5 ms·
You know what's probably the worst part of all of this? It's at I'm afraid to say what I want to say about the topic online.
by mark_integerdsv 13y ago
You know what's probably the worst part of all of this?
It's at I'm afraid to say what I want to say about the topic online.
- kimlelly 13y agoAnd that's where RetroShare comes in: http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/ http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/ It's: 1. Decentralized (real p2p, no central servers) 2. Encrypted communication 3. I'd even add: Easier to set up than encrypted email: Install -> Exchange "certificates" -> Done. IMO, it's currently the best way to communicate.
- mark_integerdsv 13y agoThanks! Going to check this out.
- 300bps 13y agoThanks - I've been looking for something that would be similar to the BBS functionality I found very useful a couple decades ago. This looks like it does an even better job.
- maggit 13y agoI've recently started developing something like this. Now it looks like I might not have to. Thanks! I found RetroShare worthy of its own submission, given today's climate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5983913 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5983913
- PavlovsCat 13y agoI rather think that's where this comes in: When I was asked to make this address I wondered what I had to say to you boys who are graduating. And I think I have one thing to say. If you wish to be useful, never take a course that will silence you. Refuse to learn anything that implies collusion, whether it be a clerkship or a curacy, a legal fee or a post in a university. Retain the power of speech no matter what other power you may lose. If you can take this course, and in so far as you take it, you will bless this country. In so far as you depart from this course, you become dampers, mutes, and hooded executioners. -- John J. Chapman Retroshare is nice, but can't be used to talk in public as a member of the public with other members of the public. I mean, a few friends talking freely behind closed doors? Even dictatorships have that. Don't take this wrong, I know you meant to point out a cool program, and I'm not having a go at you or anyone seeking technical solutions for this.. but I think this is a social/political problem, and ultimately needs to be deal with as such, if we're ever to achieve anything real. If talking freely is risky, because we're still in the stone age in so many ways, then I want the risks, not to shut up.
- kimlelly 13y agoI applaud that attitude - we definitely need more Edward Snowdens!
- PavlovsCat 13y agoIn a documentary about Africa I saw zebras trying to cross a river. It was full of crocodiles awaiting them, and the zebras all gathered around the edge nervously... sooner or later, a few zebras would step (or get pushed) into the river, and then the rest scrambled to follow them, as if on cue. A few got surrounded by crocodiles and eaten ("without ever having felt / sorry for itself" .. !), but the vast majority made it across fine. Imagine if the zebras instead had watched in horror as the first few "pioneers" got mauled... prodding each other saying "your turn", until all of them were too weak to be able to cross, even as a herd, and the crocodiles simply came out of the river and dragged them into it (which is exactly what would have happened, because the reason they cross rivers is that there is nothing left to eat on their side of it). Not that I consider humans herd animals, or that I want to other humans who prey on humans so much that I would cast them as a different species. But I still think there is a lesson for us in there, too. Cowardice, as rational as it may seem, simply doesn't pay in the long run. Until we learn that, we're stuck.
- antocv 13y agoThanks for this great story
- maggit 13y agoI agree. What you are saying is really important, and using RetroShare does not seem to be the correct solution to mark_integerdsv's problem. > a few friends talking freely behind closed doors? Even dictatorships have that. But I feel that I do not have this across the Internet! It is good to be able to talk freely behind closed doors, too. This is why RetroShare seems to solve an important problem for me :)
- PavlovsCat 13y ago
- rbanffy 13y agoI'd rather have my public opinions public and face the consequences. If the next time I visit the US I have my laptop confiscated, my luggage searched or have my entry denied, so be it. I'll know that's because the US no longer welcomes free speech and plan my future travels and career moves accordingly. I'll add that, if that ever happens, it'll be a sad day for me. I still have faith a country founded on principles rather than ethnicity or geography means something. I'd like to keep that faith, if possible.
- flyinRyan 13y agoNothing has ever happened to me in the past and I have no reason to believe I'm under investigation for anything I've ever said. Yet I've already made the decision to never go back. The "lose" position is simply too high to make it worth it. As it stands, if someone decided to "make an example" out of me for some bizarre reason I could be detained indefinitely with no realistic recourse. I can't think of anything the US has (that other countries don't) that makes that sort of risk, regardless of how unlikely it is, worth it (in case that's not clear, what I mean is, my expected odds for getting kidnapped by the US might be one in 100 trillion trillion, yet if it happens my life could be over).
- sneak 13y agoI am a US citizen, born within the continental US, carrying a US passport. When I exercise my fifth amendment right to silence when I am questioned upon attempting to re-enter my home country, I get arrested and harassed and threatened for hours and hours. The phones are all tapped, the cops rule everything, and all of the basic rights we were told we had are now exercised only at the mercy of the military rulers. https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/q71/s720x720/1003831_310021592467486_713072096_n.jpg https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/q71/s720x720/100... A few years ago I went back to the US to visit the crypto museum (incidentally, right across the street from NSA in Fort Meade). It was my first trip to the DC area and the first night I got in, I went over to the Jefferson memorial. A sign on the pathway approaching the dome warns visitors that due to federal law, firearms are prohibited on the grounds. Jefferson would be proud, I'm sure. [note to non-US citizens: It's basic right #2 in the USA that people can own and carry firearms.]
- chli 13y agoSame here, this is weird. I live in a country where free speech is given but I still censorship myself when talking about the US online.
- mark_integerdsv 13y agoYep. South African here.
- _djo_ 13y agoYou arguably have more to fear from your own government, which has far greater capability to (legally) spy on your electronic communications in real-time. Both the NCC and the Interception Centres set up under RICA have virtually unlimited power and access, in fact every service provider is required by law to install the equivalent of Verizon's Room 641A which feeds data real-time directly to an Interception Centre.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- instakill 13y agoAFAIK there are no physical RICA interception centres up and running yet.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- _djo_ 13y agoI'm hearing conflicting reports. I know Laurie Fialkov of CyberSmart has stated that there aren't any up and running and no live interception happening, but I've heard elsewhere that at least one large one exists. I'd be interested in hearing the responses to the same question posed to Telkom, Vodacom, MTN & Cell C, who would be the first to be approached for live streaming. We do know that the OIC carried out 3 million interceptions between 2006 and 2010 and the implication has been that at least some were live. The biggest problem at the moment though is the NCC, which the Matthews Commission found regularly conducted warrantless bulk interceptions and environmental scanning. Unfortunately the Matthews Commission's recommendations went nowhere and from what I'm hearing the NCC has even fewer internal controls on what it monitors within our borders. I just wish South Africans would have as much outrage about what happens locally as they do for what the NSA does.
- yuvadam 13y agoSelf-censorship is the worst kind of censorship. (Meant as words of understanding, not criticism.)
- parasight 13y agoI don't know if that's true. But at least we are aware that we are scared like sh*t about this.
- mtgx 13y agoIt's true. A government can only censor so much content. Inevitably there will be some escaping it. But if everyone censors themselves out of fear, then that's much more effective of a power for a government to have, since they barely have to do any censorship work themselves. They just need to set examples every now and then to remind people "what's waiting for them" if they dare try to expose the truth. I've said it before around here - the most dangerous thing is not the dictator himself. He can be removed if, and only if, the population itself has a free spirit and viciously opposes him, until they remove him. But the real threat is when part of the population starts believing in the dictator's "ideals" and principles, and defend his actions "for the good of the people", and the other part is too scared to say anything anymore. That's when a dictator can rule in "peace", for a long time, and so will his successors, because then, for "his kind", the environment is very "welcoming". Here's a good example of the opposite of self-censorship, and what everyone should be doing: http://mobandmultitude.com/2013/07/02/the-nsa-comes-recruiting/ http://mobandmultitude.com/2013/07/02/the-nsa-comes-recruiti...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- sageikosa 13y agoIs my up-vote being sniffed?
- Arnor 13y agoJust use a handle from LoTR and bounce your trace around China before posting...