Posts by Danyl Mclauchlan

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  • Hard News: The Wellington Cables,

    Did either ONe News or 3 News cover this at all ?

    Not surprising if they didn't. It's a political story and the house was under urgency until midnight Friday and 9 PM Saturday, and it was a beautiful day in Wellington. Today was a day on which our entire political class switched their cell-phones to divert.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

  • Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys,

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

  • Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys,

    Here's a topic for discussion: based on the cable contents, which US Embassy would you most like to be posted at?

    I'm thinking Rangoon sounds pretty great. I bet they also get to shoot elephants.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

  • Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys,

    But following through without consent or previously agreed-upon contraception/protection isn't.

    Well duh. You might want to read the sentence I wrote immediately after the one you quoted:

    Maybe Assange did this in an aggressive, coercive way that justifies the involvement of the criminal justice system . . .

    This might come as a surprise to you, but I don't appreciate being put at risk of an HIV-infection (or some other manky STD) by someone I should have been able to trust.

    Yeah, that's a mind-blowing insight.

    perhaps Sweden taking sexual assaults on women seriously is worth praising, not the occasion for witless rape apologist bullshit bingo.

    Well, maybe not THAT seriously, since the charges were instantly thrown out, and then reopened only after Assange embarrassed some of the most powerful people on the planet.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

  • Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys,

    Also, RB bait: the Economist tech writer chats with ‘Anonymous’, the group co-coordinating attacks against web sites on behalf of Wikileaks:

    The power of the group lies in a piece of software called a “low-orbit ion cannon”. Do not be put off by this scrap of jargon; an ion cannon is a fictional weapon used in fictional space epics. But the very real software allows someone to volunteer his own computer and network connection as part of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, a coordinated mass of requests that can crash a web server. Traditionally, a DDoS comes from personal computers that have been illegally loaded with software and tethered to a single command server as part of a “botnet”. The low-orbit ion cannon is, essentially, a volunteer botnet that Anonymous uses to take down websites.

    About ten people, called “OPs”, are able to launch an attack. If any OP abuses his power—if he fails to heed what anons call “the hive mind” in IRC conversations— the other OPs can lock him out of the chat. If any anon fails to be inspired by the target, she can remove her own computer from the volunteer botnet, reducing its effect. Anonymous is a 24-hour Athenian democracy, run by a quorum of whoever happens to be awake.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

  • Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys,

    I think the most dreeeeeamy thing about him is the way he allegedly fucked a woman while she was sleeping. <swoon>

    This might come as an amazing shock to some PAS commentators but waking up, feeling frisky and trying to initiate sex with your partner is standard behaviour amongst sexually active adults. Maybe Assange did this in an aggressive, coercive way that justifies the involvement of the criminal justice system - and maybe he didn't and the charge is vexatious. In the absence of more facts and with the assumption of innocence this is a silly point to judge him on.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

  • Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys,

    I can't say for sure that Wikileaks wouldn't publish WINZ records, but the goal of their organisation is nothing to do with government privacy as regards the state and the individual citizen, but government privacy as regards the state keeping its activities secrets from the citizens that fund it. So I can't see how they'd justify leaking, say, the welfare records of private citizens. I'd also point out that the New Zealand media has done just that several times in the last year.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Pay Attention,

    I am not sure that was a generalization. It is a very specific comment about a guy whose blog reads as if it could have been written by Clayton Weatherston’s somewhat smarter brother.

    Your argument has the same tone behind it as the Baatan Death March.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Pay Attention,

    Assange does seem to be fairly sure he knows what is best for everyone.

    Its not hard to see a guy like that as a rapist.

    This type of generalisation is typical of arsonists.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

  • Hard News: Popular Paranoiac Politics,

    I also have a crazy scheme to get rid of visiting proselytisers. I tell them that I'm not interested and they thank me and leave. This has never failed.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

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