therning.org/ magnus

David Cameron said that

If children don’t learnt to respect authority at school how can we expect them to respect others when they grow up?

Maybe they’ll grow up to be politicians. Then they can continue the blatant disrespect for the voting public that is so common in today’s politics.

Respect is something you earn, and very importantly it shouldn’t be confused with fear. ASBOs, fingerprinting and CCTV cameras in schools, these aren’t examples of attempts at earning respect, they are trying to strike fear into school children.

So, David, why not stand up against the current trend of sneaking in a police state through the school gates? I am convinced that kids who are treated with respect will be better behaved and respect authority… they will also make better future politicians!

During the trip to Sweden I’ve had a few thoughts I thought I’d “put out there”.

The Americans really ought to raise a statue honoring Hitler. Yes, I’m (almost) serious. I don’t think USA would be as strong as it is today if it weren’t for the brain drain from Europe to America that Hitler caused. I also can’t help thinking that it’s a shame they didn’t go to Canada instead…

Haskell is a great language, the only bad thing about it is it’s strength. Recently I came across some code using HXT. Haskell allows creation of something that can almost be called mini-languages due to it allowing the programmer to create new in-fix functions. This means that in many cases Haskell forces me to read documentation on a library/toolkit before being able to even guess at the meaning of some functions. I like it and get frustrated by it at the same time

Way back in the day many countries found it necessary to separate the church and the state. Maybe we’re ready to separate the “market” and the state now? I get something dreamy in my eyes when thinking of a future where politicians don’t govern based on their own, often short-term, financial gain.

Yes, hpodder is awesome.

Theo de Raadt sometimes has some very good things to say. His way of saying it is always entertaining though.

The US politicians have been busy. First they claim space. I predict it’s only a matter of time before DHS is given jurisdiction over space, effectively making the US an intergalactic power. At the same time they’ve been busy signing away the single most important idea in the US body of law, separation of powers, making US the Fourth Reich. It seems Constitution 2.0 is now a reality.

The UK can’t afford to be any worse. At least there is some discussion of our loss of liberty. Get yourself a suspected terrorist badge, or order a t-shirt:

I wonder how long it’ll take until the message reaches the media and the politicians. Solve the basic problem rather than patching up the symptoms. Identity fraud will remain a growing problem as long as it’s possible easy to “become someone” by using documents that are sent regularly through the mail (i.e. bills).

Now, why are politicians repeating what the unrivaled masters of FUD say?

I thought our elected politicians were supposed to look out for our best interest, not suck up to foreign multi-nationals who have been found to indulge in nti-competitive behaviour.

It seems Microsoft is having problems getting the next version of their flagsship product into a state where it can be released and they’re grabbing for straws in order to pass blame. The business world seems fully capable of running on XP/2000—is has been for quite a while now—waiting a few extra months for Vista won’t hurt anyone but Microsoft.

What exactly will banning violent porn actually achieve? My bet is, not much! Won’t this make killers into victims?

Another good reason to not have ID cards. Like we needed any more.

I am not surprised that tobacco companies are lying, scheming bastards. Just like companies in the computer business tailer their products to the standard test benches, tobacco companies will tailor their products to tests.

Lip service at its best—an online magazine censoring itself based on IP.

The Pirate Party has a manifesto. I wonder how long it’ll take until the general public pressures the major parties in all countries to start addressing the “IT issues” we face.

They keep on saying that censorship is bad, at the same time they want to introduce it in Europe. Brilliant!

Well, at least it seems it is. I’m wondering when they will release all the information to the public so that we can see if Aigarius’ rant comes true.

Apparently Heathrow is being sued by one company. From a business perspective it makes sense to pass on the bill. As a private person I don’t really care though, since I know in the end it’ll be me and all other “small people” that end up footing the bill. Whether it’s through higher ticket prices (preferable) or through tax money (not nearly as good a solution, but very probable given the pro-business climate in this country). No matter what I’ll end up paying for this whole mess.

If this is indicative of how the terror-antiterror race (sorry, but no, it’s not a war) is going to be fought then I think we might have to rename the worse guys (both sides are pretty bad as it is, but one side is still holding on to the rhetoric and at least pretend to be doing this for the common good). Terrorists will in the future be referred to as “inconvenientists”.

RyanAir must be rather happy with the situation. They’ve been charging for checking in luggage for a while now and they are raising the prizes on September 1. With the new limits for handluggage they stand to benefit. Which reminds me, we have a flight in September, booked a few months back. I wonder if they will let us amend our ticket so we can avoid the £7 charge for checking in a single bag?

Isreal has the right to exist!

So say every official Israeli spokesperson that is interviewed. It’s interesting that they feel a need to repeat that over and over again. Are they worried they will lose that right?

Elmo is right, Britain really is the 51st state. I’ve noticed the very strange and one-sided relationship with the US before but this article on Britain’s nuclear weapons put that in a whole new light.

Britain has just been blessed with a system of threat levels. Bruce Schneier isn’t impressed and I can’t help but wonder what should we do now that the threat level is SEVERE?

RFID seems to be the rave at the moment for securing things, which means it’s the rave in circles that break stuff. Here’s an interesting story on how secure signal-emitting chips in car keys are. It seems the RFID in passports has been cracked as well.

To end on a lighter note, you can now get your computer to do useful stuff by hitting it.

I just received an email saying that the data retention directive was passed today. 378 votes to 197. It’s a sad day in the EU! The future is filled with work for our brilliant politicians, both EU and national. They will have to deal with a few issues as this directive is passed into laws.

• How to get a national laws adopted in each country that live up to this new directive, while still not breaking other laws. This should prove interesting since data retention laws has been up for discussion in several EU countries before. They’ve always been rejected. It’s even been said the data retention directive violates the EU human rights directive. Oh, so much fun!
• They have to somehow sell the idea to the ignorant public. All of a sudden prices for communication will go up just because the companies are forced to start storing more information. It will also be expensive to keep that information secure.
• Given the higher costs small communication businesses (local ISPs etc) will be forced to close.
• The politicians will have to make a law that covers the specifics of internet traffic. Especially VOIP data retention will be an interesting subject to follow. How to deal with VPNs.
• There will most likely be a drop in EU support among the public once it sinks in just how moronic and expensive this directive is. The anti-EU camp can just sit back and watch. The EU politicians have done the job for them.
• There is a project within EU to make the union more competitive, and I guess the most attractive region for high-tech industry. AFAIK they should be done with this project in 2010. Not much has happened, after all it’s EU. I’d love to read a report on just how far back this directive pushes this project!

I hope the European people won’t accept this. I think the EU sceptics have been handed a sharp and shiny weapon today. It would be disappointing indeed if this doesn’t reach the public so they can see just how distant Brussels really is. They might as well be living on the Moon!

I still have hope in the national politicians. I don’t think this directive will fly on a national level. The “laws of Europe” may say that every member country must pass a law based on the directive within 18 months, but how can they? It’d be a gross invasion of privacy and the technical hurdles are daunting. IP just isn’t designed for this sort of surveillance.

I think it’ll get worse before it gets better. These are indeed interesting times. I need to make some preparations.

• I need to get tor working properly on my machine at home.
• I need to get my muttng at home to use an anonymous remailer rather than sending email over my ISP’s SMTP server
• I will start turning off my mobile phone (I have a PAYG card, but I’m sure I’ve but my name next to my number somewhere and that means I’ll be trackable)

That will actually be rather fun