Re: 'Perhaps the NSA simply just doesn't trust its friends in Europe. '
Not as little as its 'friends in Europe' trusts them.
3255 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jul 2007
Just stick your phone on vibrate and put it under your pillow.
If you're wise enough to have a recent-ish Android phone then just turn Block Mode on for e.g. 23:00 - 06:00 and no errant plonkers will disturb you with their notifications between those hours.
Cancel the alarm simply by placing the palm of your hand on the screen (with gestures enabled in settings)
Friday pint for all.
If you could live with your phone 'without being able to make or receive calls' then you never needed a phone, you just needed something to 'do work on' presumably email, facebook and angry birds which many people seem to think is what constitutes Getting Things Done these days.
If, however Being Contactable is more important than having an awkward mobile SSH client (at least JuiceSSH has relieved some of the pain since its arrival on the scene, nice app), email and other basic officey tasks in your pocket then you primarily need a phone.
I could happily just go with my old Nokia 6230 if I had to, as the work I need to do certainly needs a shedload more than a phone in my pocket and Being Contactable is far more important than anything else on my S4, nice as the extra stuff certainly is.
Am I allowed to withhold my portion of tax that goes to MOD, GCHQ and 'projects' like all the failed NHS stuff and the farcical HS2? Not to mention private jet charters to errr... climate conventions.
No. because ethics and morality don't enter into it.
As soon as 'shareholders' get involved - that's when services start to suffer cos then it's all about monetisation and getting a return. No mystery there.
How the hell Twaddler proposes to create a sound investment opportunity, though, yet eludes me and, I suspect, them also.
If you ever wanted confirmation of a bubble post-facebook (why their stock is so high is a mystery to me, they're becoming ever more irrelevant), watch this IPO.
The NSA didn't have 'Staff in "Leadership positions" in the IETF' as claimed in an article I came across on G+ yesterday which claims exactly that and that they actively disrupt processes like security standards. Written by someone on one of those committees, i believe.
I don't have a link but a quick Google should turn something up pretty quick i'd imagine.
EDIT: This TechDirt article should get you closer - http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130909/11430124454/john-gilmore-how-nsa-sabotaged-key-security-standard.shtml
STFU you loon, you'll give them more crazy ideas they don't need.
Mind you, if you have a smart fridge they likely already check your milk bottles for 'terrorists'.
To riff off Noam Chomsky...
Terrorist: Utterly uncompliant, active hindrance to Foreign Policy Goals
Radical: An inconvenience, somewhat of an obstacle to Foreign Policy Goals
Moderate: Largely co-operative, occasionally useful for Foreign Policy Goals
Ally: Likely a member of the UN, often supportive of Foreign Policy Goals
Special Relationship: Bend Over Britain, an accomplice.
They could buy 'Corporation Island', make it an independent state and run their own fibre internationally with the money they have. Leave US-only data in the US data centres. Amazon would have to leave fulfillment centres in the US but then only locally store what data's needed for the centre to operate. AWS already has regions.
Then comply with nothing and take their tax out of the US (what's still there, anyway) and even offer to move their employees to the island if they want to go, with zero tax on their salaries.
I'm sure most of their techies can remote work when they want anyway and there'll always be a bank that wants to hold the company accounts.
Yeah we all get that it's a video thing but seriously, no-one thought to beef up the current capability of that 5V signalling pin that's not-supposed-to-provide-power or whatever it is?
They make money from licensing HDMI compliance, right? Should be in their interest to spawn more gadgets.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/us-backed-plan-launch-chemical-weapon-attack-syria-045648224.html
As far as I can tell it's really Yahoo, really news and really from January...
Apparently the Dail Mail disappeared it from their site but who knows with the Daily Mail anyway.
Buy secondhand, isn't like the quality is degraded over time as on LP or Cassette.
No it doesn't support the artist but there's more effective ways to put money in their pockets like merchandise (which presumably gets a higher % of sale price into their bank?)
If they looked through their telescopes from the correct end they'd see stuff like this was a positive not a negative.
All that hosting of TV archives they're getting for *free*?
Seriously, if I created a site that legitimately had all the discontinued TV on it (think loads of old Doctor who, Robot Wars, etc, as mentioned above, plus others that you can't get on DVD/etc - OK Doctor you probably can) how many people would actually either subscribe to it or pay, say, a fiver for a mint legit season of something.
Oh but then the where's-my-cut-gang suddenly get involved and toss the whole thing into limbo because some greedy fuck wants a cut of something whereas previously he was happy with a cut of nothing. Not that they're not entitled but you know they'd break the entire concept with their dismal 'rights negotiations'. And that's before you get into DRM enforcement on the files/streams cos, you know, meaning nothing meaningful (like a DLNA device) would ever be able to play the shit anyway...
Which is exactly why you _can't_ make a damned useful service like that without a shitload of cash, lawyers and the patience of Job.
In fact the BBC are 'uniquely positioned' (hem hem) to be able to set a frigging example and do this with the vast archives of content they have. Yet they don't.