Purchased some 1/2400 civilian ships from afrodri on Shapeways. They were even better in person.
Singapore Tech. 400TEU Container Ship:
All posts by James O'Keefe
Macro photography with iPhone 5s isn’t half bad
Took this photo with my phone. Not horrible.
Friday PAXEast 2016 Photos
I posted some of the photos I took on Friday at PAX East 2016. I will be back on Sunday and will add those photos later. Here is a slide show:
Birds, Flowers and Squirrels, Oh My!
The birds have been singing in the morning of late, so I have been out recording their songs (poorly) and photographing them and their neighbors. Here are a few pictures:
A slide show of the pictures I uploaded:
No DRM in HTML Rally Pictures
I posted pictures from the Free Software Foundation/Defective by Design No DRM in HTML rally on March 20th. It was after Libre Planet 2016. The Massachusetts Pirate Party endorsed it and Pirates acted as marshals.
Two good short stories about privacy & the corporate nanny state
Two short stories that bring together the pitfalls of big data and the internet of things.
- One Star, about what to do when your self-driving taxi decides to drive you to the police because you fit a profile instead of your destination;
- Dada Data and the Internet of Paternalistic Things, takes the fact that Target knows when you are pregnant and runs with it in a most paternalistic conclusion.
Uncanny Valley: A short film about VR games, drones, control and power
Found this well done short film about the intersection of virtual reality games, remotely controlled weapons, control and power via Boing Boing.
Another Global War on Terror Toxic Legacy
Our disposable society example #807.
It looks like the US’ major military involvements seem to poison US soldiers and the civilians of the countries we fight. Agent Orange in Vietnam. Gulf War syndrome in that war. Now the US government has covered up the burning of toxic waste in open pits at US miltary bases by private contractor Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR), a former subsidiary of Halliburton.
Since the illness’ effects are delayed, respiratory issues or cancers, the VA won’t cover it. Iraqi and Afghan civilians, like the Vietnamese, are just left to suffer.
Of course, outsourcing the burn pits to private contractors allowed them to cut costs by cutting corners:
Did the military’s use of private contractors like KBR in some ways help to facilitate this crisis?
KBR operated many of the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are some regulations for contractors, but they’re not nearly as stringent, and the penalties are not nearly as harsh for contractors as they are for soldiers. So these contractors were super-careless with these burn pits. There were burning anything and everything in them, and they didn’t care and they didn’t think they could be held accountable.
They’ve grown to the point where they feel that the government can’t operate without them. These companies have that arrogance. Contractors that were operating the burn pits in Iraq were actually told by their headquarters, “If they’re going to investigate us over these burn pits, don’t worry about it. If we pull out, they can’t run this base.”
Unsurprisingly, the Obama administration hasn’t been helpful to whistle-blowers on this issue. Thankfully, in the documents that Chelsea Manning leaked is information about how the US military was aware of the burn pit health hazards.
The GWoT just keeps giving.
First they came for an iPhone 5c
Posting here and at masspirates.org.
The FBI got a judge to order Apple to create a custom iOS version so they can decrypt the work iPhone 5c of Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters. They want Apple to push out a custom version that will disable the delays between wrong pin entries and the ten wrong pin tries and the phone gets wiped security feature. Apple is fighting it.
This Tuesday the Pirate Party is joining with Fight for the Future to protest the judge’s order. We will meet at 5:30pm at the Apple Store, 815 Boylston Street in Boston. Join us and stand up for your privacy and right to keep your data encrypted and secure.
Considering that ISIS didn’t know about the attack, it is doubtful there is much on the phone that will help them get other leads. The FBI can already request the metadata (who was called, when, how long, from where) for Farook’s communications using the phone or any other service the shooters used. The mobile phone providers are always willing to provide that information, often for a fee. Whatever other info they need, the NSA has likely gathered it with their mass surveillance program. FBI could use the NSA’s data to identify what other information they need and then get a subpoena to get the data legally, though unconstitutionally.
It isn’t as if the Federal government hasn’t used parallel construction in the past.
The phone was owned by Farook’s employer, the San Bernardino Health Department, and someone there reset the phone in an attempt to gain access. Had they not, the FBI could have backed up the data to Apple’s iCloud service and gained access to it. It isn’t clear who made the decision to reset the password.
Which is all good for the FBI, because it gives them the excuse they need to force Apple to modify iOS to make it easier to break into, and set a precedent for getting a backdoor in any phone, even newer ones. Once those backdoors are there, anyone can take advantage of them whether the security services of other countries, criminals or abusive ex-boyfriends. That process may already have begun with China.
So please come out this Tuesday and join the Pirate Party, Fight for the Future and others to protest the judge’s order. We will meet at 5:30pm at the Apple Store, 815 Boylston Street in Boston. The more people who stand up for privacy and encryption, the stronger is our message.
More articles to read on this subject:
Babylon 5 A Call to Arms game pictures
I ran a Babylon 5 A Call to Arms game back in August for the Boston Trained Bands / Hobby Bunker Games Day. The scenario is from the Battle of Coriana VI between a Shadow group and a White Star/Brakiri/Narn group.
You can view my pictures of it below or at this photo album.
