The NSA is reportedly able to access offline computers thanks to radio wave tech

[Wilikon]

It seems like we (as a society) haven't taken any steps to defund the NSA... maybe that's just a utopian fantasy anyways.

Republicans would never let that happen!

Democrap GOP lawmakers demand FCC make proposed Internet regs public


Leaders in Congress want the public to see new net neutrality regulations before they become law.

Currently, people aren't expected to see the Federal Communications Commission's new regulations for Internet service providers such as Comcast until the agency's five commissioners vote on them on Feb. 26.

That’s concerning for Republicans leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees, especially since the regulations are expected to exert bold authority over the Web by reclassifying Internet service to treat it like a utility.
“Given the significance of the matter and the strong public participation in the commission’s proceeding to date, we believe the public and industry stakeholders alike should have the opportunity to review the text of any proposed order or rules prior to commission action,” Senate committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.), House committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) — the head of the House Communications Subcommittee — said in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday.

“Limited access to information is beneficial to no one — not to the consumers directly affected by commission action, not to the industries regulated by the rules and not to the commissioners seeking to make information decisions taking public feedback into consideration," they added.

The FCC almost never releases the text of its regulations before the agency’s five commissioners vote on them during open meetings. Wheeler does have the power to release them ahead of time, however, which the lawmakers point out.

They told Wheeler that releasing the text of the new rules would make sense now, given the nearly 4 million public comments on the FCC’s rule-making process — far and away an agency record.  

An FCC spokeswoman, Kim Hart, said that the commission had received the letter and was reviewing it.


http://thehill.com/policy/technology/230507-lawmakers-demand-feds-release-web-rules-before-vote


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

Thank god someone is trying to be more transparent to the public.

Do not thank him too fast yet. Remember when 0bama was against the NSA, against war, against booosh and the way he was bypassing congress? Remember how booosh used to love capitalism until he needed to print out money to save it?

I love to poke liberals here but no politician is a savior, D or R...

[grendel25]

We'll always be able to see as big or little or detailed as our technology allows.  People think they found the smallest particle when they discovered the quark and now they are sure they have it with higgs boson but they will again measure something even smaller.  The only true singularity will be when we can solve all problems with the technology we have and that will be known as the technological singularity.  But even that will just be the beginning of a huge frontier of technological advancement.  There is no singularity.  Life, death, light, dark, and everything here there everywhere and inbetween is infinite.

[Wilikon]

To defeat this, buy your PC for cash and carry out of Walmart, they're not likely putting extra transmitters into every cheap consumer grade PC... And just to be sure,  if you're dealing with sensitive info ,use Faraday cages/screening...

A full computer in the cloud, based on a maidsafe, ethereum like system maybe the future. Adobe is already pushing for a full photoshop app in the browser. I understand we have to wait a while for this to happen of course.

Life, consciousness, always finds a way...


http://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/2gjkje/we_are_forking_ethereum_ibm/

[Wilikon]

It's clear now that we need open-source hardware as much as we need open-source software. In the future we'll use something like Maidsafe as internet, with open-source routers independent from ISP, with open-source CPU's motherboards and GPUs, potentially even 3d printed at home.

Then maybe, maybe we can talk about privacy.

Completely open source, high-end laptop gets closer to reality


f you've wanted a laptop where all the software is free and open source (FOSS), you've usually had to settle for mediocre hardware. Even FOSS champion Richard Stallman is making do with a ThinkPad that's several years old. At last, though, it looks like you won't have to compromise your ideology for the sake of keeping up with the Joneses. Purism has successfully crowdfunded the Librem 15, a portable PC that combines modern parts (such as a 3.4GHz Core i7 and an optional 4K display) with software that's accessible from head to toe. The operating system (a variant of Trisquel GNU/Linux), hardware drivers and included apps are all free and open -- Purism is even trying to loosen up the BIOS and firmware.

There's still some time (as I write this) to make a pledge and set aside a Librem 15 for yourself ahead of the planned April 2015 launch, although it's here that you'll find out that software freedom can be very expensive. Get in on the "earlier bird" special tier and you'll pay $1,649 for a system with just 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, a read-only DVD drive and a 1080p screen -- it's easy to get a closed source Mac or Windows PC with better memory and storage at a similar price. And while a release is theoretically close at hand, it's often an uphill battle to get completely open computers to market. Even the Novena project, which got its hardware funding last spring, is trickling out just a few of its finished PCs. If you absolutely refuse to run proprietary software, though, you'll at least want to give the Librem a look.


http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/25/purism-librem-15-funded/

[Rishblitz]

It seems like we (as a society) haven't taken any steps to defund the NSA... maybe that's just a utopian fantasy anyways.

Republicans would never let that happen!

Democrap GOP lawmakers demand FCC make proposed Internet regs public


Leaders in Congress want the public to see new net neutrality regulations before they become law.

Currently, people aren't expected to see the Federal Communications Commission's new regulations for Internet service providers such as Comcast until the agency's five commissioners vote on them on Feb. 26.

That’s concerning for Republicans leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees, especially since the regulations are expected to exert bold authority over the Web by reclassifying Internet service to treat it like a utility.
“Given the significance of the matter and the strong public participation in the commission’s proceeding to date, we believe the public and industry stakeholders alike should have the opportunity to review the text of any proposed order or rules prior to commission action,” Senate committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.), House committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) — the head of the House Communications Subcommittee — said in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday.

“Limited access to information is beneficial to no one — not to the consumers directly affected by commission action, not to the industries regulated by the rules and not to the commissioners seeking to make information decisions taking public feedback into consideration," they added.

The FCC almost never releases the text of its regulations before the agency’s five commissioners vote on them during open meetings. Wheeler does have the power to release them ahead of time, however, which the lawmakers point out.

They told Wheeler that releasing the text of the new rules would make sense now, given the nearly 4 million public comments on the FCC’s rule-making process — far and away an agency record.  

An FCC spokeswoman, Kim Hart, said that the commission had received the letter and was reviewing it.


http://thehill.com/policy/technology/230507-lawmakers-demand-feds-release-web-rules-before-vote


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

Thank god someone is trying to be more transparent to the public.

Do not thank him too fast yet. Remember when 0bama was against the NSA, against war, against booosh and the way he was bypassing congress? Remember how booosh used to love capitalism until he needed to print out money to save it?

I love to poke liberals here but no politician is a savior, D or R...

that's what the third position for. Go fascism.

[Rishblitz]

It seems like we (as a society) haven't taken any steps to defund the NSA... maybe that's just a utopian fantasy anyways.

Republicans would never let that happen!

Democrats had 2 years to put a bill though against the NSA.

[Wilikon]

It seems like we (as a society) haven't taken any steps to defund the NSA... maybe that's just a utopian fantasy anyways.

Republicans would never let that happen!

Democrats had 2 years to put a bill though against the NSA.

That is true. How come liberals always forget that little details. I even forgot myself

[jaysabi]

It seems like we (as a society) haven't taken any steps to defund the NSA... maybe that's just a utopian fantasy anyways.

Republicans would never let that happen!

Democrats had 2 years to put a bill though against the NSA.

Yes, but between the two parties, the democrats are the party that will fail to change anything, and the republicans are the party that will outright block reform.

Feinstein (D) is one of the biggest NSA apologists in Congress, but as a rule, republicans are the party that gets most ornery and pulls out the 'soft on terrorism' bs whenever anyone talks about curtailing the excessive reaches of the NSA or CIA. There are plenty of democrats who defend the NSA as well, but of the two parties, republicans are the ones who will obstruct reform. Dick Cheney, who isn't even a member of the government anymore, recently made the rounds on the talk shows trumping up the case for how much we need the NSA and CIA to know everything about everybody, and how public oversight is a national security threat. Hell, the republican party had a tantrum when the (bipartisan) Senate torture report was released!

[Wilikon]

It seems like we (as a society) haven't taken any steps to defund the NSA... maybe that's just a utopian fantasy anyways.

Republicans would never let that happen!

Democrats had 2 years to put a bill though against the NSA.

Yes, but between the two parties, the democrats are the party that will fail to change anything, and the republicans are the party that will outright block reform.

Feinstein (D) is one of the biggest NSA apologists in Congress, but as a rule, republicans are the party that gets most ornery and pulls out the 'soft on terrorism' bs whenever anyone talks about curtailing the excessive reaches of the NSA or CIA. There are plenty of democrats who defend the NSA as well, but of the two parties, republicans are the ones who will obstruct reform. Dick Cheney, who isn't even a member of the government anymore, recently made the rounds on the talk shows trumping up the case for how much we need the NSA and CIA to know everything about everybody, and how public oversight is a national security threat. Hell, the republican party had a tantrum when the (bipartisan) Senate torture report was released!

Yeah. That torture report. It was pretty funny when pelosi said she knew nothing about it (the water boarding part)

[jaysabi]

Pelosi is the face of evil.

[Wilikon]

Pelosi is the face of evil.

That is why I like this forum. No matter what 'we' can always agree on something