SoylentNews

Classical music, for true geeks only.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ilhlWVO_00

It will never be a literal thing, only a useful fiction, sorry. You want proof? Tide doesn't make laundry soap that smells like bacon or WD-40.

http://v8tools.com/special.html#3803

Scroll down to the last entry. WK-01 Warm Keyboard.

Keep your hands warm!

Heated computer Keyboard keeps your hands warm for those cold shops!

Perfect for shops in the cold, winter months!
Great multi-media keys along the top
Promotes healthy blood circulation in your hands
Convenient USB connections
Patented in the USA, China and Taiwan
Safe and energy efficient
Tested to comply with FCC standards for home and office use
UL listed. The keyboard does have a separate 110v power supply.
manufacturer's suggested list:
$65.20

Now, if they offered a heated foot board to go under the desk, I could probably turn off my heat for the winter months!!

Should I put a disclaimer here? I'm not associated in any way with V8tools. And, no, this isn't a spam post, I prefer bacon.

But, I'm not done here yet! Who would have thought that browsing a tool site would find a rather well thought out opinion piece written by a PhD?
http://v8tools.com/AngryAmerica.pdf

Oh, those Angry Americans!! (I've quoted the first paragraph here, click the link for the full PDF)

THE GREAT TECH REVOLUTION: OUR BLESSING AND CURSE

  From the supporters of Donald Trump (and Bernie Sanders), to the street protesters
of Southern Europe, voters around the world are mad as hell.
“Inequality, immigration, and the establishment's perceived indifference, are firing up
electorates in a way that has rarely been seen before”- Andre Tartar, et al , Bloomberg
3/22/16.
The authors have continued to document the buildup of income inequality all over the
world in recent years and suggest that things are getting worse. The author of the
present article further suggests this global phenomenon is deeply rooted in another
global happening, the technological revolution which is altering this world inside out.
It promotes prosperity and growth, and it also creates insecurity and frustration among a
ever greater number of people around the world. Yet, the tech changes are so much a
part of our daily lives that we tend to take it for granted. Has it become the elephant in
the room that we ignore? It is the time to take a look at this elephant before it crushes
us. We will talk about a few of the things the new industrial revolution has done to us,
the impact of automation, extreme competition, tech monopolies, and the coming
recession in America. This author will also say a few things about what we can do in
the future

More articles written by Wen-Lung Chang PhD here,
http://v8tools.com/writing.html

Oh, back to the tools part of V8Tools:

I was chasing after some adjustable wrenches. Looking for extra-wide jaw adjustable wrenches. The best thing I have found is made by Sunex. Let me find the link for that - https://sunextools.com/products/9614-12-wide-jaw-adjustable-wrench/

Thing opens up to fit a 2 1/2" bolt, nut, or fitting, bigger than either my 15" or 18" Crescent brand wrenches. I already own one of these, slightly modified. Throw it on a surface grinder table, and grind the thickness of the jaws down some, and you can replace an entire set of "service wrenches". Two sets, actually - SAE and metric. Any time I have to work on a hydraulic cylinder, I reach for this Sunex to hold the shaft, while I turn the nut with a more standard wrench.

And, if anyone knows where to find a 15", 18", or even a 24" adjustable with similar features, let me know!!

Although I am a strong supporter of carbon taxes and was a very public proponent of I-732, the previous carbon tax initiative, I opposed 1631 for several reasons. I felt I-1631 was highly regressive, disproportionately taxing low-income individuals and families. It lacked specific guidelines on how the money would be spent. A partisan group of organizations was hardwired to control and direct the funding, and the public goals of the proposal were highly deceptive (“clean air”). In addition, 1631’s carbon fee started out too low to be effective (half that of 732). And the highly partisan nature of 1631 would undermine bipartisan efforts on climate change, which I believe are crucial.

I agreed to be a signatory for the statement against I-1631 in the official voter’s pamphlet and did a few blog posts on the subject. These blogs were in social media completely outside of and had no connection to the University of Washington.

My stance was not popular among the college’s activist students, my department chair (Dale Durran) and the COENV Dean’s office. The pro-1631 students used social media to call me all kinds of names, as did one vocal post-doctoral researcher in oceanography. They stated that I was in bed with oil companies, was on the payroll of the Koch brothers, was racist, misogynistic, a climate denier, and other names I would not repeat in a family friendly blog (see picture below for a tame example). It is all documented on twitter. The Seattle Stranger called me Trump’s Weatherman and repeated the student’s accusations and pictures.

Between the end of October and early November 2018, Department Chairman Dale Durran, COENV Associate Dean of Research Robert Wood, COENV Associate Dean of Administration Stephanie Harrington, and COENV Assistant Dean of Diversity Terryl Ross wrote a letter attacking my blog that was formally approved by Dean Lisa Graumlich. (all of this is documented in their internal emails).

Their letter, “Message on Departmental Civility”, was sent to MY ENTIRE DEPARTMENT (including staff, faculty, and students—over 120 people) on November 22, stating that my blog “included imagery and text that was racially insensitive and caused offense.” The letter accused me of racism through the statement “Racism is in direct contradiction to our shared values and has no place in our college” as well as suggesting that I harmed the community through my blog.

After the letter was released, I protested that it was both illegal and unfair, which led Atmospheric Sciences Chair (and publicly declared 1631 proponent) Dale Durran, with the knowledge of the Dean’s office, to call a DEPARTMENT WIDE meeting on December 5 to discuss my blog.

[...]

Durran called on the activist students, who made a range of comments critical of my blog. As I tried to talk about the concept of freedom of speech, Dale Durran started screaming at me, telling me to stop. When I protested I wasn’t finished speaking, he screamed even louder. This went on for a while, with both of us talking at the same time, before the Ombud Sloan said I should be allowed continue.

But a minute later Dale Durran started screaming at me again to stop, preventing me from finishing. Then he called upon several more “offended” students and one staff member, who went on the attack, accusing me of racism and worst. One of the students stated that I would be “held accountable” for my blog and opposing 1631. It was a direct threat. And no one said a word about it.

Afterward, several faculty who had attended the gathering told me they were afraid to speak in my defense. One, a full professor and past chair, told me that what had happened was very wrong but he was scared to talk.

Another faculty member, who was originally from China and lived through the Cultural Revolution told me it was exactly like the shaming sessions of Maoist China, with young Red Guards criticizing and shaming elders they wanted to embarrass and remove.

For extra credit, he goes on to detail two cases where the College of the Environment pushed him and another (the second comes from an organization that merged later with the College) to support a narrative that exaggerated the local effects (to the Pacific Northwest of the US) of climate change with an example of oysters and winter snowpack.

In September 2013, the Seattle Times ran a glossy series called “Sea Change”, which claimed that ocean acidification caused the deaths of untold numbers of local oysters in factory nurseries. There were serious technical problems with the article, including the fact that the oyster deaths were of a non-native species in industrial nurseries and that the problem was not really the small amount of acidification by increasing CO2, but rather the mistaken ingestion of less basic upwelled water (as noted by many sources, including leading NOAA scientists). Furthermore, several of the oyster farms were spraying herbicides and pesticides over state waters and greatly disturbing fragile coastal areas (issues that came out in 2015 in story by the Seattle Times Danny Westneat).

[...]

A week or two after my second blog on the topic I got a call from my chair. Dean Lisa Graumlich was “concerned” about my blog and wanted the department chair to talk to me about it. It was also pointed out that the College was receiving a large amount of State funds for a UW acidification center and that the Governor had been hailing the dying oysters as evidence of the grave impact of increasing CO2. In short, a false narrative was supporting the Governor’s claims and providing millions of dollars to the college. The clear message: I should lay off.

and

The history of politicized suppression of science goes back to the roots of my college. Back in 2005-2006, a few local politicians (such as then Mayor Greg Nickels) and some UW climate impacts folks were claiming that the Cascade snowpack was rapidly disappearing (50% loss!) and the anthropogenic global warming was the cause. A UW researcher and previous Washington State Climatologist Mark Albright analyzed the snowpack information and found little decline, and he mentioned this fact on a few local electronic mailing lists.

The State Climatologist at that time (Phil Mote) and member of the Climate Impacts Group (now a part of the College) was an author of a paper claiming draconian snowpack loss and warned Mark Albright to refrain from communicating his analysis to others. When Mark rightfully refused, Mote fired Mark Albright as Associate Climatologist. This action hit the media, went viral, reaching local newspapers and even got covered by CNN. A very serious breach of the academic freedom.

So here we have an example of persecution of someone who actually supports aggressive climate change mitigation, merely because they didn't support a particular bad idea. And it was by a university department, demonstrating some of the craziness that has built up in the academic realm over the past half century.

Lawyer: Dear judge, I will be using emoji's during my opening statement.

Judge: How do you propose to do that?

Lawyer: As the court may have observed, I've hired a number of actors wearing various emoji costumes, who are seated here in the courtroom today. When I need the jury to see a specific emoji, I will play a certain note on this flute here, and the associated emoji will stand up momentarily.

Judge: You may pro seed.

I once read Schneier pretty regularly - at least once a month. Somehow, I've gotten away from his site. William Barr made his "I'm a dummy" speech on encryption in July - https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/23/william-barr-consumers-security-risks-backdoors/

Schneier has made comments on that speech twice now.

https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2019/08/the_myth_of_consumer.html

The thing is, that distinction between military and consumer products largely doesn't exist. All of those "consumer products" Barr wants access to are used by government officials—heads of state, legislators, judges, military commanders and everyone else—worldwide. They're used by election officials, police at all levels, nuclear power plant operators, CEOs and human rights activists. They're critical to national security as well as personal security.

This wasn't true during much of the Cold War. Before the internet revolution, military-grade electronics were different from consumer-grade. Military contracts drove innovation in many areas, and those sectors got the cool new stuff first. That started to change in the 1980s, when consumer electronics started to become the place where innovation happened. The military responded by creating a category of military hardware called COTS: commercial off-the-shelf technology. More consumer products became approved for military applications. Today, pretty much everything that doesn't have to be hardened for battle is COTS and is the exact same product purchased by consumers. And a lot of battle-hardened technologies are the same computer hardware and software products as the commercial items, but in sturdier packaging.

https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2019/07/attorney_general_wil.html

Barr also says:

Further, the burden is not as onerous as some make it out to be. I served for many years as the general counsel of a large telecommunications concern. During my tenure, we dealt with these issues and lived through the passage and implementation of CALEA the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. CALEA imposes a statutory duty on telecommunications carriers to maintain the capability to provide lawful access to communications over their facilities. Companies bear the cost of compliance but have some flexibility in how they achieve it, and the system has by and large worked. I therefore reserve a heavy dose of skepticism for those who claim that maintaining a mechanism for lawful access would impose an unreasonable burden on tech firms especially the big ones. It is absurd to think that we would preserve lawful access by mandating that physical telecommunications facilities be accessible to law enforcement for the purpose of obtaining content, while allowing tech providers to block law enforcement from obtaining that very content.

That telecommunications company was GTE—which became Verizon. Barr conveniently ignores that CALEA-enabled phone switches were used to spy on government officials in Greece in 2003—which seems to have been a National Security Agency operation—and on a variety of people in Italy in 2006. Moreover, in 2012 every CALEA-enabled switch sold to the Defense Department had security vulnerabilities. (I wrote about all this, and more, in 2013.)

The final thing I noticed about the speech is that it is not about iPhones and data at rest. It is about communications—data in transit. The "going dark" debate has bounced back and forth between those two aspects for decades. It seems to be bouncing once again.

This 2016 essay 'The Value of Encryption' needs to be touched on if anyone doubts the necessity of encryption - https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2016/04/the_value_of_encrypt.html

And, finally, another 2016 blog that I'd like to see updated soon - https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/02/worldwide_encry.html

The findings of this survey identified 619 entities that sell encryption products. Of those 412, or two-thirds, are outside the U.S.-calling into question the efficacy of any US mandates forcing backdoors for law-enforcement access. It also showed that anyone who wants to avoid US surveillance has over 567 competing products to choose from. These foreign products offer a wide variety of secure applications­ -- voice encryption, text message encryption, file encryption, network-traffic encryption, anonymous currency­ -- providing the same levels of security as US products do today.

Details:

There are at least 865 hardware or software products incorporating encryption from 55 different countries. This includes 546 encryption products from outside the US, representing two-thirds of the total.
The most common non-US country for encryption products is Germany, with 112 products. This is followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Sweden, in that order.
The five most common countries for encryption products­ -- including the US­ -- account for two-thirds of the total. But smaller countries like Algeria, Argentina, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Chile, Cyprus, Estonia, Iraq, Malaysia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Tanzania, and Thailand each produce at least one encryption product.
Of the 546 foreign encryption products we found, 56% are available for sale and 44% are free. 66% are proprietary, and 34% are open source. Some for-sale products also have a free version.
At least 587 entities­ -- primarily companies -- ­either sell or give away encryption products. Of those, 374, or about two-thirds, are outside the US.
Of the 546 foreign encryption products, 47 are file encryption products, 68 e-mail encryption products, 104 message encryption products, 35 voice encryption products, and 61 virtual private networking products.
The report is here, here, and here. The data, in Excel form, is here.

Press articles are starting to come in. (Here are the previous blog posts on the effort.)

I know the database is incomplete, and I know there are errors. I welcome both additions and corrections, and will be releasing a 1.1 version of this survey in a few weeks.

I know there are those who believe that only the government should have access to ̶g̶u̶n̶s̶ encryption.

In this subthread I engage in some remembering of very fun years past when I was a classic Mac OS developer. Co-author of a product called Timbuktu. Author of Timbuktu/Remote.

Those few years (about six years) were a diversion from writing accounting software. The company wanted a screen sharing product for Mac, similar to the text only Carbon Copy on the PC -- in order to facilitate doing tech support of accounting products.

I've never changed jobs. But everything has changed around me across multiple acquisitions. Timbuktu got the company acquired for the first time. They were interested in Timbuktu and not the accounting products. They were happy to keep those as long as they were making money, but didn't really care about them.

Meanwhile they were wildly profitable on the back of PhoneNet connectors, if you ever heard of those. But eventually that came to an end, and the accounting part of the business split off into a separate business, and a few months later, I joined it. In retrospect, a very wise move.

Those were fun, fun times. It was an R&D playground for a long time.