Posts by HardCoded

I wrote to the Oz Info Minister regarding this

I personally wrote to the Minister in charge of this matter through RightToKnow.org. I had a colleague who is knowledgeable IT litigation matters and members of the Canberra Linux Users Group help me wade through the legalese of my reply (it was mostly boilerplate) and point out facts about open source code's usage.

If they have a problem with Commercial competitors using their Software in running elections:

- they could open-source parts, not all the code, especially withhold the reporting and user-interface sections

- they can “dual-license” the code.

ie. “Free for educational and non-commercial use” and “Licensed for Commercial use”

Intellectual Property (IP) rights, since 2010 have defaulted to “being shared freely”.

I'm happy to share the links and page numbers from Australian Department of Finance, and Rights and Protections of Intellectual Property manuals, and relevant page numbers.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/10/aec-ordered-to-reveal-how-senate-votes-are-counted

Thanks El Reg and other subscribers who may have helped me in this endeavor. I just hope I am also not labelled a "vexatious applicant" :-)

think of the kids?

Anyone a parent to moody teenagers or 20 somethings who spend inordinate amounts of their time online?

I don't need someone else deliberately messing with our heads. It's unethical, perhaps illegal. I use FB to communicate business, to chat and to keep abreast of social events. It's a good tool, but when it's manipulated to make you feel negative, that's a problem.

I'm OK though, my head is already messed up, and I don't need FB to feel "complete".

The effect may not be significant, it's just something we need to be aware of.

It's a start - LAWYER ME UP

Dear Australian Electoral Commission,

I request that you release the source code that counts the votes.

It is the people's right to examine the mechanisms that govern us.

The code used is open source. I am an IT professional - open source

software is free. I worked for a company for whom I used to

download open source code for and use it in a commercial

environment. We would use that code, manipulate it and sell it as

commercial software.

Commercial law relates to most things in the intuition of unfair

advantage and commercial espionage, not the examination of a system

that determines our government, and our destinies.

Therefore, as a loyal Australian citizen, I respectfully request

that we examine the veracity and accuracy of this code that counts

the votes that determines who rules this country.

Democracy demands transperancy.

Yours faithfully,

etc etc.

It's a start, OK? Needs research, perhaps quixotic, but I'm trying at least

A complete profile of everyone?

The US government is trying to pass laws that make the gathering of peaceful protesters enemies of the state. Not with a bang but a whimper?

You can learn an incredible amount about a person from a forensic examination of their online profile. Even voice prints and retina scans are commonly included in these collections.

Soon your DNA could be included, giving a complete and total picture of every individual. I provided mine to the NSW Police to help in the investigation of a friend's murder. The case is unsolved, so it will remain on file until it is solved. Then I have to write directly to the NSW Police and then it will take a year to have it destroyed. They say my DNA cannot be used as evidence for anything else other than the elimination of myself as a suspect in that murder case; i.e and I quote "if I leave DNA at the scene of a bank heist it will not be cross matched to the one currently on file." So they tell me.

My DNA can be used only in direct relation to the case of the murder of my friend. So they say. But what if the law changes and the government are using my DNA for whatever they like? Perhaps I'll start on that letter now, because wondering how many and what sort of people know how many times a day I check out smut, what sort of financial institution I'm with, what websites I use or what sort of tech blogs I read doesn't seem quite as important now...

Why is he so scared?

I doubt he'd flourish in a prison environment, people seldom do.

His fears of being killed, raped or tortured in prison for exposing the confidential information of the US government are valid. Even being shived in his cell by some twisted lifer in the UK just for the sake of doing it are too. Because he's a nancy boy who is scared of doing time? Perhaps. Because he is high profile? Yes.

David Hicks was an Aussie who got caught fighting with the Taliban. He was abused by the by the US guards in Gitmo and kept locked up for 5 years. I saw a TV interview with his defence lawyer who confirmed he had been raped by the US guards. I can't find that particular link. But does it surprise you? Anyone who says that rape should be used as a corrective tool even as a joke should regularly visit a psychiatrist. I think jokes about rape in prison are about as funny as the act itself.

Hicks is home now, being no-one in South Australia somewhere. Here's the wiki link about his defence lawyer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mori

The thing is: Assange now looks like a tool instead of a champion of exposing the truth.

Yes, he is a smug egotist, careless, possibly even technically guilty of sexual assault in Sweden for the brazenly dumb action of not wearing a condom when he was asked to.If he hurt those women, then he deserves to be punished for that. He has probably even contributed to the death of someone(?) and the demise of another who is doing hard time, the man responsible for Wiki Leaks in the first place.

He exposed confidential information. Sometimes you have to suffer for what you believe in.

Perhaps the US has won the current fight. It is scaring the shit out of whistle blowers and taking focus away from the issue of freedom of information, abuse of power, and corruption at high levels. Possibly Assange did this himself without their "help", because he's thick and smug. The fact is: we don't know yet.

My question is if he's old hat why spend all that money on surveillance?

Well done, everyone. Especially you, Julian. Trapped in prison or in your own head. Golf clap.