Posts by bzdev@fosstodon.org
(DIR) Post #AlNLlxCg1hFtxBuZVY by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@evacide Would "providing a cryptology tool" mean I'd get arrested for bringing my laptop to France? It has GPG, ssh, and sshd on it, not to mention openssl. That let's me use rsync to back up some directories. I'll use GPG to encrypt a separate copy of Firefox login data.
(DIR) Post #B49dC8udIIm1M7pcw4 by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@gamingonlinux One reason these laws won't work: since Linux is open source, you can download the source code and compile everything yourself. The source code should be protected by the 1st Amendment, so states can't reasonably restrict it, and if you compile everything yourself, there is no "vendor" who has to do anything.
(DIR) Post #B4vsw271jYOkUE2tVI by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@eff Just out of curiosity, how does a drone operator comply with this restriction if they don't publish the precise location of every "ICE and CBP vehicle"? If a drone was being used, for example, to inspect my roof, how would the operator know that an ICE vehicle was driving down the freeway less than 1/2 mile away?
(DIR) Post #B5Hwqm3afrI6XPIwRk by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@stux Supposedly, at the end of World War I, a British guy, Lloyd George, referring to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and French President George Clemenceau, said something like, "What was I do to? I was seated between one person who thought he was Napoleon and another who thought he was Jesus Christ.."
(DIR) Post #B5I7dt2EW8rluYj8OO by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@stux There is one scenario where Trump could not have realized what was being posted: he tells an aide to post a picture of him as a doctor "healing the sick." This goes into a LLM-based image generator which maps the phrase into a biblical reference and results in that image. The aide of course, being bored to tears, handled it in "fire and forget" mode, so no one noticed until it went public. Meanwhile none of them will admit to a mistake: trusting AI that is really "Artificial Stupidity".
(DIR) Post #B5QzIpQLhInVQ65tC4 by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@eff The other issue is that you can print a "gun" with all the necessary parts but for it to actually work, you need the right materials. Meanwhile, a realistic looking, non-functional, replica could be quite useful as a theatrical prop. If made out of a soft plastic, it might not be capable of being fired and if you did get the explosive to detonate, it would possibly just explode in your hand.
(DIR) Post #B5XC2SiaoVkIibugNs by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@gamingonlinux Carl's efforts on this will really help us. It should be a lot easier to convince elected representatives in other states to do the same thing if you can point to another state. That indicates that the political risks are far lower than they might imagine. Saying "we are just doing what Colorado did and it worked there" is an effective argument when someone yells, "what about the children."
(DIR) Post #B6CQ0FRgYTkjoXCU3U by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@stux Naturally there is a counter example: the person who founded Patagonia. The company took off more or less by accident - they were making clothing for climbers and for some reason the general public liked it too. They apparently treat their employees very well and help fund environmental programs. As I recall, they put the billions in a trust to keep all this going. Entry-level employees get the same benefits as the CEO.
(DIR) Post #B6jztuI8mMegOkRJPU by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@stux It depends on how you give them your data. I read about an incident many years ago where a "madam" cheerfully handed over all her customer records, stored on old-style floppy disks - to the police. Along with a very big magnet.
(DIR) Post #B6sGjXugNZgEaAnA36 by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@stux For everyone's amusement, given the country manufacturing those phones, here's the flag they should have put on it. I made it for a tee shirt some years ago when the U.S. was having trouble passing a budget, causing a government shutdown, and I thought Congress needed a reminder regarding who our largest creditor was (about 15% of our debt at the time).
(DIR) Post #B9N3k2qLsrhip0Uls0 by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@eff I once saw an article about how McDonald's (the fast food corporation) threatened a small Scottish family bakery named "McDonald's Bakery" even though it was a family business that had used that name for something like 100 years. Apparently this did not go over very well in Scotland. The owner's last name was McDonald.
(DIR) Post #BAIybyihofttIzlBhI by bzdev@fosstodon.org
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@stux FWIW, some years ago I put a book on Amazon, The Donald Trump Phrase Book, that translated "I don't know" into 40+ languages because if he knows, he'll say "I don't know", but the rest of the time, he'd either have to tell the truth or remain silent. All to help him on his travels, whether as Prez or on the lam. There are pictures and comments for each language. It was motivated by a wisecrack in the play on which Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro was based.https://www.amazon.com/Donald-Trump-Phrase-Book-translated/dp/1689615001