The plan is actually quite smart. As soon as the pornblock has been implemented, they will hire people like me to prove that: Hey, I could get through to this and that site, and they contain porn!
This will prepare the second step. In order to make sure that all porn sites have been blocked, the ISPs will start getting from a new HM Block and DontShow department, a list of sites that the ISPs must not show.
This will prepare the third step, in which they will give democratic access and oversight to the HM Block and DontShow list and extend its usefulness beyond porn, so that every pressure group around will be able to add its own set of sites that people should not see.
The fourth step is that the list becomes mandatory. It will no longer be possible to opt out of such democratically-constituted wishlist of bannings ;-)
There is only one problem with this approach, and the politicians do not seem to understand it, because the argument is a bit technical: The censorship is entirely based on the DNS system, which itself is just based on simple conventions. DNS is not mandated by the laws of nature or so.
It is not possible to force users to resolve IP addresses for sites through any particular database such as a DNS database. It is not possible to prevent users from creating alternative databases either. Therefore, all that they are doing is to push users away from the traditional DNS system.
With 0.1% of all software representing 99.9% of all value ever produced in software, the question does not even particularly matter. Who the hell cares today how long it took or how much it cost to produce Google Search? Unless there is a good reason otherwise, the project that you are working on right now, has no economic value anyway. It is simple. If the budget or the duration matters, the project does not.
Yes, but for the sake of the argument it will require a Chinese thermonuclear strike on Fort Meade, Maryland. I am afraid, however, that the Chinese are still waiting for yet another NSA provocation in which they again destroy infrastructure behind the Great Chinese Firewall. Fuck that "new provocation". We do not need a new provocation. That the Chinese strike right now!
In order to protect our holdings in Bitcoin, we need to find a way to get the Chinese to finally do that thermonuclear strike on Fort Meade, Maryland. We all know that the Chinese have re-targetted their thermonuclear warheads already and that they are on sharp. I wonder why they still hesitate to finally press that button? Are they still waiting for another provocation? Press that button already, will you!
The NSA are also targeting non-American Tor users with their shenanigans. This is very insulting. With all respect eventually based on the fear for reprisals, I think it it is about time that the Chinese and Russian governments announce that they are now retargeting their thermonuclear warheads on New York and Washington DC and that with the next insult they will not hesitate to press the button. God knows that they will have asked for it.
All this talk about "the" government does not make sense. Which one of the 200+ governments? With more than 50% of the hashrate sitting behind the Great Chinese Firewall (GCF), the question is whether the NSA really wants to provoke the Chinese government into re-targetting their thermonuclear warheads on New York and Washington DC. As soon as the NSA crosses the GCF with their shenanigans, God knows that the Chinese will repay the insult in kind. Same for the Russians. They will not take any bullshit. All of us know that respect eventually rests on the fear for reprisals. With the arrogance going way to far now, it has become time for the Chinese and the Russians to clarify a thing or two and to retarget their thermonuclear warheads on New York and Washington DC.
You have made a devastating OPSEC mistake. You have disclosed that you have around 6 months left of money. You have probably also stored it in just one bank account. If some weird transactions end up siphoning off your balance, you will have no money left to defend yourself. The secret service guys know this. The freelance crook at the bank knows this too. Be careful or you will be toast.
Yes. They need access to the information streams that these guys are managing. Anti Money Laundering (AML) regulations make sure that we know exactly where you hold your money. We know where you live. They need to complement this with real-time data. Your net worth has now become a bounty on your head. In order to transaction your balances away, we will need to first transaction you away.
What is your financial net worth? Let me tell you where you hold your money, your stocks, your IRA, your 401k, and everything else that my friendly crook in the bank will transaction away, while I will transaction you away, mister America-safe, law-abiding citizen-idiot.
Everybody with enough financial net worth to make sure he does not just die but will be died. Strange transactions on your accounts, my friend. The balance is almost gone. Is that why you have had an accident?
Because they need to get hold of all information possible. They must know where you live. They must know what your net worth is. They must know in what bank and other accounts you are holding this net worth. They must know what other freelance crooks work at these banks. All of your financial holdings form a bounty on your head. At some point, you will not die. You simply will be died.
There is simply too much money to be made in knowing where someone lives and in what bank accounts, 401k, and IRA accounts his net worth is stored. This person will not just die, my friend. This person will be died.
That is how they end up stealing your bitcoins too. All of these QUANTUM INSERT computers have now been targeted at getting hold of your wallet keys. Your money will be gone.
Staying in the banking system will not help either. The sum of the balances of your holdings in the banking system forms a bounty on your head.
They know who you are. They know where you live. And they damn well know how much money there is to be made in dying you.
You will not die. You will be died.
Do not hold any monetary values anywhere without them knowing where it is, because that amounts to money laundering, you criminal terrorist!
Anybody supplying contractors to the NSA. From the central banking database you know how much money they have in what bank account. From Facebook you know if they could be dead by now. The sum of all monetary holdings of any of these targets forms collectively a bounty on their heads. Do you really need to see Edward Snowden's stash of documents to understand this? I don't.
Since they know who you are, and since the central banking database knows how much money you have in what bank accounts, and since they know who your friends are, it is no problem to demographically calculate that you could reasonably get a heart attack now. Of course, you made quite a few strange large purchases just before you died, but only your friends would know that these were strange. Your balance is pretty much gone. You seem to be no longer keeping them up to date on what you are doing? Facebook is simply a gold mine, because any money that you are holding in bank accounts forms collectively a bounty on your head.
These rules look like they came from the low-intelligence paper belt. We do not write rules like that. They must simply be part of the tool. Otherwise, they do not count. What they now did, was to create an opportunity for someone who knows that he is incompetent, to invent a new job for himself, that is, "checking up" with his more competent colleagues, who contrary to him are productive in writing code, on this style guide. Rule number one: Anybody who wants to "enforce" this kind of rules must demonstrate that he is capable of writing a parser that can apply them. It is simply bad practice to create that kind of opportunities. It is bad practice to create that kind of jobs. Therefore, this kind of documents must be rejected.
In many ways, and definitely in more ways than one, India is a fantastic resource, with their talent and tremendous headcount. India is definitely not a "pirate" state. I believe to have read that the Indian Navy is even involved in protecting merchant shipping lanes off the Somalia coast. The only qualms I have, is with the licence Raj, the paperwork kingdom, that ruins business opportunities all across India ...
India would have the talent and the headcount to be anything it wanted to be, if it were not for the one missing ingredient: the ability to leave people's freedom alone. Many of factories in China would now be in India. Larry Page is in the market for another location. Mark Zuckerberg undoubtedly too. If India painstakingly managed to develop the ability to rein in their paperwork kingdom, the so-called "license Raj", Silicon Valley would have moved there a long time ago already. Until now, India just can't. It is simply impossible to reduce the incessant harassments of their bureaucracy. They will terrorize everybody. At the same time nobody else will ever agree to put up with them and be terrorized. They will not move there. They will keep flying out the Indians instead.
Balaji Srinivasan makes a lot of sense. The paper belt used to run the show. They are now losing that power and trying to claw it back with yet more paperwork. I am entirely favourable to the idea of curtailing, thwarting, and thoroughly undermining the regulatory bullies in the filthy paper belt. They have no legitimacy.
Ok. So, they've managed to "save" that dinosaur from an instant death, delaying the inevitable to a next, future round of corporate heroics. What about all the smaller companies that had to dump their staff on the streets and did not get massive bailouts for their "salvation"?
This will prepare the second step. In order to make sure that all porn sites have been blocked, the ISPs will start getting from a new HM Block and DontShow department, a list of sites that the ISPs must not show.
This will prepare the third step, in which they will give democratic access and oversight to the HM Block and DontShow list and extend its usefulness beyond porn, so that every pressure group around will be able to add its own set of sites that people should not see.
The fourth step is that the list becomes mandatory. It will no longer be possible to opt out of such democratically-constituted wishlist of bannings ;-)
There is only one problem with this approach, and the politicians do not seem to understand it, because the argument is a bit technical: The censorship is entirely based on the DNS system, which itself is just based on simple conventions. DNS is not mandated by the laws of nature or so.
It is not possible to force users to resolve IP addresses for sites through any particular database such as a DNS database. It is not possible to prevent users from creating alternative databases either. Therefore, all that they are doing is to push users away from the traditional DNS system.