by frog
Published in THE ISSUES by frog on Wed, November 3rd, 2010
Tags: general debate
General debate, November 3, 2010
Published: November 3, 2010
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Please use 
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
http://whoar.co.nz/2010/whether-prop-19-passes-or-not-legalization-is-now-mainstream/
“…But win or lose this time, a page in history has turned — drug policy reform is an issue who time has come, and time is on our side.
California’s Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization “Tax and Regulate” initiative, has been a roller coaster ride for drug policy reformers.
In May polls showed Prop 19 in the lead, but not by much and with support under 50%.
For the next four months, the numbers did something we didn’t expect; opposition to the measure steadily decreased.
One pollster interviewed in early October for my organization’s newsletter, commented, “If I was in Las Vegas and I was a betting man, I’d bet on [Prop 19] to win, but I’d only bet money I could afford to lose.”
A number of funders took that bet last month, adding steam to what had been a mostly low-profile campaign.
The last few weeks have seen support for Prop 19 fall in most polls, a phenomenon common to controversial ballot measures.
Voters might support the general concept of an initiative — west coast support for marijuana legalization polled at 58% last week — but some inevitably develop doubts about a given initiative at a given time, especially as opponents raise questions, and when uncertain tend pull the “no” lever.
If Prop 19 is defeated, that will be the reason, not opposition in principle to legalization.
But defeat is not inevitable.
Last-minute donations funding an ad blitz, and extensive voter turnout efforts, could make the difference, and the campaign has pointed out that polling conducted by computer rather than live interviewers still shows the initiative ahead.
One late poll, while showing the initiative behind, also found voters who don’t usually turn out for midterm elections coming out for Prop 19.
If the marijuana vote can change turnout demographics tomorrow, that could make the difference too.
Win or lose, though, in a sense Prop 19 has already won.
A partial listing of mainstream organizations that have publicly called for marijuana legalization for the first time by endorsing Prop 19 …
… shows that legalization can no longer credibly be dismissed as from the fringe:…” (cont..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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It was a rand slide here in the US last night
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Sorry for raising this issue again, but I suspect my previous post on it got lost in a flood of much more interesting posts.
The question is: is it possible for this blog to be hosted on an https server? The reason is that when we log in, our user names and passwords are sent in clear text, and can easily be read by anyone who has access to the network between the originating computer and frogblog’s server. This is probably not a major problem for most people, most of the time. However, I often access the blog using Tor ( http://www.torproject.org/ ), and one of the serious concerns with this is that there probably are malicious exit nodes which capture clear text user names and passwords. Putting the blog on an https server would solve this problem.
ps. If you wonder why I’m using Tor, its mainly because its a cool thing, plus I’m a little bit paranoid
Here in Australia the government keeps raising the possibility of filtering Internet traffic, so my natural reaction is to make it as hard as possible for them to (a) read my private network traffic and (b) even if they can read it, know where it comes from.
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Canada surprises people again:
“REDNECK” CALGARY ELECTS LIBERAL MUSLIM ACADEMIC MAYOR: WORLD DOESN’T END
http://www.newgeography.com/content/001847-“redneck”-calgary-elects-liberal-muslim-academic-mayor-world-doesn’t-end
On the other hand:
From The Gates of Vienna…
The Iranian “adulteress” who was sentenced to death by stoning and then reprieved will die tomorrow. The regime announced that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani will be executed by hanging on Wednesday, November 3.
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/
Where is the outrage here?
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Technically feasible of course… just unusual Samiuela, not sure what the demand would be.
Most likely the No Such Agency is watching everything that goes through the Greens. So paranoia isn’t entirely misplaced… but I don’t reckon to do much about it anywhere anytime soon. If I want privacy I send someone my key… but for minding the traffic, places I go, things I see?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbNigWsJN4A
respectfully
BJ
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BJ,
Setting up an https server is trivial (at least it is with apache). Organisations dealing with money do it all the time. Even Gmail has the option. I’ve even set one up from my home machine for fun; it took about 20 minutes of extra configuration (over and above setting up the http server). Admittedly I signed my certificates myself, which isn’t ideal.
The main concern I have is that I often access the site via a network which is known/highly suspected to have malicious exit nodes which do capture passwords and user names.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26743.htm
“This is not to say Parliamentary politics is meaningless. They have one meaning now: the replacement of democracy by a business plan for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope, every child born”.
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We were hijacking the sustainability thread so I have put this here.
Owen. No. problems with boats are not strictly comparable with problems with houses, as houses are a necessity.
Dodgy and un accountable practices occur in both houses and boats however.
I’ve seen many examples of expensive traps for subsequent owners while renovating both. Often it is the owner who wants to cut corners, because they know they will have sold long before the effects become known.
The worst examples are when an owner has done a patch up job.
There are cases though, where boat builders knowingly use inferior workmanship and materials to cut costs.
NZ boat builders are generally good. I suspect at least in part, because NZ boat owners tend to be pretty knowledgeable. House owners generally know a lot less about building than they think.
I’ve seen I well known designer get away with underestimating a boats displacement by 50% (Cost the owner 60k to rebuild) and repaired many imported boats which, unlike most NZ built boats, are designed and engineered for a limited life.
Builders should be accountable in the same way as electricians and plumbers. I.e. All builders should be qualified and registered. They can sign off their own work, but lose their registration if they are shown to be careless. All should have to offer a guarentee. Dodgy ones will get sorted by the insurance companies. Note insurance companies cut the “Masterbuilders” guarantee from 10 to 7 years after excessive claims. (Unlike certified builders, “Master builders” do not have to be qualified)
No way should owners be allowed to do anything that cannot be inspected instantly by a new buyer. Many of the jobs I have seen done by owners are downright dangerous if not needing costly remediation down the track.
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Yes, we generally agree.
The point about boats is that people do not normally buy an expensive boat without an inspection by a marine surveyor. (Sorry forgot the proper term – Blenheimers’ Disease). Just as most people do not buy an expensive car without an AA or similar survey. The” Equivalence” I had in mind was equivalence in price. A 500,000 boat will normally be subject to insurance and guarantees etc and yet a house is presumed to be guaranteed by the Council permit process – for ever.
In most overseas jurisdictions you would not think of buying an existing house without a Survey by a registered building surveyor, at a price commensurate with the cost and the risks you want to cover.
This of course is because in most countries many buildings were built long before any permit process was in existence.
I do believe that people should have the choice to use an unregistered builder on a builder/buyer beware basis just as one can buy a car on an as is where is basis just to stop exploitation of a licence monopoly.
Home handymen should also be catered for.
But we have to recognise that we cannot regulate for perfection and if we carry on down the present route we will soon have to build two houses on site – one to live in and one for the inspection army.
Insurance remains the best way to manage risk. The real problem with the Government “guarantee” is that Governments are even more skilled than companies at dodging their responsibilities, usually pointing the finger in three or four different directions at once.
The Canadians have an excellent permit/insurance/guarantee system which we should pick up here.
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Samiuela – I work with Federated Shibboleth and all manner of servers (except IIS) and https is definitely the smallest part of the issue.
The real issue is persuading Rimu to go to the trouble of setting something up for just one person and the question of whether that is permitted for a sort-of-official blog maintained by the party. Which is why I said technically feasible but unusual.
BJ
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“I do believe that people should have the choice to use an unregistered builder on a builder/buyer beware basis just as one can buy a car on an as is where is basis just to stop exploitation of a licence monopoly.
Home handymen should also be catered for.”
I do not agree with this as the present owner saves on costs which are usually visited on the subsequent one.
The problem with home handymen is most are not.
A licensed monopoly is considered acceptable for lawyers and accountants. There is just as much reason to ensure builders are properly qualified and licensed. What you have to do is stop a big company from using one licensed builder and more barely skilled labourers than they can supervise..
“We cannot regulate for perfection” That is why we should put the responsibility here it belongs. You also have to pay enough for people to assume that responsibility, but doing it right is always cheaper in the ling term.
The 90′s lack of regulation and responsibility is going to cost us all megabucks.
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But if you have a proper survey guarantee system in place any unpermitted work by a handyman will show up on the LIM or in the survey.
I am proposing a move towards buyer beware and the present dependence on perfect certifiers and inspectors who frankly can not do the job properly without living on the site.
I am an architect and have employed many builders and tradesmen on labour only contracts and soon get to know who know their stuff. I do not look forward to having to pay the “licensed” builder who swings through to site to sign paper and then moves on to the next job and charges an arm and a leg for the privilege.
What we did in the 90s was remove the already dilute level of responsibility and at the same time set up a planning regime that rewarded the irresponsible.
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The licensed builder should have to actually do the job. If you have to pay more, to have someone who has gone to the time and expense to learn how to do his job properly, that is how it should be.
An architect should appreciate that, Especially as your association/Union has been trying to exclude builders from design work.
Even though architects, in my experience, add a lot of expense to the customer without doing anything a good builder couldn’t do.
Buyer beware does not work because buyers do not have sufficient knowledge. A lot of cheap fudges, are not visible even to an experienced builder surveyor after the house is built.
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Kerry
I never became registered because I disapprove of the attempt to co-opt the common English language word “architect.”
I believe in freedom of association. The owner should be able to chose whoever they like to do their design and may the best designer win.
I am not sure about your faith in good builders. I find I have go check floor plates for square and even though I work to a module and with very careful dimensional detgailing I still many builders just put the window opening somewhere in the wall and ignore the fact thay my rafters as designed actually line up on the mid point between the jambs. And as for brickies! My fireplace bricks are numbered but unless I stand there they just build a wall.
I agree that this is the present situation but we do not have an established profession of building surveying.
And if the surveyor misses something then they (or their insurance company) are liable.
YOu cannot reverse decades of bad practise overnight. But we have to start somewhere.
The move from skill based consenting to rule based permitting has been one of the great failed experiments of the last several decades. The medical profession is about the only one to avoid it.
Imagine if you went to your GP and met your new GP who explained he had just retired from school teaching but has the latest rule book from the DHB and will work through the diagnosis and treatment from the book of rules.
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Where I differ is I believe the builder, designer person in charge of the project should be personally responsible for his own work.
If he stuffs up and loses his registration or the insurance companies will not cover him any more then he deservedly loses his job and has to pay for remediation.
Having more people in the loop such as Architects, inspectors and surveyors just allows people to dodge responsibility.
I do not believe the many developers who employed cheap architects and labourers instead of builders and used substandard material, encouraged by the material suppliers, should have been allowed to escape personal liability.
At least with a qualification you know to expect a certain minimum level of skill. I would not allow a Doctor near me unless they had an MD from a reputable school and I would not allow someone near my house unless he could demonstrate the appropriate qualifications and experience.
Sure they are a little more expensive, but you get what you pay for. With houses it is often an owner several years down the road who has to wear the cost of substandard work. They should be protected by regulation.
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I disapprove of the “Master builders” pinching the term Master. It describes a time served and fully qualified trades person. Many “Master builders” are not as you can join simply by paying a fee. No qualifications required..
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Laugh as people lose the plot over Celia biking to the airport to meet Hillary Clinton – read the comments on this article http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4306362/NZ-signs-new-strategic-partnership-with-US
Bizarre. As if Clinton would be sitting there watching the cars people arrive in! I bet she didn’t even know Celia came on her bike.
What could explain such an irrational over-reaction to a single line in a long article about something completely different?
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BJ,
Fair enough. I wouldn’t want a feature just for myself; if I was a system administrator I would balk at turning on a feature for just one user (unless it was myself
) I can mostly avert the security problem I mentioned by just using the “normal” network instead of Tor (although sending passwords as plain text is still a little bit of an issue as far as I’m concerned … but maybe I’m just too paranoid).
There are however interesting issues about privacy on the Internet. One would think a political blog, especially one which is moderated, is exactly the sort of place where one would like to assure users that their posts will not be intercepted or traced. Its about encouraging freedom of expression without people being fearful they will get into bother with the authorities for posting their views (and the moderation aspect of the blog means that “unacceptable” posts can still be dealt with).
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John Key was wearing a green tie when meeting with the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, does this mean anything?
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Sprout; a green tie ha; I cant decide what animal life typifies our PM Is it a lion? no! a fox could be, a chamellion? well yes or is it a HAG fish I say definately YES!!!!
The new surveillence bill that was read today and voted on sounds very scary I hope Frog or Keith Lock may want to post on that.
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Owen; I was outraged by sakenah’s death sentence I signed the AVAAZ letter of appeal. A young beautiful intellegent woman, very very sad.
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That he got so excited at the thought of meeting Clinton that his blue tie got covered in foam and dribble?
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USD/NZD seems to be on the move after the Federal Reserve decided it would be a great idea to print another 600B. What sort of effect will a 85cent NZD or even a 90cent NZD have on the NZ economy.
Expect to see QEIII and then QEIV and so on and so on. Until the rest of world stop being idiots and dump the dollar.
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As I’ve observed here, if you expect not to be monitored in what you say and do here on the net you are doomed to disappointment. If you want discussions over e-mail to actually be private, you need to encrypt, and not with any dinky little 1024 bit keys. No Such Agency is scanning EVERYBODY’s mail… sort of like a really really effective spam filter except they’re catching stuff with words like bomb and assassinate.
Of course, if you do encrypt stuff you draw attention to yourself anyway.
Which is why the anonymity guards are useful… and those get special attention from No Such Agency.
Surveillance is a fact. Live your public life in the knowledge that you ARE being watched.
BJ
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The NZ $ will break the buck before we see the bottom of that trend turnip.
BJ
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BJ,
The logistics in scanned emails is interesting.
Not just the daily volume but also the variety of languages, codes used, plus encrypted emails all need to be scanned and interpreted.
I would imagine a coded message would be far harder to intercept and interpret than an encrypted one.
If an organistion (legal or illegal) was that worried about sending potentially damaging emails they would simply stay offline and use data sticks or CD’s and utilise UPS or Fedex to ferry information.
Personal couriers would be even more secure. Intercept one of these and the organisation knows immediately that they are under surveilance.
Sure it may not be as fast or as immediate, but it is still the most effective.
I think the email scanners are a feel good factor that dont actually catch many at all.
Bit like the Chinese and Australian web restrictor filters. Easily overcome by alternative information distribution methods.
Personally if I were to send messages that were highly secretative I would use codes.
Not numeric ones that were easily broken by computer searches but word substitution ones.
I would simply tell you in person what the word substitution was going to be (say beach=bomb) and send you an email with the line “going to the beach at Bondi in the morning”.
No tracking software will ever pick up that line as something sinister.
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Yes easier to intercept the encrypted… the filters will yank the unintelligible out of the stream for further scrutiny pretty quick. A good encryption system will however, keep it from being read for a fairly long time.
If you wish to keep secrets, the net is not your friend.
BJ
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interesting politics/showbiz connections…
sylvester stallone thinks obama is ‘the manchurian candidate’….
(…see..!..he’s not just slow-speaking….)
..and the ol’-junkie..keith richards..is an iraq war armchair-warrior…
…(mumbling a desire to go and have a go at them himself…
..what’s he gonna do…?…throw loaded-syringes at them…?..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}
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BJ,
I think you’re missing the main point I’m trying to make (it’s probably my fault for not being clear).
Obviously I’m not concerned about people reading what I post on this blog. The main concern is someone will read my password, and then be able to post as me. This should concern everyone posting here; I’m sure Gerrit would welcome his account being hijacked by a communist as much as I would want a neo-liberal posting as me.
I’m not really concerned about government authorities with powerful supercomputers breaking any encryption, but some spotty teenager in Russia or wherever simply reading my password being sent unencrypted over the net.
My secondary concern is that I might wish to post anonymously, which I can do using Tor. In this case I might very well be concerned about government authorities knowing who is actually posting.
The above two concerns are related. I can already post anonymously here if I choose so, simply by using Tor and a bit of common sense. However this opens me up to the very real possibility of my password being read by a malicious exit node controlled by … well anyone.
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BJ, re encryption on the net and so on. It’s true that a sufficiently determined organisation, given time, can probably break most encryption methods. The weak link is often the people using the encryption, not so much the encryption methods themselves.
In any case, I do not personally have anything I want to keep really secret from the authorities, but I do object a lot to them scanning personal stuff which is none of their business.
Maybe I did not rebel enough when I was a teenager, but I actually would like the authorities to know that I am sending Email or whatever using encryption. They would be welcome to use their resources to try find out out I am meeting my wife and kids at KFC for dinner after work. However, I’m not really that paranoid (well only a little bit), and reckon the chance they would show any interest in my PGP encrypted Email is pretty much zero.
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so..national does what the greens were too ‘scared’ to even try to do….
..(for fear of public backlash…)..
..and have relieved the suffering of many new zealanders’…
(m.s.-sufferers..esp…but not only…)
..by legalising medicinal marijuana…
(go figure there..!..greens..!..eh…?..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2010/medicinal-cannabis-legalised-well-doneto-the-governmentnowfull-legalisationtaxation-please/
now can we have full legalisation please…?
d’yareckon the greens may be able to whip up a bit of testicular-fortitude…
..and argue that one..?
(should i hold my breath..?..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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samiuela,
Often wondered if pasting (instead of typing) a password is safer. No keystrokes to record.
However I fear that password control is not so much an isue at my end but more at the blog end. How safe is the cross reference database where my password input is correlated to be correct?
One could change ones password every day but the security at the other end could still be compromised.
Any hacker would be more likely to attack this storage of password cross reference rather then my individual computer.
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There are so MANY ways they can get you Gerrit… the keystroke loggers are popular windows attacks, but one of the safety precautions I recommend is to simply never go much of anywhere on the web with a windows based system. Sometimes I have to, but those exceptions are very specific and trusted destinations.
Which means that someone installing an antenna close outside your house MIGHT pick up your keystrokes on the keyboard, and after some time get some useful passwords, but no casual hacker will manage it.
Windows don’t surf as well as penguins.
The other thing I don’t run is a wireless network. That’s a different level of interception and decryption… but also not worth the risk.
When it comes to the rest, I don’t worry about it enough. Samiuela is correct, someone COULD get the password I use for this blog and post as me… I reckon the deception would last all of a day and would p!ss me off.
I don’t think it would be all that damaging, but it isn’t actually a lot of trouble to set up ssl either.
http://isc.sans.edu/index.html
BJ
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Gerrit,
There’s no difference between pasting your password or typing it. (Well thats not quite true; you might have a virus which logs your key strokes). The main problem is that your password is sent as plain text over the Internet to Frogblog, and anyone intercepting the traffic between your computer and Frogblog can simply read it.
Interception of your network traffic is not a theoretical but unlikely thing. I suspect that your Frogblog account is susceptible to being hijacked by someone using “Firesheep” (A Firefox plug-in; see http://codebutler.com/firesheep , http://blogs.forbes.com/kashmirhill/2010/11/05/twitters-response-to-the-firesheep-controversy/?boxes=financechannelforbes and plenty of other on-line news sites ) if you are logging in on an unencrypted wireless network. Firesheep has supposedly been downloaded more than 600 000 times in the last week. So don’t log in to Frog blog on a public wireless network, unless you know it has encryption, otherwise that teenager opposite you in McDonalds might well be impersonating you on Frogblog.
I don’t know how secure the server which Frogblog is run on is. From a security point of view its best to assume its not secure, but there’s not much you can do about it (short of applying for the position of system administrator for the machine). This doesn’t mean that all other reasonable security measures shouldn’t be taken.
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Here’s the AVAAZ letter of appeal about Sakenah’s death sentence:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/24h_to_save_sakineh/97.php?cl_tta_sign=b3b05839a7c4753db8efacb105df6aa1
The real issue with information security is that we are seeing implementation of legislation that allows the powers that be to access all of your private information without any of the normal checks (albeit ineffective) in place to protect our civil liberties.
It would appear that any reason is used by the right wing to further their policies. Surveillance is a fact, but how the information is used is the issue. Repression and discrimination through Governmental departments because of a persons political views or other beliefs, is a very real and frightening fact in this country.
The hacker myth is often used to sell you products that you don’t need. Setting up a system correctly and not loading programs that have dubious origins is the best safeguard against intrusion. In protecting freedom of speech we need to employ measures that hinder the tracking of information. Anonyminity, through effective tools are very effective in this respect. However the internet was developed by the US army as a weapons device. The war of beliefs has not ended.
In my opinion fascism has been gaining ground and such laws as the Search and Surveillance bill and earthquake legislation that have wide ranging implications are both concerning and unwarranted in this country. Just like the raids on Tuhoe that found no Terrorism, inappropriate use of laws will cause resentment and could have a self-fulfilling effect.
Good article btw, here it is again:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26743.htm
On a side not: It would appear that former Act MP David Garrett is trying to blame his criminal behaviour on having a mental illness. What a crock! Well let’s hope the perjury means he can’t get a barrister’s practicing certificate from the Law Society. But I wouldn’t count on it.
Personally I would like to see the Gangs stranglehold on drug distribution and all its associated misery change. Decriminalisation would be a good step in that direction. After slamming some crank into his transfused blood, old Keith Richards is going to serenade those damn terrorists into not being Muslims with all that oil. And then he will smoke a blunt with Obama while watching Rambo.
You have my permission to impersonate Infringer Todd. Imitation is the best form of flattery.
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It is possible given the right sort of surveillance antenna, to pick up the keycodes coming right off the keyboard.
Wireless keyboards are of course, right out –
http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa/Microsoft-wireless-keyboard-hacked-from-50-metres/0,339028227,339284328,00.htm
But the wired jobs aren’t that much better….
http://hackaday.com/2008/10/20/eavesdrop-on-keyboards-wirelessly/
…and your monitor isn’t exactly pain free…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking
…and virus attacks to install keyloggers are not uncommon.
- and I haven’t even reached the server or the network architecture between here and there.
The word is “tempest”, and it is a tough thing to beat.
Time to go leafletting.
BJ
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Phil @ 5:51
WTF!
Have I been asleep?
I’ve missed this development entirely!
Where’re the reactions from all and sundry?
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Where’re the reactions from all and sundry?
.
Oh, right!
Ahem………
This is blarrdeee terrible!! We are going to HELL in a hand basket with this stoner supporter nonsense!!
It’s a slippery slope people!!
Won’t somebody think of the children!!
Why won’t you think of the children!!!
Arrrrggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
That should do it
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Shunda is not Sundry.
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Oh hell, I just spent a very enjoyable time listening to this…
… brilliant…
dissection of irrationality in general.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB_htqDCP-s
BJ
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yeah..i know…
just a small piece in the newspaper/website…
and i hafta say…i can only say/think good things about them for doing this…
…something labour failed to do in nine years..(to their shame..)
…and something..that not too long ago..
..where metiria turei/the green party just let her private members bill wither on the vine..
..from inattention…
..and out of (self-admitted) fear of public/media negative blowback…
..(ditto on the ‘shame’…for them…
..i mean..i could say things like ‘balls the size of peanuts’…
..but i will try to remain civil..)
..it is such good news on a compassion-level..
..as readers here may have noticed it has had me incensed for a long time that new zealanders suffering chronic pain/suffering from cancers/chemo-therapy/w.h.y…
..have been denied the proven relief cannabis can bring them…
…that/such cruelty has always seemed certifiably-inhumane…to my mind..
..but yes..the silence..at the news…
..i thought kiwiblog would be exploding with dire predictions of the fall of civilisation..
..such licence would/must bring…
..but no…
..so now..we could continue this attack of commonsense…
…and legalise/tax…
..the economic-case for such a move (revenue +saving on policing/imprisonment) should be irrefutable for the ‘market-driven’ ideology/punters in national/act…
..but..i fantasise…
..and in that fantasy..is a spurt in testicular-growth…
..in those green m.p-folks…
..eh..?
..phil(whoar.co.nz)
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and that report is only on stuff..
the herald hasn’t even bothered…
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Well I’ll be…
National legalizes cannabis!!
Where are those headines???
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maybe they are saving it for the sunday shock/horror-headlines…
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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BJ,
You list all sorts of ways of eavesdropping on electronic communications, some more practical than others. However, this is obscuring the initial point I was making: passwords for this blog are being sent in plain text over the Internet.
The recent publicity concerning the Firefox plug-in called “Firesheep”, combined with the increasing prevalence of public wireless networks (which often don’t use any sort of encryption) should indicate there is a problem here. Even Twitter and Facebook acknowledge there is a problem. The good news is there is a very simple solution: put the blog on an https server; Google’s Gmail uses this by default now (I believe). Using SSL for encryption will not prevent determined organisations from doing what they want, but it will stop or hinder the person over the other side of McDonalds who is using the same free wireless network as you from doing malicious things.
The only reason I can see for not using SSL is if the server for the blog cannot handle the extra load; (its not a good reason, but one I can understand).
OK, I can see another reason … and its one I initially wrote about. The blog might not want to make life easier for anonymous posters. I’ll be honest, if Frogblog provided SSL encryption, I’d always post to it via the Tor network. Its not that I want to be anonymous, because anyone can read my postings and work out as much as they want about me, but that I just think anonymous browsing is a desirable thing to use by default.
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BJ. talking about codes and internet security this is a trick British intelligence used;
Purchase two books, any book ‘Gone With the Wind’ whatever send or give the reciever copy No 2.
Then send e-mail P2, L14, W6 but I would change the P,L and W too obvious but even then nobody on the net would know the scource, if they did they would have to be GOD!!
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Oh hell, I just spent a very enjoyable time listening to this…
… brilliant…
He is an interesting guy BJ, I did find myself laughing at some of that.
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Samiuela
Not saying I didn’t agree, was responding to Gerrit’s notion of trying to avoid typing and the keylogger portion of the discussion.
I reckon it WOULD be a good idea if we laid on an ssl server. The more one does such things habitually the less vulnerable one is generally.
The blog is open for public viewing. Without logging in at all IINM. We would have to pay for a public cert or provide that people understand that it is our own self-signer. Might put people off of visiting if the blog were self-signed. The little warning that comes up would simply be wrong from a PR point of view.
I think we could arrange it for people who sign up with us though, as we could present the key to import at that point.
It isn’t a bad idea.
Have to think about how we are serving up the site… which is something I actually do not know much about.
respectfully
BJ
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bjchip
Brilliant attack on truthiness!
might have to learn it off.
PIty about some of the “language” – restricts my mail out audience a little.
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