Existential risk preventions as the most important task for humanity http://www.existential-risk.org/concept.pdf
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mazsa
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mazsa
Before the memristor, it would have been impossible to create something with the form factor of a brain, the low power requirements, and the instantaneous internal communications. Turns out that those three things are key to making anything that resembles the brain and thus can be trained and coaxed to behave like a brain. In this case, form is function, or more accurately, function is hopeless without form. [...]
A memristor is a two-terminal device whose resistance changes depending on the amount, direction, and duration of voltage that’s applied to it. But here’s the really interesting thing about a memristor: Whatever its past state, or resistance, it freezes that state until another voltage is applied to change it. Maintaining that state requires no power. That’s different from a dynamic RAM cell, which requires regular charge to maintain its state. The upshot is that thousands of memristors could substitute for massive banks of power-hogging memory. Just to be clear, the memristor is not magic—its memristive state does decay over time. That decay can take hours or centuries depending on the material, and stability must often be traded for energy requirements—which is one of the major research reasons memristors aren’t flooding the market yet. [...]
A biological brain is able to quickly execute this massive simultaneous information orgy—and do it in a small package—because it has evolved a number of stupendous shortcuts. Here’s what happens in a brain: Neuron 1 spits out an impulse, and the resultant information is sent down the axon to the synapse of its target, Neuron 2. The synapse of Neuron 2, having stored its own state locally, evaluates the importance of the information coming from Neuron 1 by integrating it with its own previous state and the strength of its connection to Neuron 1. Then, these two pieces of information—the information from Neuron 1 and the state of Neuron 2′s synapse—flow toward the body of Neuron 2 over the dendrites. And here is the important part: By the time that information reaches the body of Neuron 2, there is only a single value—all processing has already taken place during the information transfer. There is never any need for the brain to take information out of one neuron, spend time processing it, and then return it to a different set of neurons. Instead, in the mammalian brain, storage and processing happen at the same time and in the same place.
That difference is the main reason the human brain can run on the same power budget as a 20-watt lightbulb. [...]
To build a brain, you need to throw away the conceit of separate hardware and software because the brain doesn’t work that way. In the brain it’s all just wetware. If you really wanted to replicate a mammalian brain, software and hardware would need to be inextricable. We have no idea how to build such a system at the moment, but the memristor has allowed us to take a big step closer by approximating the biological form factor: hardware that can be both small and ultralow power. [...]
http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-intelligence/moneta-a-mind-made-from-memristors/0
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mazsa
“Quantum physics enables perfectly secure cloud computing: Researchers have succeeded in combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography and have shown that perfectly secure cloud computing can be achieved using the principles of quantum mechanics. They have performed an experimental demonstration of quantum computation in which the input, the data processing, and the output remain unknown to the quantum computer.
[...] current trend of cloud computing: central remote servers are used to store and process data – everything is done in the “cloud.” The obvious challenge is to make globalized computing safe and ensure that users’ data stays private.
The latest research, to appear in Science, reveals that quantum computers can provide an answer to that challenge. “Quantum physics solves one of the key challenges in distributed computing. It can preserve data privacy when users interact with remote computing centers [...]
The scientists in the Vienna research group have demonstrated the concept of “blind quantum computing” in an experiment: they performed the first known quantum computation during which the user’s data stayed perfectly encrypted. The experimental demonstration uses photons, or “light particles” to encode the data. Photonic systems are well-suited to the task because quantum computation operations can be performed on them, and they can be transmitted over long distances.
The process works in the following manner. The user prepares qubits – the fundamental units of quantum computers – in a state known only to himself and sends these qubits to the quantum computer. The quantum computer entangles the qubits according to a standard scheme. The actual computation is measurement-based: the processing of quantum information is implemented by simple measurements on qubits. The user tailors measurement instructions to the particular state of each qubit and sends them to the quantum server. Finally, the results of the computation are sent back to the user who can interpret and utilize the results of the computation. Even if the quantum computer or an eavesdropper tries to read the qubits, they gain no useful information, without knowing the initial state; they are “blind.”" http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/uov-qpe011612.phpPublication: “Demonstration of Blind Quantum Computing” Stefanie Barz, Elham Kashefi, Anne Broadbent, Joseph Fitzsimons, Anton Zeilinger, Philip Walther. DOI: 10.1126/science.1214707
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mazsa
US today released environmental and health nanotech strategy http://www.nano.gov/sites/default/files/pub_resource/nni_ehs_research_strategy.pdf Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo
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admin
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mazsa
Europe versus Facebook’s 22 complaints:
1. Pokes.
Pokes are kept even after the user “removes” them.2. Shadow Profiles.
Facebook is collecting data about people without their knowledge. This information is used to substitute existing profiles and to create profiles of non-users.3. Tagging.
Tags are used without the specific consent of the user. Users have to “untag” themselves (opt-out).
Info: Facebook announced changes.4. Synchronizing.
Facebook is gathering personal data e.g. via its iPhone-App or the “friend finder”. This data is used by Facebook without the consent of the data subjects.5. Deleted Postings.
Postings that have been deleted showed up in the set of data that was received from Facebook.6. Postings on other Users’ Pages.
Users cannot see the settings under which content is distributed that they post on other’s pages.7. Messages.
Messages (incl. Chat-Messages) are stored by Facebook even after the user “deleted” them. This means that all direct communication on Facebook can never be deleted.8. Privacy Policy and Consent.
The privacy policy is vague, unclear and contradictory. If European and Irish standards are applied, the consent to the privacy policy is not valid.9. Face Recognition.
The new face recognition feature is an inproportionate violation of the users right to privacy. Proper information and an unambiguous consent of the users is missing.10. Access Request.
Access Requests have not been answered fully. Many categories of information are missing.11. Deleted Tags.
Tags that were “removed” by the user, are only deactivated but saved by Facebook.
Filed with the Irish DPC12. Data Security.
In its terms, Facebook says that it does not guarantee any level of data security.
Filed with the Irish DPC13. Applications.
Applications of “friends” can access data of the user. There is no guarantee that these applications are following European privacy standards.14. Deleted Friends.
All removed friends are stored by Facebook.15. Excessive processing of Data.
Facebook is hosting enormous amounts of personal data and it is processing all data for its own purposes.
It seems Facebook is a prime example of illegal “excessive processing”.16. Opt-Out.
Facebook is running an opt-out system instead of an opt-in system, which is required by European law.17. Like Button.
The Like Button is creating extended user data that can be used to track users all over the internet. There is no legitimate purpose for the creation of the data. Users have not consented to the use.18. Obligations as Processor.
Facebook has certain obligations as a provider of a “cloud service” (e.g. not using third party data for its own purposes or only processing data when instructed to do so by the user).19. Picture Privacy Settings.
The privacy settings only regulate who can see the link to a picture. The picture itself is “public” on the internet. This makes it easy to circumvent the settings.20. Deleted Pictures.
Facebook is only deleting the link to pictures. The pictures are still public on the internet for a certain period of time (more than 32 hours).21. Groups.
Users can be added to groups without their consent. Users may end up in groups that lead other to false impressions about a person.22. New Policies.
The policies are changed very frequently, users do not get properly informed, they are not asked to consent to new policies. -
mazsa
Government internet control increases online radicalisation – LulzSec is not an isolated phenomenon http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/28/radical-hackers-lulzsec-governments
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mazsa
Lulz #AntiSec Manifesto http://pastebin.com/9KyA0E5v & http://lulzsecurity.com/releases/1000th_tweet_press_release.txt
“Government hacking is taking place right now behind the scenes.” https://twitter.com/#!/LulzSec/status/82841336683831296
Cf. http://lulzsecexposed.blogspot.com/2011/06/operation-security.html
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mazsa
“The Leader of LulzSec is Doxed. Game Over for you Guys !!!” http://lulzsecexposed.blogspot.com/2011/06/sabu-doxed.html
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admin
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admin
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mazsa
BBC: LulzSec opens hack request line so its fans can suggest potential targets http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13777129
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mazsa
Eavesdropper that illustrates a loophole in quantum cryptography http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-06/cfqt-mqc061011.php
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mazsa
Why we secretly love LulzSec: “So for the last ten years I’ve been working in media, trying to raise awareness of the idea that maybe, just maybe, using insecure computers to hold your secrets, conduct your commerce and run your infrastructure is a shitty idea.
No one who mattered listened. Executives think it’s FUD. They honestly think that if they keep paying their annual AV subscriptions they’ll be shielded by Mr. Norton’s magic cloak.
Security types like LulzSec because they’re proving what a mess we’re in. They’re pointing at the elephant in the room and saying “LOOK AT THE GIGANTIC FUCKING ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM ZOMG WHY CAN’T YOU SEE IT??? ITS TRUNK IS IN YR COFFEE FFS!!!” [...]” http://risky.biz/lulzsec
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mazsa
We must reject ebooks until they respect our freedom.
Richard Stallman -
mazsa
GPU Password Cracking – Bruteforceing a Windows Password Using a Graphic Card https://mytechencounters.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/gpu-password-cracking-crack-a-windows-password-using-a-graphic-card/
Cf.
A brief Sony password analysis http://www.troyhunt.com/2011/06/brief-sony-password-analysis.html
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mazsa
“[...] Data Retention Directive does not meet the requirements set out by the rights to privacy and data protection, for the following reasons:
- the necessity of data retention as provided for in the Data Retention Directive has not been sufficiently demonstrated;
- data retention could have been regulated in a less privacy-intrusive way;
- the Data Retention Directive lacks foreseeability.
86. The EDPS calls upon the Commission to consider seriously all options in the impact assessment including the possibility of repealing the Directive, either per se or combined with a proposal for an alternative, more targeted EU measure.
87. A future Data Retention Directive could be considered only if there were agreement on the need for EU rules from the perspective of the internal market and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters and if, during the impact assessment, the necessity of data retention, supported and regulated by the EU, could be sufficiently demonstrated, which includes a careful consideration of alternative measures. Such an instrument should fulfil the following basic requirements:
- It should be comprehensive and genuinely harmonise rules on the obligation to retain data, as well as on the access and further use of the data by competent authorities.
- It should be exhaustive, which means that it has a clear and precise purpose and the legal loophole which exists with Article 15(1) of the ePrivacy Directive is closed.
- It should be proportionate and not go beyond what is necessary.” http://www.edps.europa.eu/EDPSWEB/webdav/site/mySite/shared/Documents/Consultation/Opinions/2011/11-05-30_Evaluation_Report_DRD_EN.pdf
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mazsa
LulzSec versus FBI: “It has come to our unfortunate attention that NATO and [...] Obama have recently upped the stakes with regard to hacking. They now treat hacking as an act of war. So, we just hacked an FBI affiliated website (Infragard, specifically the Atlanta chapter) and leaked its user base. We also took complete control over the site and defaced it [...]” http://pastebin.com/MQG0a130 Cf. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2618562
Update: http://www.unveillance.com/latest-news/unveillance-official-statement/
Update2: “####[CRIMINALS OF LULZSEC]####
After being invited to the lulzsec private channel after social engineering parr0t
I was able to learn a few interesting things about their group! Alot them have
previous cyber crime and are involved in some heavy shit!” http://pastebin.com/RBjzDQbS
But cf. “Uh, yeah. Adrian Lamo is the guy who ratted out Bradley Manning to the feds.” http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2619898 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Lamo#WikiLeaks_and_Bradley_Manning-
admin
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admin is discussing. 
mazsa
U.S. Congressman Ron Paul:
The last nail is being driven into the coffin of the American Republic. Yet, Congress remains in total denial as our liberties are rapidly fading before our eyes.
The process is propelled by unwarranted fear and ignorance as to the true meaning of liberty. It is driven by economic myths, fallacies and irrational good intentions.
The rule of law is constantly rejected and authoritarian answers are offered as panaceas for all our problems. Runaway welfarism is used to benefit the rich at the expense of the middle class.
Who would have ever thought that the current generation and Congress would stand idly by and watch such a rapid disintegration of the American Republic?
Characteristic of this epic event is the casual acceptance by the people and political leaders of the unitary presidency, which is equivalent to granting dictatorial powers to the President. Our Presidents can now, on their own:
1. Order assassinations, including American citizens,
2. Operate secret military tribunals,
3. Engage in torture,
4. Enforce indefinite imprisonment without due process,
5. Order searches and seizures without proper warrants, gutting the 4th Amendment,
6. Ignore the 60 day rule for reporting to the Congress the nature of any military operations as required by the War Power Resolution,
7. Continue the Patriot Act abuses without oversight,
8. Wage war at will,
9. Treat all Americans as suspected terrorists at airports with TSA groping and nude x-raying.And the Federal Reserve accommodates by counterfeiting the funds needed and not paid for by taxation and borrowing, permitting runaway spending, endless debt, and special interest bail-outs.
And all of this is not enough. The abuses and usurpations of the war power are soon to be codified in the National Defense Authorization Act now rapidly moving its way through the Congress. Instead of repealing the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), as we should, now that bin Laden is dead and gone, Congress is planning to massively increase the war power of the President.
Though an opportunity presents itself to end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Congress, with bipartisan support, obsesses on how to expand the unconstitutional war power the President already holds. The current proposal would allow a President to pursue war any time, any place, for any reason, without Congressional approval. Many believe this would even permit military activity against American suspects here at home.
The proposed authority does not reference the 9/11 attacks. It would be expanded to include the Taliban and “associated” forces—a dangerously vague and expansive definition of our potential enemies. There is no denial that the changes in S.1034 totally eliminate the hard-fought-for restraint on Presidential authority to go to war without Congressional approval achieved at the Constitutional Convention.
Congress’ war authority has been severely undermined since World War II beginning with the advent of the Korean War which was fought solely under a UN Resolution. Even today, we’re waging war in Libya without even consulting with the Congress, similar to how we went to war in Bosnia in the 1990s under President Clinton. The three major reasons for our Constitutional Convention were to:
1. Guarantee free trade and travel among the states.
2. Make gold and silver legal tender [cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender ] and abolish paper money.
3. Strictly limit the Executive Branch’s authority to pursue war without Congressional approval.But today:
1. Federal Reserve notes are legal tender, gold and silver are illegal.
2. The Interstate Commerce Clause is used to regulate all commerce at the expense of free trade among the states.
3. And now the final nail is placed in the coffin of Congressional responsibility for the war power, delivering this power completely to the President—a sharp and huge blow to the concept of our Republic.In my view, it appears that the fate of the American Republic is now sealed—unless these recent trends are quickly reversed.
The saddest part of this tragedy is that all these horrible changes are being done in the name of patriotism and protecting freedom. They are justified by good intentions while believing the sacrifice of liberty is required for our safety. Nothing could be further from the truth.
More sadly is the conviction that our enemies are driven to attack us for our freedoms and prosperity, and not because of our deeply flawed foreign policy that has generated justifiable grievances and has inspired the radical violence against us.
Without this understanding our endless, unnamed, and undeclared wars will continue and our wonderful experience with liberty will end.
http://www.ronpaul.com/2011-05-25/ron-paul-is-this-the-end-of-the-american-republic/
mazsa
I expect that the Battle of Internets is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of an Uncensored civilization! Upon it depends our own free life, and the long continuity of our sites and our trackers. The whole fury and might of the enemy will very soon be turned on us.
Winston Bay
mazsa
All complex systems contain parasites. In any system of cooperative behavior, an uncooperative strategy will be effective — and the system will tolerate the uncooperatives — as long as they’re not too numerous or too effective. Thus, as a species evolves cooperative behavior, it also evolves a dishonest minority that takes advantage of the honest majority. If individuals within a species have the ability to switch strategies, the dishonest minority will never be reduced to zero. As a result, the species simultaneously evolves two things: 1) security systems to protect itself from this dishonest minority, and 2) deception systems to successfully be parasitic.
Humans evolved along this path. The basic mechanism can be modeled simply. It is in our collective group interest for everyone to cooperate. It is in any given individual’s short-term self interest not to cooperate: to defect, in game theory terms. But if everyone defects, society falls apart. To ensure widespread cooperation and minimal defection, we collectively implement a variety of societal security systems.
Two of these systems evolved in prehistory: morals and reputation. Two others evolved as our social groups became larger and more formal: laws and technical security systems. What these security systems do, effectively, is give individuals incentives to act in the group interest. But none of these systems, with the possible exception of some fanciful science-fiction technologies, can ever bring that dishonest minority down to zero.
In complex modern societies, many complications intrude on this simple model of societal security. Decisions to cooperate or defect are often made by groups of people — governments, corporations, and so on — and there are important differences because of dynamics inside and outside the groups. Much of our societal security is delegated — to the police, for example — and becomes institutionalized; the dynamics of this are also important. Power struggles over who controls the mechanisms of societal security are inherent: “group interest” rapidly devolves to “the king’s interest.” Societal security can become a tool for those in power to remain in power, with the definition of “honest majority” being simply the people who follows the rules.
The term “dishonest minority” is not a moral judgment; it simply describes the minority who does not follow societal norm. Since many societal norms are in fact immoral, sometimes the dishonest minority serves as a catalyst for social change. Societies without a reservoir of people who don’t follow the rules lack an important mechanism for societal evolution. Vibrant societies need a dishonest minority; if society makes its dishonest minority too small, it stifles dissent as well as common crime. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/05/status_report_t.html
Cf. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/02/societal_securi.html
mazsa
Help The Wall Street Journal uncover fraud, abuse and other wrongdoing. Send documents to us using a special system built to be secure. Keep your identity anonymous or confidential, if needed. https://www.wsjsafehouse.com/
mazsa
Surveillance Self-Defense: “The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has created this Surveillance Self-Defense site to educate the American public about the law and technology of government surveillance in the United States, providing the information and tools necessary to evaluate the threat of surveillance and take appropriate steps to defend against it.
Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD) exists to answer two main questions: What can the government legally do to spy on your computer data and communications? And what can you legally do to protect yourself against such spying?” https://ssd.eff.org/
mazsa
Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3458.asp
Cf. https://www.cellebrite.com/forensic-products/ufed-physical-pro.html
mazsa
New apps hijack the microphone in your cell phone to listen in on your life https://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9215853/Snooping_It_s_not_a_crime_it_s_a_feature
mazsa
How did the CIA and FBI Know that Australian Government Computers were Hacked? https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/04/how_did_the_cia.html
mazsa
Roswell files: FBI agent reported to the director of the Bureau that an Air Force official told him they recovered Alien bodies; “three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico [...] each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape”:
https://vault.fbi.gov/hottel_guy/Guy%20Hottel%20Part%201%20of%201/view?searchterm=Guy%20Hottel
mazsa
Fukushima: the best slideshow [Push play not scroll:]
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admin
mazsa
“[...] To understand the absurdity of the copyright industry’s demands, we must pause and consider which rights we take for absolute granted in the analog world. These are rights that already apply in the digital part of reality as well, but are somehow hidden in a legal game of hide-and-seek”: http://torrentfreak.com/why-is-it-rocket-science-that-laws-should-apply-online-too-110402/
mazsa
WARNING- Euro Zone Automatic Fiscal Stabilizers Deactivated! “[...] Can all this be avoided? Yes, and the remedy is both simple, immediate, and would quickly lead to unprecedented global prosperity.
All the euro zone has to do is have the ECB write the check, and announce immediate and annual distributions of 10% of GDP to member nations to pay down their outstanding debts, and at the same time impose national deficit ceilings sufficiently high to promote desired levels of aggregate demand. And the penalty for non compliance would be the withdrawal of ECB support. This would remove credit concerns, without increasing government spending, so there would be no inflationary impact.
And all the rest of the world has to do is recognize that federal taxes function to regulate aggregate demand, and not to fund expenditures per se. And then set taxation and/or government spending at levels that sustain desired aggregate demand.
They need to know the question is not whether longer term the budget deficit is sustainable- as it’s always nominally sustainable- but instead worry about sustaining aggregate demand at desired levels, both long term and short term.
But, unfortunately, I see the odds of a catastrophic collapse in aggregate demand as far higher than the odds of an awakening to a global understanding of actual monetary operations.” http://moslereconomics.com/2011/03/30/warning-euro-zone-automatic-fiscal-stabilizers-deactivated/
mazsa
“Samsung installs keylogger on its laptop computers: [...] After the initial set up of the laptop, I installed licensed commercial security software and then ran a full system scan before installing any other software. The scan found two instances of a commercial keylogger called StarLogger installed on the brand new laptop. [...]” http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/sec/2011/032811sec2.html?page=1
“On March 1, 2011, I called and logged incident 2101163379 with Samsung Support (SS). [...] The supervisor who spoke with me was not sure how this software ended up in the new laptop thus put me on hold. He confirmed that yes, Samsung did knowingly put this software on the laptop to, as he put it, “monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used.” [...]” http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/sec/2011/040411sec1.html
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admin
Samsung is innocent: http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002133.html
mazsa
Iranian hacker releases his manifesto + It’s Time to Fix HTTPS:
http://erratasec.blogspot.com/2011/03/comodo-hacker-releases-his-manifesto.html
https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=df9sn445_206ff3kn9gs&pli=1
mazsa
“THE BASIC LAW OF HUNGARY (draft): GOD, BLESS HUNGARIANS! National Credo: [...]“:
http://www.euractiv.com/sites/all/euractiv/files/BRNEDA224_004970.pdf
http://www.euractiv.com/sites/all/euractiv/files/CONSTITUTION_in_English__DRAFT.pdf
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/nnco-fgr102011.php