Comments on: One Nation, Under Surveillance

By: Why You Should Abstain from the Census « Reboot The Republic

Why You Should Abstain from the Census « Reboot The Republic — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:28:37 +0000

[...] For a thorough overview of One Nation, check out Michael Hampton’s review of One Nation over at Homeland Stupidity. [...]

By: Larry

Larry — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:13:10 +0000

I was electronically attacked while working for a lobster precessor that had a DOD contract. My rights were violated as well as my privacy. There methods are effective. Our Govement does violate its citizens rights in the name of profit for the connected! I now fear my Goverment more than the terrorists, don’t be ruled and controlled by fear! The best way to reverse course and get our rights back is to shrink the Goverment’s income is by cutting taxes and only having laws against crimes that have a real victim.

By: Highlander

Highlander — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:52:49 +0000

The remarks were:
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15 Fire alarm systems:
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Surveillance in the right place and time is actually helpful in nabbing real criminals. This is the basic problem in security, differentiating good guys from bad, and this comes at the expense of privacy et all.
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The essence of your remarks is just this: Since you believe that all conversations, connections, transactions and/or other events on the Internet are ‘fair game’ for the ‘watchers,’ then perhaps YOU wouldn’t mind wearing a GPS locator and a ‘wire’ such as to capture your every move and word so that they may be analyzed and later used to incriminate you of the most innocent of acts?
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If you can’t buy that, then your words are without value.
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The fact of the matter is just this: Surveillance should happen ONLY when there has been a POSITIVE correlation between someone’s previous acts and a known crime, such as to associate the suspect with the crime.
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All other such ‘surveillance’ is actually against the law.
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And should YOU decide to pop-off with ‘Well, if you have nothing to hide …’ I’ll reply with: THAT remark is the quintessential essence of an accusation of guilt.
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According to the one whom expresses such a thought, why ~everyone~ is guilty of something, and it’s only a matter of time before we’re all found out.
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We —the Citizens of the United States— don’t live in a freaking surveillance society, inasmuch as there’s NO enumeration in the U.S. Constitution for any such activity by the United States.
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No enumeration? NO POWER, and NO AUTHORITY.
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Ergo, any such ‘surveillance’ by whatever agency of government is without legal validity to exist, except as noted.

By: reviculous

reviculous — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:03:39 +0000

I said this years ago, having already been a victim, and now I am very careful what goes online. Having been hacked both online and in a sense, in my real life, I’m pretty much gun-shy now.You can make anyone ANYONE look like a criminal if you try hard enough, but really it’s easy.
Most people assume that the accused must have been doing SOMETHING bad (as they sit there watching TV, drinking beer, smoking a doob, downloading porn, and pirating CD’s) because they KNOW they are doing stuff they shouldn’t, so doesn’t everyone?
When I got hit, I was doing nothing wrong that I knew of, still, that is no excuse anymore(?!)no matter how right you are, how much lack of evidence, I was advised that jurors are generally people who are “not smart enough to avoid jury duty” so are much more likely to respond emotionally rather that factually.
All you have to do to make someone appear guilty is generate emotional outrage. Even if the person is found innocent there will still be lingering doubt.
That was my lesson, free to you about why you should be concerned. Maybe you think you have no enemies. Maybe you don’t- yet. Maybe you aren’t breaking any laws on the books -yet. Things can change. You will be just fine… right up to the day you are not!

By: Johnny de Vulcan

Johnny de Vulcan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:36:41 +0000

ECHELON has been spying on our PCs and listening to our phone-conversations for years . We just don´t care anymore; that may be the only way they will ever hear the truth. The mountain of evidence of a dawning fascist-police state are so obvious that it is impossible not to speak about.The 1 world government will fail just like all the spectacular mistakes they allready have commited; 9/11 was un-veiled, the mass-theft of murcans savings and pensions were found out, and the pandemic flu is allso falling apart; they are too stupid to succeed and too divided- and they know that no criminal , selfish plans involving departure from the truth has no real power compared to that of the wrath of the PEOBLE.

By: Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:00:21 +0000

Sure, it’s possible to make Windows reasonably safe. But doing so is outside the reach of the typical Windows user, as you pointed out. And people like me have better things to do with our time than babysit our computers.

As for Windows bashing, well, I’ve been doing that since the days of Windows 3.1 and I don’t see any good reason to stop. It deserves every bad word.

On that note, it’s my theory that the reason so many people need so much hand holding is that Windows actually prevents them from learning about their computer, as much as possible. One has to be very highly motivated in order to learn anything about computers or the Internet when working within Windows.

By: nerd

nerd — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:52:13 +0000

honestly you can use windows and still be as secure as anyone using a bootstick or live version of linux, you just need to be smart about it. if this article is aimed at trying to get a normal american to be safe online, forget it, they don’t have the technical skills to do it without extreme baby steps and much hand holding. any person who knows what a live distro of linux is and how to use it can use windows safely. other than my nitpicking over the windows bashing, this article was good.

By: Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:35:34 +0000

I did. But Ubuntu (and Debian) currently have a critical data-loss bug involving encrypted hard drives, and they haven’t bothered to fix it. So it is simply not safe to install these on your computer at this time.

By: secret

secret — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:32:49 +0000

“such as video editing” — see the “ubuntu studio” distro

By: Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:16:05 +0000

Ulrich, if you can’t figure out how to commit a felony before you get out of bed, then something’s wrong.

Boston, thanks!

Santino, your elected officials do read this stuff, and they are doing something about it. What they’re doing, of course, is the opposite of what we would like to see.

V, I understand some people have concerns about buying from Amazon (though if you’re creative, you can find a way to do it privately; this is covered in the book). Any brick-and-mortar bookstore should be able to order it, if they don’t already carry it. You can also order directly from the publisher using, say, a blank money order.