marcuspovey's comments

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Germans abandon hope of US 'no-spy' treaty

Possibly, this may actually be a good thing, at least as far as the internet is concerned. When governments realise that they can't get any "special exemptions" put in for them, the only real option left open is to throw their weight behind measures to secure the internet for everybody.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Younited - all your content 100% alive

Hmm.. that's nice, but I don't care, this NSA/GCHQ nonsense has burnt me for cloud computing, sorry.

What needs to happen is that the market heavily punish, and legal teams sue back into the stone age, those companies that collaborated. Then we need some legal structure in place that is a little more than "we promise we won't screw you".

It doesn't matter that this lot are based in Finland, because unless there is a heavy price for collaboration, the second they get big, the government of [insert jurisdiction here] will pressure them to turn data over and there will be little incentive to push back.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: UK detention of Reprieve activist consistent with 'threats' and 'adversaries'

I've said this elsewhere; but this is all part of an attempt (or at least an institutional belief) that equates opposition and protest, which is part of a healthy democracy, with terrorism.

This is very scary.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me

I find the phrase "Memorisation not rationalisation" deeply sinister.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

At home, and everywhere I've had a say on how the network is laid out during working hours, I treat wifi as external. They get internet access, and there's a password to prevent the neighbours kids downloading GBs of pr0n, access to internal resources require connection over the vpn.

This has the side benefit that all my devices can connect securely to home resources wherever I am in the world.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Sexism In The Tech Industry Takes Center Stage

Commented earlier on another Women In Tech thread (seems to be the meme of the day).

The question is not "Why are there so few women in IT?", it's "Why are so many men in IT such jerks?"

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Why I’d rather write in Medium than my personal blog

Even if you no longer own or control the content?

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S

Yeah, 'cos I really want a convenient way to send my fingerprints to the government.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: To my daughter's high school programming teacher

This shit has got to stop. Seriously.

As MEN in our industry we need to take a stand against this sort of behaviour which is truly endemic and all pervasive in our industry.

This is not a women in tech issue, it's a problem with MEN.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Statement of Condemnation of U.S. Mass-Surveillance Programs [pdf]

I would love to see everyone in the IT industry take a similar pledge.

If enough of us do we can choke off the oxygen supply to these organisations, especially if we make it an unattractive career prospect for undergrads.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Google speeding up end-to-end crypto between data centers worldwide

Absolutely, but it changes the economics substantially in your favour.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Google speeding up end-to-end crypto between data centers worldwide

That is the rub of course.

Self hosting is somewhat better, if nothing else because it presents a much less tempting target, and it is a privilege currently only available to the technical.

Well implemented strong encryption is another avenue.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Google speeding up end-to-end crypto between data centers worldwide

Except of course, as we've learnt over the last few weeks, they're essentially one and the same thing.

You can't trust a third party with your data if you want it kept secure. Period.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Russia detects two missile launches in Mediterranean

I'm not taking any side here, but both this link and the top story provide little evidence, and neither side is quoting particularly credible sources.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Lord Blair: we need laws to stop 'principled' leaking of state secrets

http://skunk.marcus-povey.co.uk/debogotron/?url=http://www.t...

:)

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?

Two separate questions conflated together:

1) Why aren't there more women in positions of authority? 2) Why are the majority of people in authority incompetent?

The answer to the second is probably that people get promoted exactly one level above their ability. The answer to the former is the real problem, and I suspect that if you solve that you'd still have a world run by a bunch of idiots, it's just that 50% of them would be female.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: Ditch Your Passwords? US Gov To Issue Secure Online IDs

In the light of everything that has happened over the last month, this has to be a joke, right?

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: I just want to say "fuck everything", hold up my hands and walk away.

Absolutely, the problems are political. But there's a technological component as well.

A combined approach will, I think, have the best chance of success. We fight like hell to fix the political problem, while at the same time making sure that people have, and know how to use, the technological tools that can protect them.

It is naive to assume that just one aspect will do the job.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: David Miranda, schedule 7 and the danger that all reporters now face

No need: Using a Mac? Compromised, the NSA has root access via the Patriot act. Ditto windows. And that's before you get to the idea of remote updates to the microcode supported by modern PCs (and not even running Linux keeps you safe from that, unless you recompile your kernel to turn it off).

Lets also not forget that even the strongest crypto is vulnerable to cartel attacks and the rubber hose technique.

marcuspovey | 12 years ago | on: David Miranda, schedule 7 and the danger that all reporters now face

Because when they failed to be not elected (the vast majority of those who voted voted for some other guy, but somehow these guys got to be in charge - first past the post, joy), they thought "stability" was the most important thing, and passed a law that said that there wouldn't be another election for at least 5 years.