08 Dec 2014 | the stand
Riots are about power, and they are about catharsis. They are not about poor parenting, or youth services being cut, or any of the other snap explanations that media pundits have been trotting out: structural inequalities, as a friend of mine remarked today, are not solved by a few pool tables. People riot because it makes them feel powerful, even if only for a night.
As nation-state malware becomes more common, we will often lack the whole story. And as long as countries are battling it out in cyberspace, some of us will be targets and the rest of us might be unlucky enough to be sitting in the blast radius.
08 Dec 2014 | privacy
Mikko Hypponen, quoting Dilma Rousseff:
If there is no right to privacy, there can be no true freedom of expression and opinion, and therefore, there can be no effective democracy.
Defcon, “Breaking Bad” rocket scientist:
We are in a position to teach an incredibly valuable life skill for this buyer community: Always encrypt… we are doing this more for buyers’ sake than vendors’ sake. PGP encryption teaches users to never enter their address on ANY darknet site, which greatly decreases LE’s ability to set up honeypots.
It was the strategy of the poor and the desperate, of thieves and thugs. He turned his head, and they reached out, and took his things.
06 Nov 2014 | burnout
I wasn’t sure anymore. And I was even less sure that I cared, which was actually both the strangest and most terrifying part of the whole ordeal.
If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy I could have won
17 Oct 2014 | apple
John Siracusa’s 26,485 words OS X 10.10 Yosemite: The Ars Technica Review:
In Yosemite, as in life, think carefully before starting a family.
When Apple says Swift aims to be “as expressive and enjoyable as a scripting language,” it’s not joking. A text file containing the code below will run as expected.
#!/usr/bin/swift
println("Are you not entertained!?")
09 Oct 2014 | physics
The Bible teaches us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.
Look, if I wanted you to remember that God created everything, I’d probably tell you a story about it happening in seven days. Like, that doesn’t actually mean that it happened in seven days. It just means that I wanted you to remember that God created everything.
[via TheTweetOfGod]
07 Jul 2014 | the stand
It is pleasant to watch from the land the great struggle of someone else in a sea rendered great by turbulent winds.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
But in 2014 context means basically nil, anyway. Every time I say something online, there’s a significant chance it will either be interpreted by committee on Twitter, or stumbled over by post-lobotomy brand managers.
I was a C student because I was (and am) a slacker and lacked the self-discipline to do better, not because it’s the smartest path to take. Performing better opens more doors.
Here’s the way life works. You suck it up, you do your work, you get your diploma, and that little piece of paper tells every other person who wanted to quit high school, that you can follow through and finish something.
Steel identifies what he calls two faulty beliefs: first, that life should be easy, and second, that our self-worth is dependent on our success.
20 Jun 2014 | lykke li
It’s good to embrace your shadow, but you can’t paint a lifelike picture using only shades of grey.
Somewhere along the line, I am learning that what gives my guy happiness is not necessarily the same as what gives me happiness.
After a while you learn
that even sunshine burns
if you get too much
so you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone
to bring you flowers.
What is true freedom? To demand nothing from others, and to have nothing demanded from you. Her panties were red. This is not information you require.
The less I know about other people’s affairs, the happier I am.
Tina Dickow, On The Run:
Everybody’s gotta end up somewhere
I’m just taking my time to get there
And it looks like freedom and it smells like fun
But it feels like being on the run
That’s your dream. Knowing what you want is half the battle. Most people go through their whole lives not knowing what they want. It’s easy to find if you know what you’re looking for.
Also, Anon works IT.