Brussels airport is an absolute reflection of what's wrong with the EU. If you care about your time and have any respect for yourself, never transit through Brussels.
#EU #GFU
2:14 am
August 29
R U Ready?
Yes and Yes. Dock charges and speakers work. Stupid easy to setup and has been running like a champ.
It’s unfortunate that Telegram founder Pavel Durov has been detained based on what appears to be overzealous enforcement of some moderation requirements.
In that vein I’d like share a few thoughts on the topic,
Telegram as many Cypherpunks have pointed out was an unencrypted, centralized service that everyday put all its users at risk and painted a target on its founder & employees BY DESIGN.
They chose to design a system where attacks on the operators were not only feasible, in many cases they are the most profitable attack (especially when accomplished in secret against the users interest).
The whole concept of secure & pseudonymous Cypherpunk crypto was first build as Mixmaster an anonymous remailer which was written in response to the Church of a Scientology suing to get access to database of pseudonyms in the http://Anon.penet.fi legal case which ultimately caused the pseudonym service to shut down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penet_remailer
This directly led to the creation of Mixmaster anonymous mail relays, TOR and our own service ZeroKnowledge Freedom. The design principles for all of these were to include no trusted third party and use cryptography to enable the user to control their own identity.
By removing the 3rd party trusted entity it made everyone safer including the operator of the service.
Also while everyone rails against the French government for arresting Pavel, it’s not a concept foreign to Western democracies like Canada and United States.
Hushmail was encrypted private email compromised with a back door and data dump ordered by US government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hushmail#Compromises_to_email_privacy
E-Gold was a 10yr old online payments service linking gold deposits to online payments operated by Cypherpunk Douglas Jackson. He was arrested, threatened with 20yrs in prison and his company shuttered after he asked for the rules to operate legally and instead of defining them, he was persecuted. https://wired.com/2009/06/e-gold/
The operators of Backpage a commercial competitor to Craiglist build by local newspaper entrepreneurs (https://reason.com/2018/11/15/the-backpage-scandal-isnt-what/) were arrested and the government spend more than 5yrs in court arguing that they couldn’t even use the 1st amendment as a defence. https://reason.com/2023/06/09/prosecutors-say-backpage-defendants-shouldnt-be-allowed-to-reference-the-1st-amendment/. This was after a mistrial, a judgement of prosecutorial overreach, government officials still appealed with the sole intent of removing any mention of freedom of speech as a right. This was essentially the government claiming that they didn’t moderate ads properly.
Kik Interacrive and Canadian messaging app with 100employees was sued for $100m and ultimately shut down following prosecution by the SEC for an illegal token sale. https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/kitchener-based-messaging-app-kik-to-close-amid-digital-token-lawsuit-1.4607874(Remember Telegram completed a token sale which made its founder a billionaire)
There are many more cases that I could reference from
@KimDotcom
, Ross Ulbricht and Wikileaks.
Conclusion
The facts are still out with regards to the specific law Pavel is being held on. It’s not clear if this is just a French government prosecution or a multilateral effort with US Government participation. (as seen above extra jurisdictional application of its laws in cyberspace is the norm)
Before everyone answers the call to invade France, or to take up arms to free Pavel we need to know more about the specific charges, remedies being sought and what the exposure the the millions of Telegrams users is.
Regardless the Cypherpunks who’ve long pointed out that unencrypted, centralized services are a risk to users and the operators of that service are the ones who get to claim “I told you so”.
Your protections in the digital age shouldn’t be based on the fickle policies of governments, or the goodwill of an operator who hopes not to be forced to betray you. Use services that are trust minimized.
We called our company ZeroKnowledge for a reason. If there was a gun to our head we couldn’t violate our users privacy. It wasn’t possible. — that should be the standard.
Post by Austin Hill @austinhill
Telegram CEO arrested in Paris airport
That feeling when you download something from TOR browser on your work computer and you get an automated message from Microsoft and a follow-up inquiry from corporate cyber security......
Mouse jiggler applications automatically move your mouse cursor periodically to prevent your computer from falling asleep or locking due to inactivity. They help you stay active and ensure that your status is not set to inactive or away. Or ask around, I am sure there is a nice open source script for your browser to keep it green.
(Also consider finding a new gig where productivity means results, not "managers" watching for away bubles).
I get that fiat is ending, but letting cash die prior to the inevitable end of fiat is a real problem....
The crazy part is that the government isn't ending it, we the people are. We are choosing "convenience" over privacy again.
I am not taking crazy pills, I am not the grumpy old dude, cash is actually ending and no one seems to care. I am screaming into the void again.
Before I could check-in online for my International flight to the USA the other day, I had to fill out a full KYC form for the CDC via United airlines. What is going on?
United obviously has all my info, but forced me to do it all again for CDC before I was allowed to check in online and called it "contact tracing". There was no way around it. This is not normal post covid stuff even during covid it was easier to navigate around. What is this new crazy?
If you feel like you hate everyone, eat.
If you feel like everyone hates you, sleep.
If you feel like you hate yourself, shower.
If you feel like everyone hates everyone, go outside.
“A man who uses an imaginary map thinking that it is a true one, is likely to be worse off than someone with no map at all.”
― Ernst Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
I read these two books back to back and am still thinking about it. "Seeing Like a State" is a must read, and Strong Towns is good.
Strong Towns by Charles L. Marohn Jr.
Seeing Like a State By James Scott
#Bookstr
Bitfinex impacted by FSociety ransomware group, with 2.5 TB data exfiltrated, including personal details of 400,000 users: via FSociety ransomware group.
#privacy
"Mainstreaming of rhetoric associated with Terrorism." Welcome to the recasting political speech as "Terrorism."
So truth.