Major Corporations are Hacking your brand new computer

This sadly falls under the tag of "I'm not surprised".  Well, I'm not surprised it happened, I'm a bit surprised it was Lenovo.  It seems that Lenovo started shipping laptops with Superfish preinstalled.  What Superfish does is a classic man in the middle attack, and it gathers all your information - and essentially makes it public, if you happen to be silly enough to use it on a public wifi.  (Which a LOT of people do)

Read the above article to get more information.  

What does this mean?  If you bought a Lenovo in the last 6 months it means all "your passwords are belong to us."  At this point I wouldn't touch Lenovo with a 100' pole, which is sad because they made pretty good hardware and does a fine job running linux - The issue is that I'm not about to support a company that even considered thinking  this might be a good idea.  I HATE bloatware but it's one of those things you just sort of have to live with unless you build your machine from scratch - which is difficult to do with laptops.  Virtually any computer you buy today will come with bloatware, some benign like Netflix, or the Kindle App, some malware - and now some like Superfish - pure evil.  I mean spying on which web sites you access is bad, but spying on your supposed SSL encrypted connection to your bank - that is evil, and possibly criminal.

Samsung got caught spying on their Smart TV buyers so, if you think this will be an isolated event you're not paying attention.  There's a fair chance that it wasn't just Lenovo that started shipping Superfish - and if that name isn't Truth in Advertising I'm not sure what would be - maybe  WeStealYourData.   I can't decided if the programmers at Superfish are just a bunch of amateurs with delusions of adequacy or if they're stupid crooks. Those are really the only two options for what they did.  A smart crook would have not made all your data public thus doing a better job of hiding the fact that they were stealing all your data - it takes a special kind of stupid to pull shit like this.  A professional would have understood the risks involved and assuming they weren't also crooks would have declined to even create this piece of gǒushǐ*  

Fortunately we're seeing some movement in the games industry that should make Linux a much more widely accepted platform with the announced introduction of GLNext (more info here).

If enough of the game-devs move off of DirectX to this next version of OpenGL (GLNext) we might start seeing some serious support for drivers thus making Linux perhaps the best gaming platform available - light, fast, open, free.    At which point, perhaps Microsoft won't be able to force the majority of their users (gamers) into upgrades by making the next version of DirectX incompatible with previous versions of windows.  - You'll be able to get light weight installs of the OS, free apps that cover all the basics - there will only be a few reasons to use Windows at all, and the only compelling reasons to use Mac OS will be their excellent but stupidly expensive laptops for the likes of Photoshop, CAD software, and other vertical applications.



* Firefly Mandarin  - Crap or Shit. Go-Sa

Stuff that Doesn't Surprise Me

Apparently Harvard has a cheating epidemic

Given the high percentage of cheaters at Harvard, would you hire a Harvard Grad?

Here's a non-surprise - Socialists Cheat twice as much as Capitalists.     Yeah - see above.

Have you ever heard the phrase Culture comes form the top down - This might explain the math scores   Apparently giving your self raises when you have a budge shortfall is Smart™  They pass it to the teachers, the teachers pass it to the kids and Poof  - you get this:

• Average credit card debt: $15,191
• Average mortgage debt: $154,365
• Average student loan debt: $33,607

This is sure no surprise  - California environmental regulations might have issues.... sort of

Fire them all and start over.

It appears that our government has allowed the following:

Chinese Steal Plans to our newest Joint Strike Fighter, PAC-3 and lots of other highly classified military projects.

But don't worry, cause we're trading partners and they would never use that stuff against us.   Really?  we're that friggen incompetent?   They've hack our Power Grid, they steal everything we produce.

We've filled our National Defense technology with Counterfeit Chinese parts.

So  just what the hell are the following groups actually doing with their time?

Pentagon / Military Intel, FBI, NSA, CIA, Trusted Defense Contractors.   Apparently either having Sex with Chinese honeypots or Spying on U.S. Citizens because, why the hell would we want to keep people out of our National Security infrastructure? We're worried about who might want us to actually not violate our Oaths of Office to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic".    We don't have time to worry about the Chinese, or Islam.  We gotta protect our jobs!

Fuck!  - Fire everyone and start over.   And when I say Fire - I'm pretty sure I mean Firing Squad.   At least charges for Dereliction of Duty, Violations of National Security, Gross Malfeasance, and if I knew more about the law I'm sure I could come up with a few dozen pages of things.  

From the FBI's own Priority List

National Security Priorities:

1. Protect the United States from terrorist attack    FAIL

2. Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage  EPIC FAIL
3. Protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes  EPIC FAIL

Criminal Priorities

4. Combat public corruption at all levels  EPIC FAIL

5. Protect civil rights  EPIC FAIL

6. Combat transnational/national criminal organizations and enterprises 

7. Combat major white-collar crime  EPIC FAIL

8. Combat significant violent crime   

Maybe if it was their house

More police stupidity - We're going to save a man possibly being hurt by shooting him with tasers - right makes perfect sense.  I mean we're the cops, we're standing around watching this house burn and the neighbor wants to keep it from spreading to his house.  So of course we're going to taser him - wouldn't want him to get a spark burn or anything.

Stupidity on so many levels

First it's Mourdock's political suicide attempt suggesting that rape is all part of "God's Plan" 

Then my (I'm sorry to say) fellow Washingtonian; John Koster, slams both feet into his mouth, past his knees.  

It's just so stupid I can't let it go.   Neither of these individuals have ANY chance of having ANY effect on the issue, so why on earth would you shoot your big mouth off.   Oh sure there are a bunch of religious folks who might agree, but there's a lot of independents who don't.  

So, you shot off your big mouth to give a warm and fuzzy feeling to some people who were already going to vote for you and pissed off a lot of folks who were either undecided or leaning in your direction.  They are now looking for any possible alternative.  If either of these victims of verbal diarrhea where on my ballot I'd have voted for the other guy just on principle.

Normally I don't mention my preferences in this area because it's MOOT - as in DECIDED by the SCOTUS.  Past tense, done - get over it.   But I'll make an exception this time.

I'm not a fan of abortion as a means of birth control, but it's not my body - I can't get pregnant so I keep my frakking opinion to myself.   I do Absolutely believe it's a woman's RIGHT to make that decision for herself.   This is based on the apparently tired and trite view that we are not slaves to either government or society (regardless of how much they want us to be).    I'd prefer the woman choose a different option (like adoption) but again - It's not my body so it's none of my business.

What the hell is it with people that makes them think it's OK to push their beliefs on everyone else.

Of Course They're Our Friends

So  Pakistan tribal courts just found the doctor guilty of treason.   On the upside if he were tried in Pakistan federal court, the penalty is death - this way he's just completely screwed for helping the world rid itself of Osama.   What message does that send?

Let's see:

• No charges against anyone harboring Bin Laden.
• The guy who helps locate him gets convicted of treason.   

Yeah they're fully onboard with antiterror agenda.


I really want to just walk away from them and let them reap what they sew - sadly much like our own elections this country - when the idiots get what they deserve, we rational few get to reap it too.

I think it's time to apply my standing rule on foreign governments - you NEVER get what you pay for, so stop giving them money, and we'll just have to take our lumps.

The Corporate Market

We often talk of the free market - and people are either pro capitalism or against it.   The trouble is - we've never had a free market.

What I want is the "Perfect Market" as defined by economists - this is a market where the consumer has available all the information needed to make an informed decision, combined with the "Free Market".

What we seem to have now is the Corporate Market.   In the corporate market, corporations determine what information the consumer should have.   Take for example the Dolphin Safe Tuna labels.   We spent years and years trying to get this into place, when it finally happened, people voted with their wallets, eventually you didn't see any tuna with out that little certification.

Conservationists worked to create the Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies organizations which in turn certify wood products as coming from sustainable practices.     In some cases this wood is more expensive, but when it is - it's usually not by much.   When I'm buying wood, I try to get FSC wood, I don't always succeed but I try, because it's worth the extra cost and effort TO ME, to buy wood that is harvested in a sustainable manner.  

Choice - Give me the Information and let me CHOOSE.

Which leads us to this little gem.    Apparently some of our - what regulators? have decided that the WTO trumps the U.S. Congress .. you know the Idiots that Appointed the Regulators (which is a whole other topic).   Last time I check'd we got to decide our own laws, and could specify what was legally required on labels.   Tell the WTO to go pound sand.   To misquote and slightly paraphrase John BigBoote "It's not your goddamned country. Understand monkey boy!"*

I have issues with Giant corporations and the effect they have on what is already a screwed up and decidedly not "free" market.     The Perfect Market could probably handle giant corporations, because you'd know where it came from, which devision of what subsidiary of what corporation of what conglomerate the product came from and if you didn't like which politicians they were buying - you could vote with your wallet.   But they don't want you to know that kind of stuff.   So misinformation or no information is what they're after.   Besides what could you possibly want to know that you can't get from a 30 second commercial, written by and ad agency, who works for a marketing department that avoids talking to their engineering department as much as possible.

Don't get me wrong- I'm all in favor of business, I have no problem with someone making a LOT of money (I often wish that someone where me).   Where I have a problem is with the lies of commission and omission.  I have no problem with the rich - when was the last time a poor person gave you a job?   But I DO have a problem with them getting their money by misrepresenting the products they offer.

*From The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzi.  - The actual quote I believe was "It's not my god damned planet.  Understand monkey boy."  - but in this case it is my god damn planet, and my god damn country so...

You're a What?

Oh this is just so close to.... PERFECT.    I was libertarian before they went and screwed it up.  Now I'm not sure what I am.    Got the Mac, Got the Face Palm,  Don't have the suit.