There’s something about the internet mindset – the anonymity (or, I should say, “apparent anonymity”) on both sides, that brings out the worst in people. It seems to me as though half of the new internet entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how to screw the other half. And both are trying to screw their customers.
I am going to try to de-convolute something that is so convoluted I’m having trouble even spelling “convoluted.” I will begin with a summary of facts, and then discuss them in more detail.
In 2009 I was a consultant to a company that produces cop cameras and nonlethal weapons. My remit was specific: they were setting up a cloud service and wanted a security design expert to review their system.
Trips to Tom L.’s are always interesting. If you recall 2 years ago, at the last TomCon, we did an evening trip to Yerkes Observatory, after stuffing ourselves with a massive amount of deep-dish pizza. [stderr]
Somewhere in the distant future, in the deep reaches of the galaxy, the distant descendants of an uplifted species may wonder if they were created by gods, or if they’re basically a cosmic accident.
This story was offered up to me by youtube’s algorithm, because I had been searching for videos about Project Ares.
This is one picture from the Saturn-V that I forgot to post. It’s worth it in its own right, in my opinion.
NASA’s done a good job producing a sort of “space disneyland” – probably for the usual reasons: it’s necessary to attract kids’ attention. It drives me a bit nuts when I see things being dumbed down for kids because their parents can’t handle it.
You probably recall the NSA’s lie about that they were only monitoring citizen’s “metadata” during their illegal data-collection program.
Let me postulate that knowledge actually is power. That would mean that intellectual property is a strategic asset: the asymmetry between its pile of intellectual property and other nations’ piles can be converted to potential military force and dominance.
