Jesse Screed

craigb
If this nonsense continues, I may just go back to my home planet!

My home planet has been destroyed.  I'm never going home again.
 
 

 
Jesse , Oh man , I'm so sorry to hear about your interplanetary troubles ...
I know from my own personal experience that being a Citizen of The Universe can sure have it's ups and downs when the Interplanetary Powers That Be keep changing the Interplanetary Immigration Laws   
 
Well OK , now that you are here , what do you want to hear first? ... the good news ? or the bad news?
The good news is , while you are here on Earth , "We the people of Earth " will tolerate the wreckage of your presence .
Oh BTW,  It may also interest you to know that your home planet hasn't been destroyed after all ...
They only told you that because once you left your home planet they decided to cloak the planet with an invisibility shield and move it to an undisclosed new location in a Far Distant Galaxy that has yet to be discovered....
 
hang in there kid we are all pulling for you  ,
 
Kenny 
 
 

craigb
"In related news, the Government has determined that all of their data will be moved to iPhones since they evidently are the most secure..."

One reason lots of governments, including the US, choose to go with Blackberrys rather than Apple phones is that iOS7 and earlier versions of iOS lacked the necessary data security if they were lost or stolen.

So Apple took the hint and introduced what governments insisted they needed...

what`s with all the encryption?
who uses it and why?
should I be concerned?
is anyone listening?
do I need an Iphone?
can anyone help me?
please?

craigb
Typical government operation:  Use one event that everyone can agree on to get a civil liberty removed, then abuse the hell out of the new ability using it whenever they like for anything they like.
 

 
Bingo! 

UPDATE #2: Turns out Bill Gates' comments were taken out of context. After hearing the full quote, it was obvious that Bill was not siding with the FBI after all. He was trying - clumsily - to give a diplomatic reply that didn't say anything one way or the other. The press had selectively extracted those parts that made for a more dramatic story.
 
It seems most people in the tech world back Apple in this, but nobody wants to come off as unpatriotic. Apparently, if you're not willing to hand over any and all investigative powers you're a terrorist sympathizer. "You're either with us or against us", to quote one past president who shall remain un-named lest this thread be accused of political content.
 
Now it turns out that police departments routinely intercept cell phone calls. The city of Baltimore has been particularly fond of this tool. Baltimore, which produces more terrorists per capita than, um, Fargo, North Dakota?

Mesh
Ok....from now on, I'm going back to speaking Swahili in 7 different dialects when I'm on my cell.

 
Just speak proper and elegantly in english. That's enough to confuse most government employees over at homeland security. 

webbs hill studio
what`s with all the encryption?
who uses it and why?
should I be concerned?
is anyone listening?
do I need an Iphone?
can anyone help me?
please?

You know when you buy anything on-line it uses, or certainly should be using, https, so no-one can sit between you and the website and grab your card/paypal details? That relies on secure encryption.

On-line banking relies on secure encryption. Not just the customer using the website, but for transactions between banks, handling payroll bulk processing, everything.

Businesses that need to communicate over the internet, maybe even across national boundaries, generally do so using secure VPNs (virtual private networks). They rely on secure encryption to prevent their data being read by anyone with access to any of the internet it passes through.

If you keep passwords, banking details, business acounts, client records, or anything else that needs to be confidential on a computer that might be stolen then you need to consider securely encrypting it. Windows or OS X file system encryption is built into the operating systems for precisely that reason.

Make secure encryption ineffective or illegal and we're back to the 1970s. Pay bills or buy things by putting a cheque in the post, and all sensitive documents printed out on paper and stored in lockable filing cabinets. In short, everything to do with business that the internet makes possible becomes insecure and not to be relied upon.

So yes, it does matter and you should be concerned.

Though if you're not concerned, please feel free to PM me your bank and credit card details including any user names or passwords required to get full access to your money. I promise nothing untoward will occur. :-)

webbs hill studio
what`s with all the encryption?
who uses it and why?
should I be concerned?
is anyone listening?
do I need an Iphone?
can anyone help me?
please?

It's all explained here:

bitflipper
UPDATE: We seem to be in the minority on this one. A newly-released poll (from the Pew Research Center) shows that a majority of Americans think Apple should cave to the FBI.
 
Included in that majority is our own hometown hero Bill Gates, as well as Level 12 nerd-hero The Woz and anti-government hero Edward Snowden. Three people whose opinions I respect, and they all disagree with me! Unsettling.

Hopefully the constitution will continue to protect the minority from the will of the majority. We are NOT a democracy, never have been. In the 19th century democracy was considered a bad word. Democracy is mob rule, populism.. which seems to be very popular in politics right now but populism is very dangerous, especially when combined with nationalism and socialism... freedom is the loser when these things come to power.
 
Julien