Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Nerd News: Adobe CEO "Answering" Questions about Pricing from Australian Parliament
To me this certainly seems like the CEO of Adobe, is evading the question about price gouging, in his response to Australian Parliament.
Via http://www.dailytech.com/Update+Adobe+CEO+Dodges+Questions+on+Overpricing+in+Australia/article29902.htm
Monday, February 11, 2013
Nerd News: Apple, Microsoft and Adobe to face Australian parliament about pricing
Source & full story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21406745# snippet:
The firms have previously made written submissions to the committee but have so far declined to appear in person.
They are now scheduled to appear before the committee on 22 March.
The Australian newspaper quoted Ed Husic, a member of parliament, as saying that according to some estimates the price of some of goods in Australia were as much as 60% higher than in the US
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Nerd News: "Congress members ask FBI to shut down Hamas Twitter account"
http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/24/3685616/congress-members-fbi-hamas-twitter-shut-down-idf
Can't say I have clear thoughts on this whole mess.
But it does remind me, a bit, of a movie called Wag the Dog
.
Can't say I have clear thoughts on this whole mess.
But it does remind me, a bit, of a movie called Wag the Dog
.Thursday, November 15, 2012
Security, Hacking, & Politics: "The Hackers of Damascus"
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-15/the-hackers-of-damascus
Read the whole article, even if it takes you a couple of days, don't TL:DR it!
Read the whole article, even if it takes you a couple of days, don't TL:DR it!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Security & Hacking: "Why David Petraeus’s Gmail account is a national security issue"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/10/why-david-petraeuss-gmail-account-is-a-national-security-issue/
Patraeus was head of CIA until he resigned over this issue. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/david-petraeus-resigns-as-cia-director/2012/11/09/636d204e-2aa8-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_story.html
Not clear to me, but it sounds like Paula Broadwell, the woman who did his Biography & who he was having affair with, had some type of access to his personal Gmail account.
Evidently one of his Gmail contacts got threatening emails from Broadwell, and contacted the FBI over it, and there was some concern that his GMail account had been hacked.
Could have been as simple as staying logged in to account while he was out of room where computer or phone was, while she was there.
Honestly though, as someone interested in Cyber Security, that is that part I am most curious about, though I also wonder about the motives of all the parties involved.
Patraeus was head of CIA until he resigned over this issue. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/david-petraeus-resigns-as-cia-director/2012/11/09/636d204e-2aa8-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_story.html
Not clear to me, but it sounds like Paula Broadwell, the woman who did his Biography & who he was having affair with, had some type of access to his personal Gmail account.
Evidently one of his Gmail contacts got threatening emails from Broadwell, and contacted the FBI over it, and there was some concern that his GMail account had been hacked.
Could have been as simple as staying logged in to account while he was out of room where computer or phone was, while she was there.
Honestly though, as someone interested in Cyber Security, that is that part I am most curious about, though I also wonder about the motives of all the parties involved.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Security & Hacking: "Gary McGraw: Proactive defense prudent alternative to cyberwarfare"
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/2240169976/Gary-McGraw-Proactive-defense-prudent-alternative-to-cyberwarfare
Good, long, article that argues that the US (and I assume this applies equally to other countries) needs to develop much stronger Cyber defenses.
Also questions the utility of offensive Cyber ability, which I agree with, all you really do with that is teach lot of people how to conduct stronger attacks, though reality is politicians will tend to favor Cyber attacks often, because they are "bloodless" and have less negative impact to the politician making the decision than more obvious attacks.
But as this article also points out, with a very nice The Hobbit
(novel) reference, that one of the problems with Cyber attacks, is that it isn't easy, or often even possible, to tell for sure who launched a cyber attack.
So Nations or Groups can attack a country like the US in a way that makes some other country or group the likely suspect (ie like framing someone in a crime drama).
Good, long, article that argues that the US (and I assume this applies equally to other countries) needs to develop much stronger Cyber defenses.
Also questions the utility of offensive Cyber ability, which I agree with, all you really do with that is teach lot of people how to conduct stronger attacks, though reality is politicians will tend to favor Cyber attacks often, because they are "bloodless" and have less negative impact to the politician making the decision than more obvious attacks.
But as this article also points out, with a very nice The Hobbit
(novel) reference, that one of the problems with Cyber attacks, is that it isn't easy, or often even possible, to tell for sure who launched a cyber attack.So Nations or Groups can attack a country like the US in a way that makes some other country or group the likely suspect (ie like framing someone in a crime drama).
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Cool Election News "Youth support drives passage of California tax-hike measure"
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE8A706R20121108?irpc=932
Very Cool story IMO, while I dislike taxes as much as anyone, reality of the situation in California is that they really need to increase the State's cash flow, or they will have to make drastic cuts.
So for one thing, it actually shows people voting for something they need, even if they don't like it.
But it also was result of a lot of young voters, which as general rule in the US tend not to vote very much or very often.
While I don't agree with voting being the most important aspect of democracy, I think that participating and being active in politics is the critical factor, this shows a bunch of people actually being active.
They made a difference as well, so they hopefully will be encouraged to stay active in politics.
I try not to talk politics to much on this blog, other than to encourage people to make their views known to politicians, in a manner fashion.
But I did comment a bit on politics, in the last half of this post http://cliffsesportcorner.blogspot.com/2012/11/nerd-news-election-results-via-google.html
Very Cool story IMO, while I dislike taxes as much as anyone, reality of the situation in California is that they really need to increase the State's cash flow, or they will have to make drastic cuts.
So for one thing, it actually shows people voting for something they need, even if they don't like it.
But it also was result of a lot of young voters, which as general rule in the US tend not to vote very much or very often.
While I don't agree with voting being the most important aspect of democracy, I think that participating and being active in politics is the critical factor, this shows a bunch of people actually being active.
They made a difference as well, so they hopefully will be encouraged to stay active in politics.
I try not to talk politics to much on this blog, other than to encourage people to make their views known to politicians, in a manner fashion.
But I did comment a bit on politics, in the last half of this post http://cliffsesportcorner.blogspot.com/2012/11/nerd-news-election-results-via-google.html
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Nerd News: Election Results Via Google
Edited to add: Like this one a lot (NoScript will block Chrome won't) http://www.politico.com/2012-election/map/#/President/2012/
Link: https://www.google.com/search?q=e%3Bection+results&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US
There are many ways to follow the US Presidential Election, as a Nerd I tend to use Google for a lot of things.
Though I am not following the election closely, this lets me check Presidential, Senate, & Congressional results at a glance, with plenty of more detailed links if I want to drill down.
Though I don't agree with President Obama completely, I have to say of any of the US presidents, of the ones I have been old enough to care about, Obama is my favorite.
Though I am Libertarian, which is not at all the same as Liberal or Democratic Party in the US, though the word sounds similar.
Though I am not actively political now, I was very much so late in High School, and in College.
I ran for and was elected to Student Government in my first two years of college, and was the person on campus that arranged for politicians of all parties to come and speak on campus.
I also attended all of the local press conferences, along with the President/Head Editor of the College paper, for all of the parties in our Town/County.
Not just Republican and Democratic ones, but also Communist, and couple of others that were more like special interest groups than true party.
I had planned to do a few blog posts about Politics over the previous two days, but I have been really sick with Asthma issues, so this single post is all I am planning to do.
Though I might do another one after the election, if I feel a lot of motivation to do so.
Just going to close with a few of my thoughts and observations between Republicans & Democrats here in the US at the Federal level.
[Note: IME State and Local level is a lot different in my experience, I have met Politicians from both parties at the local and state level that I respected.]
For the Republican Presidents, and generally congress members as well, the ones I can really remember tended to really mess up National Economy, usually by removing or weakening a lot of regulations and oversight on Business.
See:
Republican Presidents also seem to like to invade countries, which always involves actually killing many good people on both sides, and completely messing people up as badly as child abuse impacts kids (I know more than a couple of Combat Vets, I have been involved with Criminology, Military History, and Physical Security for a long time, and have worked with and made friends with a lot of Active, Reserve, and Veteran Military people).
They seem to like to invade countries for pretty bad reasons.
See:
Many Republicans also seem to have real difficulty dealing with, to the point of not even admitting there is a real problem that needs addressing, the real world. Thinking of Hurricane Katrina and Global warming specifically here, but there are some other pollution issues as well (see weakened Business Regulation & Oversight above).
Democrat Presidents only do one thing, in general, that I think is comparable to the harm Republicans do, there are lot of things they do that I disagree with on political grounds, but the only pattern I have noticed that objectively harms people, is Democrat Presidents like to appoint very politically or publicity hungry Attorney Generals.
See:
I have a teacher, who I also consider a friend, that was involved in 3 separate cases, as part of the defense team, as an Expert Witness, for people accused of a crime by Janet Reno.
In every case, that the defense team my Teacher/Friend was a part of won, not because of some brilliant work by him or other members of the defense team, but because there was no real case.
But the Attorney General wanted to push the cases for political, personal, or publicity reasons.
For normal people, defending themselves from that kind of legal abuse is financially and emotionally crippling.
Dollar wise it is similar to struggling with a really bad type of cancer.
While the stress and public, working, and even family damage is hard for most people that have not experienced it, or had close friend/family member suffer it, to even conceive.
It will often cost your job, perhaps even your career, because of what employers or clients see you accused of in the news.
Anyway, this is more than a bit late, and I don't want this blog to stray to far from Gaming and Computer related issues.
Though as I have stated before, in connection to SOPA and ACTA, I think politics does and always will impact Gamers and others that use the internet, computers, and related technology.
GL HF,
~Cliff
PS I plan to add links to document the Negative Comments I made about both parties in my comments above, I strive to be clear about things that are a matter of opinion vs things based on observations.
I prefer the word "data" to "facts" since I am a good researcher, with pretensions to being a Scientist, I don't think any Scientist actually believes in facts.
Rather at most, a Scientist uses working Hypothesis, that is continually refined as new verifiable data becomes available.
Though my health is slowing me down a lot though this week, and I felt strongly about blogging this before election is over.
So check back later, or post comment, if your wondering what data some of my comments are based on.
Link: https://www.google.com/search?q=e%3Bection+results&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US
There are many ways to follow the US Presidential Election, as a Nerd I tend to use Google for a lot of things.
Though I am not following the election closely, this lets me check Presidential, Senate, & Congressional results at a glance, with plenty of more detailed links if I want to drill down.
Though I don't agree with President Obama completely, I have to say of any of the US presidents, of the ones I have been old enough to care about, Obama is my favorite.
Though I am Libertarian, which is not at all the same as Liberal or Democratic Party in the US, though the word sounds similar.
Though I am not actively political now, I was very much so late in High School, and in College.
I ran for and was elected to Student Government in my first two years of college, and was the person on campus that arranged for politicians of all parties to come and speak on campus.
I also attended all of the local press conferences, along with the President/Head Editor of the College paper, for all of the parties in our Town/County.
Not just Republican and Democratic ones, but also Communist, and couple of others that were more like special interest groups than true party.
I had planned to do a few blog posts about Politics over the previous two days, but I have been really sick with Asthma issues, so this single post is all I am planning to do.
Though I might do another one after the election, if I feel a lot of motivation to do so.
Just going to close with a few of my thoughts and observations between Republicans & Democrats here in the US at the Federal level.
[Note: IME State and Local level is a lot different in my experience, I have met Politicians from both parties at the local and state level that I respected.]
For the Republican Presidents, and generally congress members as well, the ones I can really remember tended to really mess up National Economy, usually by removing or weakening a lot of regulations and oversight on Business.
See:
- Notes President Name Red=Republican Blue=Democrat; Green Number%=Trend is improving, Red Number%=Getting Worse; Also note when a Pres takes over with Green or Red % from previous Pres, and it changes in one year, especially with "War on Terror" going one (Wars waste money like a drug or gambling addiction) http://www.skymachines.com/US-National-Debt-Per-Capita-Percent-of-GDP-and-by-Presidental-Term.htm
- http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21565623-america-could-do-better-barack-obama-sadly-mitt-romney-does-not-fit-bill-which-one
Republican Presidents also seem to like to invade countries, which always involves actually killing many good people on both sides, and completely messing people up as badly as child abuse impacts kids (I know more than a couple of Combat Vets, I have been involved with Criminology, Military History, and Physical Security for a long time, and have worked with and made friends with a lot of Active, Reserve, and Veteran Military people).
They seem to like to invade countries for pretty bad reasons.
See:
- " Former chief counter-terrorism adviser on the National Security Council Richard A. Clarke believes Bush took office with a predetermined plan to invade Iraq." From interview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq#cite_note-22
- Also Richard Clark's book Against All Enemies
- Joseph Wilson's book Politics of Truth
- Valerie Plame Wilson's book Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House
Many Republicans also seem to have real difficulty dealing with, to the point of not even admitting there is a real problem that needs addressing, the real world. Thinking of Hurricane Katrina and Global warming specifically here, but there are some other pollution issues as well (see weakened Business Regulation & Oversight above).
Democrat Presidents only do one thing, in general, that I think is comparable to the harm Republicans do, there are lot of things they do that I disagree with on political grounds, but the only pattern I have noticed that objectively harms people, is Democrat Presidents like to appoint very politically or publicity hungry Attorney Generals.
See:
- Waco
- Waco Texas incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege
- Bio of Janet Reno
- Online Newspaper article documenting some of the bogus child sexual abuse trials http://www.sptimes.com/2002/04/28/Perspective/Reno_owes_the_public_.shtml
I have a teacher, who I also consider a friend, that was involved in 3 separate cases, as part of the defense team, as an Expert Witness, for people accused of a crime by Janet Reno.
In every case, that the defense team my Teacher/Friend was a part of won, not because of some brilliant work by him or other members of the defense team, but because there was no real case.
But the Attorney General wanted to push the cases for political, personal, or publicity reasons.
For normal people, defending themselves from that kind of legal abuse is financially and emotionally crippling.
Dollar wise it is similar to struggling with a really bad type of cancer.
While the stress and public, working, and even family damage is hard for most people that have not experienced it, or had close friend/family member suffer it, to even conceive.
It will often cost your job, perhaps even your career, because of what employers or clients see you accused of in the news.
Anyway, this is more than a bit late, and I don't want this blog to stray to far from Gaming and Computer related issues.
Though as I have stated before, in connection to SOPA and ACTA, I think politics does and always will impact Gamers and others that use the internet, computers, and related technology.
GL HF,
~Cliff
PS I plan to add links to document the Negative Comments I made about both parties in my comments above, I strive to be clear about things that are a matter of opinion vs things based on observations.
I prefer the word "data" to "facts" since I am a good researcher, with pretensions to being a Scientist, I don't think any Scientist actually believes in facts.
Rather at most, a Scientist uses working Hypothesis, that is continually refined as new verifiable data becomes available.
Though my health is slowing me down a lot though this week, and I felt strongly about blogging this before election is over.
So check back later, or post comment, if your wondering what data some of my comments are based on.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Nerd News: Gamer in Politics, Demonized for playing World of Warcraft (WoW)
I Tweeted about this yesterday, http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/10/candidate-for-maine-state-senate-attacked-for-warcraft-character/
Here is link to Republican Flyer attacker her https://www.mainegop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Lachowicz-2.jpg
I have uploaded and inserted it below, in case it "disappears" from the link, since this was a political flyer pretty sure I should be able to reproduce the image for comment! [The image is also on the Ars site.]
Today Colleen Lachowicz has responded http://www.colleenlachowicz.com/?p=106
Lots of things bother me about the Republican flyer.
First of all, that IS my world, Esports & Gaming!
If the Republicans, who paid for and wrote this flyer, took any time to learn about Gamers & gaming, instead of viewing people through the eyes of a bigot, they might actually realize what kind of message they are sending.
But then perhaps they do realize what kind of message they are sending? They spent money and time on it after all.
Also, they don't have a clue about DPS?!? That is Damage Per Second as anyone that even Googled it would know, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damage_per_second
For those that don't know, the use of Brackets ie "[]" inside the quotation means it was inserted by the person doing the flyer, not from the original comment.
See these links on Brackets and Grammer for more detail:
Do you want people that limited in research skills or knowledge to be making laws?
Especially when they hate other people for just being different from their group?
Here is link to Republican Flyer attacker her https://www.mainegop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Lachowicz-2.jpg
I have uploaded and inserted it below, in case it "disappears" from the link, since this was a political flyer pretty sure I should be able to reproduce the image for comment! [The image is also on the Ars site.]
Today Colleen Lachowicz has responded http://www.colleenlachowicz.com/?p=106
Lots of things bother me about the Republican flyer.
First of all, that IS my world, Esports & Gaming!
If the Republicans, who paid for and wrote this flyer, took any time to learn about Gamers & gaming, instead of viewing people through the eyes of a bigot, they might actually realize what kind of message they are sending.
But then perhaps they do realize what kind of message they are sending? They spent money and time on it after all.
Also, they don't have a clue about DPS?!? That is Damage Per Second as anyone that even Googled it would know, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damage_per_second
For those that don't know, the use of Brackets ie "[]" inside the quotation means it was inserted by the person doing the flyer, not from the original comment.
See these links on Brackets and Grammer for more detail:
- http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/bracket.htm
- http://www2.ivcc.edu/rambo/eng1001/quotes2.htm
Do you want people that limited in research skills or knowledge to be making laws?
Especially when they hate other people for just being different from their group?
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