCB future where we aren't the
> owners of the machines, and certainly aren't the policy-makers for
> those ("our") machines.
"... my cold dead fingers."
>
> Keep those old machines working!
Like that's the real issue (see below).
>
>> 1984 is becoming more real every day.
>
> The Computer Is Your Friend, Citizen!
>
Well ... yeah!
But like firearms (see the Bill of Rights, 2nd Amendment), power grabbers
don't want us to have access to our friends ("Say hello to my lil'
fr'en'!"). So they pump it up about the dangers of said friends, and how
we've got to Protect The Little CHIL-dren.
Remember Tracy's funny/chilling sig?
"They have computers and they may have other weapons of mass destruction."
- Janet Reno
How many Law 'N Order's have we seen where Lenny and what's-his-name hear
from the witness, "she met him on the INTERNET" "he found it on the
INTERNET" "they put it on the INTERNET"? And then they glance at each
other with The Look(R).
So when I hear about DRM or asymetrical traffic shaping or content
control, my tin-foil hat begins to throb. Seen it before, heard it before.
I live in the country that never used to torture people ... but that was
all before The Hill Street Blues.
--
Lan Barnes
SCM Analyst Linux Guy
Tcl/Tk Enthusiast Biodiesel Brewer
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
