Hacker News Reader

tikumson NSA Revelations Cast Doubt on the Entire Tech Industry

Or maybe you do what Estonia does. False dichotomy?

tikumson The feds pay for 60 percent of Tor’s development. Can users trust it?

Summary: "NSA can break 1024 RSA/DH keys in a few hours. The problem with Tor is that it still uses 1024 bit keys for much of its crypto, particularly because most people are still using older versions of the software. Only 10% of the servers have upgraded to newer versions."

http://blog.erratasec.com/2013/09/tor-is-still-dhe-1024-nsa-...

tikumson Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior (2012) [pdf]

Accompanying PBS NewsHour report: Exploring the Psychology of Wealth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVlh4e8yP3o

tikumson Adam Langley's Pond: Secure Async Messaging

How is it worse than X.509?

tikumson Google Hangouts adds remote desktop support

It's 2013. Are we supposed to be amazed by this?

tikumson Richard Stallman Inducted Into the 2013 Internet Hall of Fame

For a man of such strong opinions, you seem to have a poor grasp of Stallman's philosophy. He's against SaaS, and would refuse to use a hosted service. He doesn't object to charging a fee for software. The user must merely be free to use it after the purchase. Yes, people are ready to sacrifice some freedom in return for convenience. That in itself does not prove him wrong. Cellphones are tracking devices. The "cloud" does allow for wholesale surveillance. In light of recent revelations, his warnings seem to be more prescient than ever.

tikumson NSA leaker Edward Snowden: U.S. targets China with hackers

Emperor's New Clothes. By openly restating something that has been "obvious", "implicit" or "well known", we've been served with a wake-up call.

tikumson NSA could have prevented 9/11 hijackings (2009)

If the 2,000 toll of terrorism is an issue, you should also campaign for strong state control in other areas of your daily life, such as commuting to work, or stepping out of a shower; statistically, two points in anyone's day when they're most likely to die.

tikumson Asking the U.S. to allow Google to publish more national security request data

"if Google cares that much about encryption and their users' privacy, they should show me they are willing to implement OTR, ZRTP and PGP"

That would only make sense if they wouldn't be required to become your key escrow service (=custodians of your private keys). PGP is also a pretty bad choice for private communication, as it offers no forward-secrecy. Something like client-side OTR implementation would be better.

tikumson 18 of Linux software's unsung stars

Lame.

tikumson Dawkins' Stupid People

Even being really good at [insert profession], doesn't make you non-stupid in areas outside of your expertise. It's not mutually exclusive. E.g., one can be a brilliant orthopedist, but can still be considered really stupid when it comes to forming a coherent general world-view.