European Security Unit

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Will WikiLeaks destroy the internet as we know it?

We’ve seen Wikileaks lose its DNS provider, so it had to change its domain name from wikileaks.org to wikileaks.ch.

We’ve seen Wikileaks lose access to income sources when PayPal, MasterCard, and others stopped accepting payments on its behalf.

We’ve seen Wikileaks lose hosting services from Amazon, when Amazon rightly determined that Wikileaks had violated its terms of service (the part where you need to own your own content was a clear violation).

We’ve also seen Wikileaks’ ringmaster, Julian Assange, finally tracked down and arrested. Weirdly, though, he wasn’t arrested for trafficking in stolen government documents, but for some conveniently strange sexual deviance charge.

I honestly can’t tell how to parse that one. We don’t really know Assange, so we don’t know if he is a sexual offender, but isn’t it curious how those charges suddenly showed up? I’m obviously not a fan of the guy, but the timing is…interesting.

But even though Wikileaks continues to take a licking, it still keeps on ticking.

How is it possible that a simple Web site can so infuriate governments the world over, but still remain active?

We may start to see in-depth packet analysis for all traffic, so that torrents containing classified information can be disrupted. We may see ISPs required to block any encrypted or binary communication, so anything that’s unreadable by governments can’t travel across the network. We may see citizens permanently cut off from the Internet (and, by extension, cut off from their friends, jobs, and society) because they’re hosting files that only just might be similar to files of interest.

Full Story.

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How To Install A Home Security System

1. Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men's
Work Boots size 14-16 (used)
2. Place them on front porch, along with a copy of
Gun And Ammo Magazine.
3. Put a few giant dog dishes next to the boots and magazine
4. Leave a note on your door that reads


Hay Bubba,

Big Jim, Duke, Slim, and I gone for more ammunition.

Will be back in one hour. Don't mess with the pit bulls-- they attacked the mailman this morning and messed him up real bad. I don't think Killer took part in it, but it was hard to tell from all the blood. Anyway, I locked all of the dog's in the house. Better Just wait outside until we can get back.

Scooter

I've only hunted for two things in my life. Snails--they have a hard time getting away once you track the lil buggers down. And mushrooms--they move even slower than snails. But both are great eatin'.

ADT turns the lights off

Recently, I noticed an ADT TV commercial that has been playing very frequently. For anyone who doesn't know, ADT is one of the biggest and most respected security companies in North America. The reason I noticed this commercial is because in it, the announcer says "You can arm and disarm your home remotely and even turn on and off your lights". Now, you can call me a nit picker and I wouldn't object...so long as you don't do it by saying "Go home and pick them your nits".

Was this commercial translated from Japanese to English? Did none of the hundreds of people who read, saw, heard, were involved with or approved this commercial notice the glaring disjointed phrase? Perhaps the CEO's nine-year-old daughter wrote the copy.

I just decided to see how common this "flowery" phrase is. I got 121 hits on google for the exact phrase "turn on and off your lights". Well, it's nice to know that if ADT ever needs another ad writer, there's plenty of them out there who are up to its standards.

Ok, I'm leaving my keyboard now and going to turn it on my TV.

Doughnuts 'n stuff

I recently made a trip to Dallas, Texas. While clearing airport security at my stop-over in Detroit, I accidentally spilled some of the contents of the tray containing my metal objects, namely loose change. So as not to disrupt the flow of the line, I quickly got on my knees and collected all the coins I could see within my vicinity and put them in my pocket.

When I got to my destination, I reached into my pocket, grabbed the handful of (Canadian) coins I wouldn't be needing during my stay and placed them on a dresser. There they sat for 10 days.

When I picked them up as I was getting ready to head to the airport, I noticed a couple of odd-looking coins. My immediate thought was that the taco lady in Detroit had ripped me off, giving me "slugs" instead of quarters. I have a bad habit of never even glancing at my change whenever I'm handed it.

Upon closer inspection, they were each a 2-Euro coin. Four Euros! I'm not sure how much that is, but I seem to recall that the Euro is worth more than a U.S. dollar and a U.S. dollar is worth more than a Canadian dollar. Ok, I just checked. My little windfall has netted me just about $6 Canadian. Not bad for five seconds work. I'm going back to the airport tomorrow. This time I'm going to borrow a metal detector from the security staff.

By the way, I'm not sure if this is true of every Dunkin' Donuts shop in the U.S., but the one in the Memphis airport has the biggest apple fritters I've ever seen in my life. They are no less than three times the size of our Tim Horton's equivalent. I'm not exaggerating. I bought one and was expecting to pay like $3 for it or something, but it cost me no more than a regular doughnut, whatever that was. Amazing! It took me about 15 minutes to eat the damn thing which was delicious, and it sufficed as my lunch. What a deal!