Posts by Josh Petyt
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Johnkey
Not as common as it ought to be considering how often the country's favourite pundit pops up in the media with soundbite after soundbite but this rushed sounding eponymous portmanteau gets me every time.
Unfortunately I think ISIS might be the killer word of the year. (Pun intended).
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Hard News: Public Address Word of the…, in reply to Ewan Morris,
There's no Watergate, AFAIK, but we get the odd ~gate suffixed 'scandal'.
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If you give New Zealanders an approved, legal substance, they’ll go for it.
This should be the guiding principal of out drug policies.
Keep the sale of unregulated drugs outlawed but give us some good quality legal options and don’t prosecute users of anything that is for personal use. Most people don’t want to do nasty stuff but ultimately it should be personal choice. -
Up Front: The Song of Angry Women, in reply to Emma Hart,
I don't LIKE this shit, but if it IS going to happen, surely it could work to our advantage some of the time?
I very much doubt it. Terrorism is only being used as an excuse to get more and more information, more and more power over people. The populace in general is terrified of terrorism (and will willingly give up freedoms if they think it will help fight it) but its not motivated by fear when it comes to violence against women.
The powers in charge can never get enough. And since our interests do not match up with theirs, no these powers will not be used for good. -
I went overseas in 1997 and barely looked back for a few years. The Bolger/Shipley reign made the country feel oppressive, dull and depressing. I was back for six years from '06. It's so depressing (now that I'm planning to return again) to see the country going back to the way it was when I escaped all those years ago.
I know people were bored with Clarke's government but this is ridiculous. Three terms of these smug creeps is going to be intolerable.. -
So the Key Nats not only have a mandate to do whatever they want but the have a mandate to carry on with dirty politics. I’m really ashamed of us tonight.
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Hard News: Interview: Glenn Greenwald, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Yes. The thought that they may be turning a blind eye to mass surveillance of New Zealand residents (or anyone for that matter), never mind being complicit in the action, is completely unacceptable. I would go further and state that our spies should be actively working against anyone that is spying on us. If that means giving back the encryption rings, clubhouse keys and bidding a teary farewell to our 5 Eyes BFFs then so fucking be it.
Mass surveillance doesn't work, creates potential for great harm and is an unacceptable affront privacy.
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The other worrying thing is that Snowden(?) has shown that they are stockpiling insecurities to use as backdoors. What that means is that instead of reporting insecurities to the developers of telecoms software and equipment they keep mum in case they want to use it. This of course endangers everyone's security.
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Hard News: Interview: Glenn Greenwald, in reply to James Littlewood*,
I'm not a security expert but I believe if you use 128 bit encryption (HTTPS) and the signed certificate has not been compromised* then your communications are relatively secure. 128 bit encryption can be brute force attacked but no one has the resources to do that on a mass scale i.e. you would have to be targeted and if they do that then forget about having any privacy (ever again).
*As I understand it signed certificates can be compromised and that is a major issue. If the NSA turns up and demands access to the signing authority's servers or somehow spoofs the DNS then you're in trouble.
As I said, I'm no expert so if anyone wants to chime in?
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Can someone help out this ignorant fool. What does the abbreviation, MSM stand for?