The Last Blogger BLOGDIAL post

Posted on: 19 February 2006 | 10:08 am

ID Cards Ruin Marriages

Posted on: 19 February 2006 | 5:42 am

The True Face of True Majority

Support Democracy, not the Middle East Dear Irdial, Want an easy way to help America's poor stay warm this winter? Buy Citgo gasoline. Find a station near you. Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor.1 The money you pay to Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela - not Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. "Citgo is not just another oil company," says Citgo CEO Felix Rodriguez. "With Venezuela's state oil company, of which we are a subsidiary, we share a broad social mission." So buy Citgo gasoline and support democracy in South America: Find the Citgo station closest to your home address. And this winter Citgo is helping out less fortunate Americans, too. You already may have seen the headlines about how Citgo, unlike every other oil company in the U.S., is making cut-rate heating oil available to struggling families in the Northeast. The Energy Department predicts a nearly 26 percent jump in heating costs this winter compared with last year,2 and despite a year of record oil company profits, the country's heating oil assistance fund is falling behind.3 Citgo has stepped in to help out. They're selling heating oil at discounted rates to poorer communities in Massachusetts and the Bronx, NY, and working on deals to keep low-income homes in Rhode Island and Vermont warm, too. So while you're out on the road this month, you can help some fellow Americans by filling your tank with Venezuelan gas. Here's a link to find the nearest one of the 14,000 Citgo gas stations in the U.S.: Find the Citgo station closest to your home address. Naturally, if you can get where you're going without a car, do so. And we'll continue to work for a country with more renewable energy options. But in the meantime, help your Northeast neighbors by supporting Citgo when you drive. Find the Citgo station closest to your home address: http://www.truemajority.org/find_station.php Thanks for all that you do, Matt HollandTrueMajority[...]Well well well.Here we have some americans who are saying that the middle east oil companies should be boycotted, until 'they act like us'.Of course, everyone everywhere is saying that YOU Matt Holland and your countrymen should act like the rest of the world, and until you do so YOU and YOUR COUNTRY and its CURRENCY should be boycotted.I think this is entirely correct. A world that is bipolar, like a magnet, is a good thing. Magnetic Monopoles, unnatural in the marcro world, should be shunned. That means, no New World Order, no world government, and no trading with people that cannot bring themselvs to behave (ie not murder indiscriminately for money). That means no Islamic republic or Islamic Monarchy dealing in any way with non Islamic countries. It means the entire world boycotting the usa. It means the usa, totally minding its own business in every way, including not dumping its billions of charity dollars on other countries.I wonder what people like True Majority, who call for a boycott of other peoples countries just because they choose to govern in a different way to the usa, would think about a world wide shunning of the usa over its imperialist aggression. Would they be in favour of it? Would they even call for it?Now that would be something.

Posted on: 18 February 2006 | 7:14 am

Defeated At Birth

#Starting up bitch tits...wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_41.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_41_high.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart34_IPOD.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart34_HIFI.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_40.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_40_high.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_23.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_23_high.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_15.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_15_high.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart36_IPOD.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart36_HIFI.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_39.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_39_high.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_17.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_17_high.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_35.mp3wget http://podcast.dr.dk/mozart/Mozart_symf_35_high.mp3#Done! You crazy Mozart lovin' sucka...before I start, copy and paste that text into a file, call it motzart.sh and run it to leech the Danish broadcasters free Motzart celebratory concert.Now, to AT's rhetorical questions.So why should I be scared?Because you are a human being. Because you don't want your door to be kicked in in the middle of the night and have yourself taken off to a torture house because you blogged someting. Anyone who doesn't think that this can come to pass has no idea of what sort of world this is becoming. It is already happening all over the place, and if you do and say nothing, you or someone you know, (which is the same thing) will be next.The US & UK gov. will carry on regardless, whether I choose to defy them or not. This is a lie.This is what monkies say when it rains in the jungle, and they sit there getting wet instead of moving into the protection of trees just a stones throw away. This 'Whatever' generation, these milk blooded, transparent skinned Eloi cattle make me sick. The lack of imagination, the lack of history, both ancient and modern, the lack of guts, self respect, dignity...its almost like they are another type of human to the ones living in and born around the '60s. I can't stand them, their talk or their defeatism and their lack of spirit and dangerous weakness.WHERE IS MY BUTTON GOD DAMN IT!.PRESS PRESS PRESS PRESS!DOWN DOWN DOWN!DIE DIE DIE DIE!OK so I think that ID cards could, and will, be brought down by mass disobedience if they are instated, and the statistics of US tourism declining due to US-VISIT might make the US repeal this policy, but can we stop the banks & shops mining our data? Is there any point?I went to my bank a few weeks ago. They have a new policy of not giving you your own money unless you have ID, if the amount is above a certain arbitrary level. A man in the que in front of me asked for �1000 cash from a cheque. He had banked at this branch for over 20 years. Everyone knew him. The man went ballistic when they refused to give him his money. He turned his back on the teller, and refused to move till they gave him his cash. They brought over the manager. He told her, "if I don't recieve my cash immediately, I am going to shut my accounts".They handed him his cash without showing ID.Banks more than ANY instituion will do EXACTLY what their customers want. People doing a 'run' on a bank is enough to destroy them in a single week. If enough people demand it, they will put in place any facility you desire. People with experience in the private banking world understand just what the true nature of the relationship between customer and bank really is.It's your money in the bank. You should be able to set your own level of security from a basket of choices - signature only, two forms of ID, or just recognition by a teller; the choice should be yours, because you are the CLIENT and they are the SERVANT. People today, especially in the UK have a distorted image of what a bank is; the status of bank manager is vastly over inflated. He is nothing more than a head waiter at a restaurant serving cash. This falsely elevated status probably has to do whith the apalling lack of competition in high street banking as traditionally found in the UK, either way, there is alot you can do to change the behaviour of banks and the policy they have towards your private data. All you have to do is ASK for it, and if they will not give you what you want, organize a run on your bank and then... start your own bank.I find it hard to express my deeply routed feelings to my peers, they think I'm being overly paranoid, resisting for the sake of it and missing out on opportunities to prove some phyrric principles.Then you need better peers. Actually, they are not your peers at all, they are inferior to you in every way that counts. People like you, who have principles (even if its in principle) are head and shoulders above the masses, the ignorant, the impotent, the defeated at birth. You are the standard bearer, the guardian of everything that is right. Just by speaking the words you are doing your part to keep the true nature of man's relationship with his fellow man and his institutions in its proper place.Don't be discouraged. Do not let their poison enter your blood and corrupt your clean spirit. There is not a single tyranical government, system or group of people that has not been brought down and ground into dust. Should this great country turn to the dark side, it too will either perish in its entirety or its great people will rout the evil monsters that are trying to make Britain into a mirror of the Soviet Union. People like you are the agents of change. Never let the lie of 'there is nothing you can do' find a resting place in your head. Its a total lie.

Posted on: 17 February 2006 | 7:30 pm

make time for tea

Hello AT!they can't stop me from being me, can they?Sounds like a line from The Prisoner.but is there anything unnatural about statistics?Well... have you ever seen a statistition? Pale, hairless things with no eyelids and hands evolved around ergonomic keyboards, unable to see the real world without a Matrix-like superimposed numerical scaffold... Sometimes they breed with epidemiologists and spawn monsters that come up with ideas like... ID cards.Loyalty cards etc., I can accept as personal choices. I choose not to have any, and it's hard to decide whether that choice is based on paranoia or dissent, or a basic hatred for Tesco et al. That said, if it was my mate on the fruit stall keeping all my reciepts and then one day... 'I've got those Pakistani mangoes you like so much... kept you a box'... I doubt I would complain.But this man and/or Tescos can't control my apparent freedoms through a loyalty card.Whereas ID cards... well, if I am forced to have one when I apply for a passport (even though the government tells us it's not compulsory without further legislation!) and refuse, then my travel is restricted. My NHS a11y is removed. (! I learnt that abb. from the Fedora website this morning). Etc. etc. etc. ID cards are a looooooooooooooooooong way from being 'all these guys are doing is advanced statistics.' If this was in reference to ID cards then this very clever person is also a raving loon. Clever people like that will be chipped and PINned down, and forced to have their retinas scanned just before the cage of rabid rats is strapped to their face.So I think paranoia is entirely justified. In fact, it should be a mandatory emotion to be invoked prior to any discussion of ID cards.The US & UK gov. will carry on regardless, whether I choose to defy them or notOnly while the defying is toothless. Every weekend there are people in York collecting signatures against the Iraq war. !!!!!!!!!!!! Meanwhile 1 man witholds his tax in protest and gets fucked over.But if 1,000,000 idiots withheld taxes instead of signing a piece of paper....Deja vu. N'est pas? Time for beer. Get it now, before your government-endorsed publican refuses you service without swiping your card. What? I've had statistically too much alcohol this week? No more till Tuesday? Bugger this, I'm off to Portmeirion

Posted on: 17 February 2006 | 9:35 am

Thought for the Day, 17 February 2006

Thought for the Day, 17 February 2006The Rt Rev. James JonesLast autumn I was invited to give a lecture in America on religion and the environment. When I checked in for my flight home there was clearly a difficulty. The man at the desk kept checking his computer screen against my ticket and passport. I eventually asked if there was a problem. "Yes" he said, "You're on the 'People to watch list'." I said "there must be some mistake." He left his desk, made a phone call, returned and waved me through. I spent the rest of the journey wondering what it takes to become a candidate for 'extraordinary rendition'!A few weeks ago I returned to America for an important engagement. I'd checked in, cleared security when once again I was told that I was on 'the people to watch' list. The official was holding a computer print-out with several names and sure enough there was 'James Jones'. But not me - for he had a different middle name. In the interests of national security I'd better not reveal it.Now I know Jones is a common name and maybe I've just got to get used to this - but it's a sign of the new world that's coming where computers rule with human beings as obedient hand-maidens.It's no wonder there's so much nervous debate about ID cards and Terrorism laws that seem to be whittling away our freedoms. It's because we're suffering from a reactive anxiety to a new power that we've created.Human beings throughout history have always been alert to the power of others. And at cataclysmic moments people have risen up and, in the words of the Magnificat, 'have brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly'.But we have little control over this new power.When one of our children was learning to surf the net she burst into my study to tell me there were over 4000 pages about me on the internet. 'What do I do about that?' I asked. 'Nothing you can do, Dad'. This is a world where we've have already lost control over what is known about us. It's a world where your credit rating and your financial worth is known by people to whom you yourself have not given this information.I'm not here addressing the Luddite Convention of the Twenty First Century! I know there are huge benefits to be gained from information technology. But 'in-formation' is the point - it means how we're formed and begs the question about how this power is shaped our worldReaching for the Bible or any other sacred text at such a point might seem foolish since they were given in an age where such things couldn't even be imagined.But when it comes to power be it technological or political, it's life-saving to hear Jesus say 'Have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be revealed. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul - you are of more value,�?�'I've been internally debating my feelings over ID cards, US-VISIT, supermarkets, credit cards and the rest of it recently. I heard Thought for the Day this morning and it seemed to resonate. Why should I be scared. I know these things are bad. Wrong. But as I know I am already above them, they can't stop me from being me, can they?I was emailing a very clever person about this. He said:on the one hand you could be scared of it, but on the other hand, maybe you shouldn't be. i mean, all these guys are doing is advanced statistics. so the future is all about data mining and finding out what we can find out from all the data which is being procured all of the time. maybe it's like the industrial revolution, you can fear the technology because it seems unnatural, but is there anything unnatural about statistics?So why should I be scared? Why should I let them stop me doing what I want to do? The US & UK gov. will carry on regardless, whether I choose to defy them or not. OK so I think that ID cards could, and will, be brought down by mass disobedience if they are instated, and the statistics of US tourism declining due to US-VISIT might make the US repeal this policy, but can we stop the banks & shops mining our data? Is there any point?I find it hard to express my deeply routed feelings to my peers, they think I'm being overly paranoid, resisting for the sake of it and missing out on opportunities to prove some phyrric principles.

Posted on: 17 February 2006 | 8:30 am

now i know

Posted on: 17 February 2006 | 5:07 am

Which Linux Distro?

Posted on: 16 February 2006 | 3:34 pm

Which distro

Posted on: 16 February 2006 | 3:06 pm

google in china

The giants of the internet were hauled before Congress yesterday, accused of colluding with China's secret police and censors to wield a "cyber sledgehammer of repression".[...] Guardianand of selling out the principles of democracy and free speech for profit by bowing to China's demands to censor web content and monitor email."Cooperation with tyranny should not be embraced for the sake of profits," said Chris Smith, the Republican chairman of the House subcommittee on Hypocritical bellyaching from the US establishment, meanwhile China's old guard are coming round to the realisation that censorship is unsustainable.

Posted on: 16 February 2006 | 7:47 am

early bird

Posted on: 16 February 2006 | 5:05 am

HMG wants a back door to Vista

UK holds Microsoft security talks By Ollie Stone-Lee BBC News political reporter UK officials are talking to Microsoft over fears the new version of Windows could make it harder for police to read suspects' computer files. Windows Vista is due to be rolled out later this year. Cambridge academic Ross Anderson told MPs it would mean more computer files being encrypted. He urged the government to look at establishing "back door" ways of getting around encryptions. The Home Office later told the BBC News website it is in talks with Microsoft. Unlicensed music Professor Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, was giving evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee about time limits on holding terrorism suspects without charge. He said: "From later this year, the encryption landscape is going to change with the release of Microsoft Vista." The system uses BitLocker Drive Encryption which can be linked to a chip called TPM (Trusted Platform Module) in the computer's motherboard. The system is aimed at preventing tampering with computers but it would also help prevent people from downloading unlicensed films or media. "This means that by default your hard disk is encrypted by using a key that you cannot physically get at... "An unfortunate side effect from law enforcement is it would be technically fairly seriously difficult to dig encrypted material out of the system if it has been set up competently." Guessing passwords Professor Anderson said people were discussing the idea of making computer vendors ensure "back door keys" to encrypted material were made available. The Home Office should enter talks with Microsoft now rather than when the system is introduced, he said. He said encryption tools generally were either good or useless. "If they are good, you either guess the password or give up," he said. The committee heard that suspects could claim to have lost their encryption key - although juries could decide to let this count this against them in the same way as refusing to answer questions in a police interview. A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Office has already been in touch with Microsoft concerning this matter and is working closely with them." Increased awareness about high-tech crime and computer crime has prompted the Home Office to talk to IT companies regularly about new software. Government officials look at the security of new systems, whether they are easy for the general public to hack into and how the police can access material in them. [...]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4713018.stmConvinced yet?If you run Vista, you are a total fool. Not only will you need new, crippled harware to run it, but it will be compromised out of the box.Does HMG REALLY think that M$ is going to make a double-crippled version just for the UK, and that if this happened, that the machines would be unpatchable, or that no one would order a demi-crippled copy of Vista from abroad?Does anyone think that the NSA has not already had a meeting just like this with M$?And finally, in true BBQ style, they misrepresent Ross Anderson by saying that, "He urged the government to look at establishing "back door" ways of getting around encryptions." This is his position in his own words: [...] is there any chance of giving us a bit more detail into your proposals for backdoors? 4. Jack | February 15th, 2006 at 17:11 Yes, I?m curious about this as well. It?s not every day that a security expert calls for a backdoor! However, I see from your webpage that you are no fan of ?trusted? computing. Is that, perhaps, why you are calling for a back door in Vista? So that Vista users will be able to circumvent the restrictions enforced on them by TCPA, by obtaining their own private key? 5. Ross Anderson | February 15th, 2006 at 17:12 I?m in favour of court-mandated shortcuts past rights-management systems, on competition-policy grounds. In our APIG submission I wrote ?In cases of abuse, judges must be able to order rights-management mechanisms unlocked?. I don?t see the Vista security mechanisms as being security for me, but as security for them. It?s just not the same as the key escrow debates of the 1990s - in which I opposed key escrow on principle. The technology?s being used for different things here. If you want privacy, use PGP - or better still, some low-observable communication technology, such as throwaway prepaid mobile phones or webmail accounts Ross And there you have it a three minute burst of research clears up the smear. Total misrepresentation, just as we expect from that down-dumbing, LCD pandering, police state facilitating lie factory and its deluded servant-nincompoops, like the author of this piece. Think about it, what on earth is a 'political reporter' doing writing a piece that is about a DRM / Encryption system without the help of someone who is computer literate?Shabby shabby SHABBY!

Posted on: 16 February 2006 | 4:45 am

careful with that axe eugene

Posted on: 15 February 2006 | 8:51 pm

gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Posted on: 15 February 2006 | 6:02 pm

Advanced Microscopy

Posted on: 15 February 2006 | 4:54 pm

Pete Doherty and the KLF

Posted on: 15 February 2006 | 11:34 am

Simple Mathematics and ID cards

The Failure of US-VISIT US-VISIT is the program to program to fingerprint and otherwise keep tabs on foreign visitors to the U.S. A recent article talks about how the program is being rolled out, but the last paragraph is the most interesting: "Since January 2004, US-VISIT has processed more than 44 million visitors. It has spotted and apprehended nearly 1,000 people with criminal or immigration violations, according to a DHS press release." I wrote about US-VISIT in 2004, and back then I said that it was too expensive and a bad trade-off. The price tag for "the next phase" was $15B; I'm sure the total cost is much higher. But take that $15B number. One thousand bad guys, most of them not very bad, caught through US-VISIT. That's $15M per bad guy caught. Surely there's a more cost-effective way to catch bad guys? My previous essay on the topic: [...]Schneier shines his logic light once again. My emphasis.This can be transfered directly to the ID card fiasco about to (maybe) be unleashed on the british public. It will cost BILLIONS and only a handful of people will get caught, for the most minor of 'offences'.Millions of brave men voluntarily gave their lives so that we could live like free men. Are we now going to throw away our birthright just to (theoretically, because the scheme will categorically not do this) catch some guys who might or might not kill 100 or so people? Or 3000 people?And are we going to give up our privacy and freedom just to (theoretically, because the scheme will categorically not do this) catch a few thousand benefit fraudsters? Or people who have not paid their road tax? (referring to the blanked surveillance of all roads in the UK)I think not.

Posted on: 15 February 2006 | 8:21 am

Now its your turn.

Posted on: 14 February 2006 | 7:16 pm

Crucial thought on ID Cards

Posted on: 14 February 2006 | 3:57 pm

Its not over. Labour's Poll Tax will be smashed!

Posted on: 14 February 2006 | 3:48 pm

the melting pot will boil over

Posted on: 14 February 2006 | 9:13 am

Down the loo

Someone clever said: What the hell is wrong with England?!? You people invented modern democratic society and civil rights, and you've been happily flushing it down the drain, piece by piece, ever since the end of WWII. (Would you really be any worse off at this point if the Nazis had won?) Gun control, CCTV, now ID cards--every time I look at America's problems, I can always cheer myself up by remembering that whatever we're doing wrong, you're guaranteed to do something worse. And what kind of politics have you got going now where the Conservatives are for civil liberties and Labour are the fascists? That's just bizarre. [...]http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=177286&cid=14711207Remember; you are not obliged to obey an immoral law. In fact, its quite the opposite.

Posted on: 13 February 2006 | 7:18 pm

A total ass waiting in the wings.

Posted on: 13 February 2006 | 8:56 am

You begin to feel an itching.....THERE!

Posted on: 13 February 2006 | 4:55 am