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10681  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Google 'Floating Structures'. Anyone wants to bet what those are? on: November 27, 2013, 06:23:42 PM
Why is this thread still alive? Grin
10682  Other / Politics & Society / Re: N.S.A. May Have Hit Internet Companies at a Weak Spot on: November 27, 2013, 06:20:48 PM
Most VPN providers tell you outright if they keep logs, the country they're located in is key.  You can also jump through 2 VPNs for extra security, that way the first one just gets encrypted data for the second one, and the second one can't trace it back to you.  Also be sure to use one with shared IP's for this, or they could just figure out who was using which IP at what time and trace it back.

The secret court can tell them NOT to tell the truth. The only way for you to know something is wrong is to have a company shutting down its services instead of complying. That may be possible for a small company but harder for a bigger ones.
10683  Other / Politics & Society / NSA Spied On Porn Habits As Part Of Plan To Discredit 'Radicalizers' on: November 27, 2013, 05:51:10 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/nsa-porn-muslims_n_4346128.html

The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document. The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as “exemplars” of how “personal vulnerabilities” can be learned through electronic surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target’s credibility, reputation and authority.

The NSA document, dated Oct. 3, 2012, repeatedly refers to the power of charges of hypocrisy to undermine such a messenger. “A previous SIGINT” — or signals intelligence, the interception of communications — “assessment report on radicalization indicated that radicalizers appear to be particularly vulnerable in the area of authority when their private and public behaviors are not consistent,” the document argues.

Among the vulnerabilities listed by the NSA that can be effectively exploited are “viewing sexually explicit material online” and “using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls.”

The Director of the National Security Agency — described as “DIRNSA” — is listed as the “originator” of the document.
10684  Other / Politics & Society / N.S.A. May Have Hit Internet Companies at a Weak Spot on: November 27, 2013, 06:09:34 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/technology/a-peephole-for-the-nsa.html?_r=0

[...]
Data transmission lines have a long history of being tapped.

As far back as the days of the telegraph, spy agencies have located their operations in proximity to communications companies. Indeed, before the advent of the Internet, the N.S.A. and its predecessors for decades operated listening posts next to the long-distance lines of phone companies to monitor all international voice traffic.

Beginning in the 1960s, a spy operation code-named Echelon targeted the Soviet Union and its allies’ voice, fax and data traffic via satellite, microwave and fiber-optic cables.

In the 1990s, the emergence of the Internet both complicated the task of the intelligence agencies and presented powerful new spying opportunities based on the ability to process vast amounts of computer data.

In 2002, John M. Poindexter, former national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan, proposed the Total Information Awareness plan, an effort to scan the world’s electronic information — including phone calls, emails and financial and travel records. That effort was scrapped in 2003 after a public outcry over potential privacy violations.

The technologies Mr. Poindexter proposed are similar to what became reality years later in N.S.A. surveillance programs like Prism and Bullrun.

The Internet effectively mingled domestic and international communications, erasing the bright line that had been erected to protect against domestic surveillance. Although the Internet is designed to be a highly decentralized system, in practice a small group of backbone providers carry almost all of the network’s data.

The consequences of the centralization and its value for surveillance was revealed in 2006 by Mark Klein, an AT&T technician who described an N.S.A. listening post inside a room at an AT&T switching facility.

The agency was capturing a copy of all the data passing over the telecommunications links and then filtering it in AT&T facilities that housed systems that were able to filter data packets at high speed.

Documents taken by Edward J. Snowden and reported by The Washington Post indicate that, seven years after Mr. Klein first described the N.S.A.'s surveillance technologies, they have been refined and modernized.
10685  Other / Politics & Society / Re: On African Poverty and Oil on: November 25, 2013, 08:42:03 PM
There's a ton of oil in Africa and yet they are very poor. Why don't we tap into that oil by setting up a pipeline and selling it in America?

https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=south+sudan&data=!1m4!1m3!1d27233098!2d28.2447279!3d4.6304778!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x171930b53d3e3119%3A0xdbf043637eb6bc97!3m8!1m3!1d27271428!2d34.3960461!3d-3.49609!3m2!1i1366!2i642!4f13.1!4m2!3d7.9630921!4d30.1589303

Check the above map out. South Sudan has a ton of oil but is poor and landlocked therefore cannot pay to ship it out. Pipelines to Kenya would be short and enrich both countries. Pipline to Angola would provide a closer to America solution. All of these countries are largely Christian so there is a sociopolitical harmony that could work and we would not need to fear Muslims breaking stuff.

I have no idea how to go about designing and pitching a pipline to the govt and the oil companies but this is a huge money opportunity and a huge moral and developmental opportunity. Can we get this done as a pure private sector thing? What would this cost and who are the potential players?

First obviously Africa is not a country but a continent. This continent, Africa is cursed. It is cursed by its amazing natural resources, from precious woods to oil, diamonds to sapphire, etc. A pipeline would have to cross many countries, undefined tribal regions and other unstable nations. KSA may not be the best place for women's freedom, but as far as business, investing, planing for big projects way ahead in the future the kingdom is a much safer and stable bet. Instability is very expensive.
This is how investors think of Africa http://youtu.be/zBZIY0WnxCM
10686  Other / Politics & Society / 17% of employees are REQUIRED to use personal social accounts for work (survey) on: November 25, 2013, 08:19:04 PM
http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/25/15-of-employees-are-required-to-use-personal-social-accounts-for-work-survey/

We’re about a third of the way done with our 9-question survey on social media at work, and the preliminary results are both fascinating and disturbing.

For example, 17 percent of our anonymous respondents so far told us they are required to use their personal social media accounts to post about work and their company. (A further 27 percent are not required but are strongly encouraged to do so.)

For these folks, the line between personal and private online lives has blurred to invisibility. As one of these respondents noted, “I have to be very careful about everything I say to my friends as I conduct business activities over the same accounts. My Facebook has become a more interactive version of my LinkedIn profile, with only the blandest conversations with my friends.

“My friends don’t understand why I am reluctant to use this channel to talk, and it’s hard to get them to sign in to Skype every time I want to chat.”

Another employee told us, “I feel the personal and work identities have largely blurred in the past several years. That being said, I am moderately concerned about privacy, security, and surveillance.”

But not everyone’s overly concerned about how their private accounts and data are being handled. As a third respondent said, “It’s good to have a transparent life, provided nobody uses the data from these social networks to pester people for buying their services or products.”

(Unfortunately, that’s precisely what the data is used for in the most innocuous cases.)

For this minority group, the most-required network for company use is Facebook, followed by Twitter.

These respondents are also — surprise, surprise — more likely to feel their privacy is being violated by their employers.
10687  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Why do you all want to take away money from the government? Who will then build on: November 25, 2013, 01:40:53 AM
when money becomes managed by the people not the government, who will build streetlights, roads? who will maintain infrastructure and military? who will save our lives from giving us obamacare?

are you a communist or what?


This is another failed trolling attempt by gabriella and her/his Gabriella's bitcoin death chart (dying because of bitcoin thread). This person does not own and does not believe in bitcoin. That is fine.

Who will save us from Obamacare you meant to say?

Gabriella added to my ignore list.
10688  Other / Politics & Society / US banks warn Fed interest cut could force them to charge depositors on: November 25, 2013, 01:16:03 AM
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b1d409d0-5399-11e3-b425-00144feabdc0.html

Leading US banks have warned that they could start charging companies and consumers for deposits if the US Federal Reserve cuts the interest it pays on bank reserves.
Depositors already have to cope with near-zero interest rates, but paying just to leave money in the bank would be highly unusual and unwelcome for companies and households.
The warning by bank executives highlights the dangers of one strategy the Fed could use to offset an eventual “tapering” of the $85bn a month in asset purchases that have fuelled global financial markets for the last year.

Minutes of the Fed’s October meeting published last week showed it was heading towards a taper in the coming months – perhaps as soon as December – but wants to find a different way to add stimulus at the same time. “Most” officials thought a cut in the interest on bank reserves was an option worth considering.
Executives at two of the top five US banks said a cut in the 0.25 per cent rate of interest on the $2.4tn in reserves they hold at the Fed would lead them to pass on the cost to depositors.
Banks say they may have to charge because taking in deposits is not free: they have to pay premiums of a few basis points to a US government insurance programme.
“Right now you can at least break even from a revenue perspective,” said one executive, adding that a rate cut by the Fed “would turn it into negative revenue – banks would be disincentivised to take deposits and potentially charge for them”.
Other bankers said that a move to negative rates would not only trim margins but could backfire for banks and the system as a whole, as it would incentivise treasury managers to find higher-yielding, riskier assets.
“It’s not as if we are suddenly going to start lending to [small and medium-sized enterprises],” said one. “There really isn’t the level of demand, so the danger is that banks are pushed into riskier assets to find yield.”

The danger of negative rates has deterred the Fed from cutting interest on bank reserves in the past. If it were to do so now, it would most probably expand a new facility that lets banks and money market funds deposit cash at a small, positive interest rate. That should avoid any need for banks to charge depositors.
About half of the reserves come from non-US banks that do not have to pay the deposit insurance fee. Their favourite manoeuvre is to take deposits from money market funds and park them overnight at the Fed, earning millions of dollars risk-free. Cutting the interest on reserves would stop that.
Lowering interest on reserves would also affect money market funds, said Alex Roever, head of US interest rate strategy at JPMorgan.
“[It] would decrease the incentive for those banks to borrow in the money markets, which in turn could leave money market funds short of certain investments and force them to bid up the price of their next best options,” he said.
Richard Gilhooly, strategist at TD Securities, highlighted some benefits to the Fed from the possible cut: “[It] would not only anchor short-term rates near zero, it also stands to boost the profits for the Fed as they pay less interest to banks,” he said.
10689  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Should We Be Concerned With People Like Sarah Meiklejohn Or... on: November 23, 2013, 05:58:46 PM
...Is It Just the Nature Of The Public Blockchain Beast?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/23/heres-who-probably-did-that-massive-150000000-bitcoin-transaction/

[...]
Who was responsible for the transaction? I asked Sarah Meiklejohn, a computer scientist at the University of California, San Diego, for her thoughts. She's the author of a recent paper demonstrating that sophisticated analysis can reveal a lot of information about who is responsible for Bitcoin transactions. She has compiled a large database of Bitcoin addresses tagged with their likely owners.
While she says she can't be sure, Meiklejohn says that that 194,993-bitcoin transaction was probably done by Bitstamp, the world's second-largest exchange for trading dollars for bitcoins:
About half of the transactions sending bitcoins to this 12sENw address between August 29 and November 14 were from addresses we had associated with Bitstamp. This could be true for a lot of reasons (a heavyweight user withdrawing their bitcoins, for example), but there were a few other weird things I saw that made me think otherwise.
For example, a lot of the bitcoins that flowed out of the 12sENw address went to one of two other addresses: 1Drt3c8 and (especially recently) 1HBa5. The former of these addresses we have tagged as Bitstamp, and the latter is often within one hop of a known Bitstamp address (e.g., it has also sent a lot of bitcoins to 1Drt3c8).
So, while a lot of things could explain many bitcoins being received from Bitstamp, it seems like fewer of them could be explained by many bitcoins flowing from Bitstamp and then back to Bitstamp in a small span of time which is what leads me to think this is an internal shuffling of some kind.
Of course, I could also be completely wrong! For example, I should definitely mention that, for the direct transaction of interest, I don't have any of the input addresses tagged (i.e., they might or might not belong to Bitstamp), so that my inferences are really just going on the past behavior of this small handful of addresses.
So this probably isn't a case of one Bitcoin user sending $150 million to another user. Instead, Bitstamp was perhaps reshuffling its own funds, just as a bank might move stacks of $100 bills from one vault to another. Presumably, most of those 194,993 bitcoins belong to Bitstamp users who have deposited them with Bitstamp to facilitate currency exchanges.
I've asked Bitstamp for comment and will update the story if they respond.
10690  Other / Politics & Society / Venezuelan president tries out new emergency powers on: November 22, 2013, 05:57:29 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelan-president-tries-emergency-powers-071959194.html

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro exercised new emergency powers for the first time Thursday, signing decrees limiting business profit margins and tightening regulation of imports.

He acted as part of a so-called “economic war” against a crisis for which he blames the opposition “bourgeoisie” and imperialism.

Under new powers granted to Maduro on Tuesday, the two new laws aim to control prices and profits in the business sector and closely monitor imports and exports and hard currency that comes in from oil sales, Venezuela’s main source of revenue.

Maduro’s government says the business sector has been chalking up profit margins of up to 1,000 percent on imported goods.

The center-right opposition has called a rally for Saturday to protest the emergency powers granted to Maduro, the handpicked successor of the late populist president Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela’s economic woes are marked by inflation running at 54 percent and shortages of basic goods, among other problems.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soon it will be too "expensive" to even buy their oil.
10691  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Norway Will Tax Bitcoin + VAT on: November 22, 2013, 05:04:59 PM
http://e24.no/digital/handler-du-bitcoins-maa-du-ut-med-skatt-og-moms/22639792


(google translate):

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fe24.no%2Fdigital%2Fhandler-du-bitcoins-maa-du-ut-med-skatt-og-moms%2F22639792&act=url

Tax Administration has decided:
If you buy Bitcoins must
with both tax and VAT
Tax Administration has decided that Bitcoins is neither a currency or a financial service. It will turn right into your tax return if you have shopped with online currency.

========================================================

Norway: "All Your Bitcoins are Belong To Us!"


Well, what ya expect from the guys that gave Fuhrer Obama da Nobel Peace Prize?

 Grin Grin
10692  Alternate cryptocurrencies / Altcoin Discussion / Re: [FTC] Free FeatherCoin Giveaway for Everyone! Over 600 coins left to give away! on: November 22, 2013, 03:59:18 AM
712zsN6QM5joHPb64tTFvMyGjDbqS6eNKR

Thank you!  Grin
10693  Bitcoin / Legal / Re: Norway Will Tax Bitcoin + VAT on: November 21, 2013, 09:03:03 PM
so the trick is, to never convert back into krone in any large quantities.

I would believe it is the "trick" all of us in all countries should do, but I guess people are free to go "back"...
10694  Bitcoin / Legal / Norway Will Tax Bitcoin + VAT on: November 21, 2013, 08:47:33 PM
http://e24.no/digital/handler-du-bitcoins-maa-du-ut-med-skatt-og-moms/22639792


(google translate):

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fe24.no%2Fdigital%2Fhandler-du-bitcoins-maa-du-ut-med-skatt-og-moms%2F22639792&act=url

Tax Administration has decided:
If you buy Bitcoins must
with both tax and VAT
Tax Administration has decided that Bitcoins is neither a currency or a financial service. It will turn right into your tax return if you have shopped with online currency.

========================================================

Norway: "All Your Bitcoins are Belong To Us!"

Was posted on politics and society first but.
10695  Other / Politics & Society / Norway Will Tax Bitcoin + VAT on: November 21, 2013, 08:40:12 PM
http://e24.no/digital/handler-du-bitcoins-maa-du-ut-med-skatt-og-moms/22639792


(google translate):

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fe24.no%2Fdigital%2Fhandler-du-bitcoins-maa-du-ut-med-skatt-og-moms%2F22639792&act=url

Tax Administration has decided:
If you buy Bitcoins must
with both tax and VAT
Tax Administration has decided that Bitcoins is neither a currency or a financial service. It will turn right into your tax return if you have shopped with online currency.

========================================================

Norway: "All Your Bitcoins are Belong To Us!"

10696  Other / Politics & Society / Exclusive: Inside America's Plan to Kill Online Privacy Rights Everywhere on: November 21, 2013, 07:10:20 AM
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/11/20/exclusive_inside_americas_plan_to_kill_online_privacy_rights_everywhere

The United States and its key intelligence allies are quietly working behind the scenes to kneecap a mounting movement in the United Nations to promote a universal human right to online privacy, according to diplomatic sources and an internal American government document obtained by The Cable.

The diplomatic battle is playing out in an obscure U.N. General Assembly committee that is considering a proposal by Brazil and Germany to place constraints on unchecked internet surveillance by the National Security Agency and other foreign intelligence services. American representatives have made it clear that they won't tolerate such checks on their global surveillance network. The stakes are high, particularly in Washington -- which is seeking to contain an international backlash against NSA spying -- and in Brasilia, where Brazilian President Dilma Roussef is personally involved in monitoring the U.N. negotiations.

The Brazilian and German initiative seeks to apply the right to privacy, which is enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to online communications. Their proposal, first revealed by The Cable, affirms a "right to privacy that is not to be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with their privacy, family, home, or correspondence." It notes that while public safety may "justify the gathering and protection of certain sensitive information," nations "must ensure full compliance" with international human rights laws. A final version the text is scheduled to be presented to U.N. members on Wednesday evening and the resolution is expected to be adopted next week.
10697  Other / Politics & Society / Re: A black box in your car? Some see a source of tax revenue (In the USA) on: November 21, 2013, 03:03:08 AM
And I though that crazy idea was for our Euro friends only  Sad


http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-roads-black-boxes-20131027,0,6090226.story#axzz2iwNczDu0

The devices would track every mile you drive —possibly including your location — and the government would use the data to draw up a tax bill.

WASHINGTON — As America's road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.

The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America's major roads.

The usually dull arena of highway planning has suddenly spawned intense debate and colorful alliances. Libertarians have joined environmental groups in lobbying to allow government to use the little boxes to keep track of the miles you drive, and possibly where you drive them — then use the information to draw up a tax bill.

The tea party is aghast. The American Civil Liberties Union is deeply concerned, too, raising a variety of privacy issues.

And while Congress can't agree on whether to proceed, several states are not waiting. They are exploring how, over the next decade, they can move to a system in which drivers pay per mile of road they roll over. Thousands of motorists have already taken the black boxes, some of which have GPS monitoring, for a test drive.

"This really is a must for our nation. It is not a matter of something we might choose to do," said Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, which is planning for the state to start tracking miles driven by every California motorist by 2025. "There is going to be a change in how we pay these taxes. The technology is there to do it."

------------------------------------------------------------------

No wonder Elon Musk's concept of the Hyperloop, although open source and cheaper than anything else being built right now, is not going to fly. Government needs its taxes!

http://youtu.be/I8sOxSa3j3g
This looks like something written by Orwell.

Conspiracy theories.
10698  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Where are you on the political compass? on: November 21, 2013, 02:57:43 AM
Anyone who places a serious reply will get their forum name placed on the assassination market. I wish I was only half joking.

If I was for death penalty, I would make not using search a crime punishable by death...

2d matrix with culturally loaded questions isn't still good enough for me...

This reminds me of how people in Europe were viewing the world on maps 20 years before the ''discovery'' of the American continent.
10699  Other / Politics & Society / Venezuela's Congress approves decree powers for Maduro on: November 21, 2013, 02:21:28 AM
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/19/us-venezuela-maduro-powers-idUSBRE9AI16L20131119


Venezuelan lawmakers granted President Nicolas Maduro yearlong decree powers on Tuesday that he says are essential to regulate the economy and stamp out corruption but adversaries view as a thinly veiled power grab.

Hundreds of supporters of the ruling Socialist Party cheered outside the National Assembly as the so-called Enabling Law was passed, while a recording of Maduro’s late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, singing Venezuela’s anthem rang out inside the hall. …

“With this Enabling Law we are following an order by President Chavez,” said Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Assembly and a staunch supporter of Maduro.

“He told us to pass all the laws necessary to wring the necks of the speculators and the money launderers.”
10700  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: When will we have the first homicide/suicide caused by Bitcoin? on: November 20, 2013, 03:24:15 AM
with things going crazy, some people are bound to get hurt.

who will be the first person in history to die from bitcoin?

How about this thread? Bitcoin was involved. This should be on the Gabriella's Bitcoin Chart.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=334461.0
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