abaddon wrote:
] Acidus wrote:
] ] ] But CrimeThinc continued to ask attendees to deface the
] ] ] Republican National Committee Web sites, to launch denial
] ] ] of service attacks against their servers, to harass
] ] ] delegates in the street, to prevent buses carrying
] ] ] delegates from running, and so on. "By any means
] ] ] necessary," he said.
] ]
] ] This is not hacking, this isn't protesting, this is anarchy,
] ] and these jackasses deserve the brutality they get.
]
] I agree, its one thing to protest, its something entirely
] different to try to fight for your rights, like free assembly,
] and free speech by denying people at the RNC those exact same
] rights...
]
] as far as I'm conserned if your free assembly and free speech
] turns into anarchy designed to limit the free speech and free
] assembly of others then you are not helping the fight for
] freedom...
]
] the real thing these people are fighting for isn't freedom,
] they have it, and they would have republicans striped of those
] same freedoms because they dont agree with republican
] politics...no what they're really after is a totalitarian
] society that they themselves control, where they can deside
] who has rights and who doesnt...
]
] we dont live in that society yet, and until we do these people
] have no place telling the republicans, or anyone for that
] matter which rights they have, and which rights they have to
] give up...
  . . .
] --Abaddon

(applauds!) Well said, Abaddon. :)

RE: CrimeThinc @ Defcon: Cause chaos at the RNC (dumb idea)

Normally this is on the efga.org site, but that domain appears to be having problems, so the schedule is up on the aprr.org site instead this year.

DragonCon: Electronic Frontiers Forums: 2004 Program Schedule

Rattle wrote:
] On CNN there was some guy yelling about balloons the entire
] time after the Kerry acceptance speech. "Keep coming
] baloons, No confetti yet, Alright go balloons. All baloons.
] Come on guys lets move it, Jesus, we need more balloons. God
] damnit. Go confetti. I want more balloons. What happened to
] all the balloons. What's happening balloons there aren't. What
] the fuck are you guys doing up there? We want more baloons
] coming down, more baloons." It went on for at least a
] good three or four minutes. Unbelievable. Update: It
] was the director of the DNC..

I watched Kerry's speech and the balloon debacle from the CNN monitors at the airport, while I was traveling to Def Con. It had me and some others in the waiting area laughing out loud.

Regarding Kerry's speech, I tried to listen to it with an open mind. He did have a couple good lines, like "The future belongs to freedom, not to fear." However, many of the slams he took at Bush made me uncomfortable, or were just so completely illogical as to sound bizarre. For example, when Kerry was saying that we needed a President who could back up words with action... Huh? Who the hell can possibly claim that Bush is an action-less President? It's his actions that have been causing all the controversy!

Anyway, the balloon stuff at the end was hilarious. It made me wonder if the headlines about Kerry's speech the next day, instead of bannering, "Kerry says the future belongs to freedom" would be "Where are the damn balloons??" Heh.

I also wonder if any of the political cartoonists picked up on it. Especially since one of Kerry's recurring mottos is "Help is on the way", there'd be a great cartoon there with the balloons all stuck in a net, and a handiman coming up with a pair of scissors: "Help is on the way." ;)

CNN: Kerry and the Balloons

] "Twelve years ago, a unique gathering of hackers, law
] enforcement, lawyers, civil libertarians, and journalists
] was born. That subversive gathering has evolved into a
] subversive institution," said Dark Tangent, founder of
] DEFCON. "People that were considered threats when we
] started are now considered assets protecting critical
] infrastructure worldwide. I'm very pleased at DEFCON's
] evolution and am excited to have what I consider the best
] selection and quantity of speakers ever assembled at an
] event of its kind."
]
] This year's event will debut more new technical material
] than ever before. Significant exploits will be revealed,
] new freeware releases will be demonstrated, and new
] research will be presented.

This is an article from a German site that's promoting Def Con. Again, my Kryptos talk is listed as one of the more interesting talks, which still has me jazzed and flattered. ;) I also completely agree with the top-billed talk, "Quantum Hacking", by Richard Thieme. He's an *amazing* speaker, and I'm very much looking forward to his talk.

IT-SecCity - DEFCON: One-Hundred Leading Hackers to Present New Material to Their Peers

] The bill has been finalised for DEFCON, the largest
] hacker gathering in the world, which kicks off this
] weekend. In between frightening the locals, strong-arming
] the one-arm bandits and defacing each other's websites
] conference delegates can look forward to an interesting
] array of talks.
]
] Highlights include a session on quantum hacking, a
] presentation about cracking the CIA's Kryptos
] Sculpture (an artwork containing encoded messages which
] lives in a courtyard at CIA Headquarters) and another on
] home-brew mind machines (is Professor Charles Xavier in
] attendance?).

Whoo, my Kryptos talk is listed as one of the highlights of Def Con? I am astonishingly flattered. :)

The Register: Vegas braces for DEFCON

] A new hostage crisis erupted in Iraq Wednesday just a day
] after a kidnapped Filipino was freed, with guerrillas
] saying they had seized three Indians, two Kenyans and an
] Egyptian and threatening to kill them one by one.
]
] In video footage given to Arabic satellite channel Al
] Arabiya, masked gunmen said they would behead the
] captives unless the Kuwaiti company they worked for
] pulled out of Iraq.
]
] "We announce we have captured two Kenyans, three Indians
] and one Egyptian. We tell the company to withdraw and
] close its offices in Iraq," said one of the masked men,
] from a group calling itself the "Black Banners."
]
] The guerrillas also demanded that India, Kenya and Egypt
] withdraw their citizens from Iraq. None of the three
] countries are part of the U.S.-led military coalition in
] Iraq but many of their nationals work as drivers and
] contractors.

(sigh)

I am happy for the Filipino hostage who was released, and I rejoice for his family, even as at the same time I still believe that the Philippine government made the wrong decision. All that it did was to reinforce to the Iraqi criminal element that hostages have value. It has taught them that it's more powerful to capture someone and drag things out through the media, making threats, and occasionally beheading someone, than it is to simply shoot someone on the street.

Where does it stop? As absurd as it sounds, will people in the tech scene start adopting these tactics? Kidnap a software executive and threaten to execute him unless the RIAA changes its policies? Display an image of a blindfolded Microsoft employee on a website and demand that the company shut down?

The Philippines set a terrifying example, and I despair about where this is going to lead. :/

Another Iraq Hostage Crisis

] There's a new security threat at some of the nation's
] military bases -- and it looks uncannily like a can
] of Coke. Specially rigged Coke cans, part of a summer
] promotion, contain cell phones and global positioning
] chips.

When I first heard this, I thought, "Yeah sure, another hoax." But it's real, and is even covered on the official Coke site, which links to:
http://www.unexpectedsummer.com/lowband.html

Not an Urban Legend: Coke Cans with GPS chips

] The Philippines' hasty exit from Iraq to meet the demands
] of terrorists threatening to behead a Filipino contract
] worker held hostage received near universal condemnation
] in the world press this week.

I'm reminded of the quote by Winston Churchill:

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

Feeding the Crocodile: Why Manila Caved to Terrorist Demands

I saw a sneak preview of this movie last night. The reviews that I'd seen ahead of time were not that great, but walking out of the movie, I wondered if the reviewers must have seen something different than I did. The movie I saw was absolutely amazing. It's also one of those rare films that I can't wait to see a second time.

As a quick summary, this film is a biography of the songwriter Cole Porter. It stars Ashley Judd and Kevin Kline (and I think they should *both* be nominated for Oscars), and covers decades of Porter's life, with song and dance and comedy and drama. All through the movie there'd be familiar music and I'd get that dawning realization of, "wow, Porter wrote that one too??" And through the many nightclub scenes, with different singers on stage, I'd peer at the singer because though they were dressed in styles from many decades ago, they'd look vaguely familiar, and then there'd be a shock of recognition as I figured out which modern singer that they really were: "Wow, that's Alanis Morissette! OMG, that's Elvis Costello. Hey, that's Sheryl Crow!" and so on.

If you *don't* like musicals or song and dance numbers, you may not care for this movie. But if you've enjoyed films such as "All That Jazz", "That's Entertainment", "Chicago", "Evita", or "A Chorus Line", you will probably love this one too. Any time I'm at a party from now on, and someone wants to pop in a video or DVD, I'm going to ask for this one.

Update: One of the recent reviewers who *did* like it is Roger Ebert. Here's his review: http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert1/wkp-news-delovely02f.html

Movie Review: 'De-lovely '

] Water owes its intrinsic blueness to selective absorption
] in the red part of its visible spectrum.

An interesting link that was sent to me by someone who was intrigued by my Antarctic webpage on "Why are icebergs blue?"

Why is water blue?