Author Archives: Burrowowl

Anonymous Cowards 

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There’s been a rash of document leakages this summer coming from groups that are easy to lazily associate with Anonymous. Internet miscreants, hackers, and anarchists have all had reason to seek anonymity over the years, so any activity of this sort would almost necessarily involve the agent of misbehavior attempting to hide his identity. We laugh about bank robbers that give real information about themselves to tellers before holding the place up. We joke about stupid liquor-store cowboys that drop their wallets at the scene of the crime. Yet we as a society find it easy to point at Lulzsec or Anonymous and relate their anonymity with cowardice. They don’t have the guts to speak out publicly. They don’t have the courage of their convictions to behave like the EFF or ACLU.

This past weekend some folks claiming association with AntiSec put up a lot of documents grabbed from law enforcement web servers. On sites like Know Your Meme many recent comments on their Operation Antisec article decry the so-called hackivists as having totally crossed the line. As of this writing, comments taking this position are being received better than those supporting the hackers’ behavior.

What did the AntiSec hackers do that was so bad? They revealed personal information about police. For decades, law enforcement agents have operated with a kind of pseudo-anonymity. They typically have names and ID numbers visible on their persons when acting officially, but very little is publicly available — legally, that is — about who they are. Society has held that these people we trust to enforce the law, keep the peace, and exercise person judgement in life-or-death decisions may as well, in many ways, be patrolling our streets in Guy Fawkes masks and black sweatshirts for all the personal accountability they seem to have.

It seems to take extremely vocal outcry by a community to get meaningful repercussions laid onto a badly-behaved police officer; a gauntlet of special legal statuses, internal loyalties among law enforcement, union reps, and politicians that live in fear that they may be painted as “soft on crime” must be penetrated before the mother of a boy shot by a policeman can get justice.

So anonymous hackers build up a gauntlet of proxies and encryption and pseudonyms and false trails. It may not be right, but there’s a kind of symmetry here.

Daddy Issues

The chain of fickle overuse of D-mail earlier in the series is starting to take on some gravity as Hououin attempts to unravel the mess he’s got himself mired in. In episode 17 of Steins;Gate we get insight into the motivations and past actions of Feyris, the cosplaying competitive boardgamer.

Years ago in the original timeline, her father had donated an IBN-5100 computer to a local shrine, but subsequent changes have put the device out of our protagonists’ reach. Can they undo the damage they’ve caused? Nobody but Kyouma remembers the old continuity and he didn’t compose or send the D-mail himself. Once they figure out what was sent and why, an ethical dilemma presents itself.

This episode strayed perilously close to sappy and melodramatic territory, but didn’t quite cross the line. Kyouma is left with a greater appreciation for the repercussions of his actions.

Why the Debt Ceiling doesn't matter

There’s been a lot of hubbub lately about the threat of the United States government defaulting on its loans and other financial commitments because congress hasn’t raised the cap on the maximum amount it is allowed to be in debt by law. Scary thoughts like Social Security checks not going on out, Treasury bonds not being paid out upon maturity, Veteran’s Administration hospitals closing their doors, and other calamaties have been put forward as possible repercussions of this political fuss. Here is, quite simply, why this shouldn’t be a problem even if Congress can’t get its act together in the next week or so:

From the U.S. Constitution:

Article. VI.

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Supreme law of the land means that other laws, regulations, and practices are subordinate to the Constitution, and only laws that are consistent with it are valid. Dig down a little further and you find that it has been amended several times. Of particular interest these days is the 14th time it was amended:

AMENDMENT XIV
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,* and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 4 was meant to distance the Union from debts incurred by the Confederacy leading up to and during the U.S. Civil War, but starts with a clear affirmation that the United States federal government will and must meet any and all of its financial commitments.

In the light of the 14th amendment, the debt ceiling is not valid under Article 6 of the Constitution. If the Republicans want to cut spending, they should past more austere budgets, and shame on President Obama for playing along with the scare-mongering.

Stein's Gate 16

A sci-fi show revolving around time travel? That doesn’t involve a TARDIS? That’s good? Yes! Still! Steins;Gate is running strong at 16 episodes, in defiance of my cynical expectations.

In this episode a personal mystery is unraveled, a 35-year-old bicycle changes hand, and somebody dies a long time ago. Good stuff.

Check your wiring

Got a speed problem? Check that wiring. No, really. Pull out a couple of screwdrivers and go to town. This morning I put on some Curious George to distract the boys, and my useless second line has never been better.

At issue here was some shoddy internal wire work I did while home on a lunch break a while back. It turns out that having a loose contact at the phone box can reduce your stable ADSL2+ line rates by eighty-three percent or so.

The lousy splice bumped the downstream line attenuation from ~47dB to ~65dB, leaving the circuit extremely sensitive to the RF noises found in the wilds of suburban California. Physically identifying the problem consisted of simply making sure the various contacts involved were firmly screwed down and gently tugging on the wires at an unsightly jellybean splice and at the MPOE. I inadvertently demonstrated to myself that modern fool-proof demarcation point technology is in fact fool-susceptible, provided sufficient foolishness.

The 3mbps line speed shown is the result of having capped my maximum sync rate cautiously, as I’m on a rather long loop from the ILEC’s central office. Normally you’d have to call your ISP to get this adjusted.

Tools required: One phillips-head screwdriver for the biscuit block in my living room, one flat-head screwdriver to open my phone box, one medium-sized self-adhesive bandage for my finger after somehow cutting myself with the phillips-head screwdriver, one TV with a DVR set to maintain a hoard of children’s programming.

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai

After a young girl dies in an accident, her tight-knit group of friends drift apart. Years later, Yadomi Jinta is a recluse hiding away from the world. After skipping out on a semester of school, he is haunted by the memory of his lost friend. As he reconnects to the world, a touching story unfolds.

Eleven half-hour episodes of excellence. I rather admire that this series didn’t attempt to stretch itself out to an artificial “season” length. It took eleven episodes to tell the story properly, sometimes leaking into the end credits where things would have been too compressed otherwise. Highly recommended.

Spoiler: They never find out the name of the flower they saw that day.

Groundhog Effect

If there’s one thing that’s annoying about time travel stories, it’s people fussing about some contrived “paradox” theory or other. A close second is people fussing about the butterfly effect. Stein’s;Gate has had its share of butterfly-fretting, but in its thirteenth installment we finally get to one of my favorite time-travel trope, the Groundhog Day scenario. In the classic Bill Murray film, the main character is stuck in a time loop, repeating the same day over and over again for reasons unknown. Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu had a similar plotline with the Endless Summer arc. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni revolved heavily around a time loop. There have been dozens of video game scenarios that are simply so difficult that the player has to re-try over and over again in a manner reminiscent of Groundhog Day, and I’m not just talking about Donkey Kong Country here.

Time travel tropes are sticky business, but Stein’s;Gate is handling it admirably so far. I certainly feel a bit liberated in regards to posting pictures that look like spoilers now, that’s for sure (a character can only die so many times before it loses its dramatic kick).

Stein's Gate 12

Previously I gave a conditional endorsement of Stein’s Gate based on an assumption that everything would derail after a half-dozen episodes or so. Twelve episodes in, we are finally at crossroads of sorts. This show is either just about to faceplant into a steaming pile of failure or soar into greatness. I stand corrected. This series has remained awesome for at least twice as long as anticipated.

Tune in next week to find out how Hououin Kyouma uses seemingly-ordinary kitchen appliances to challenge murderers, turncoats, international conspiracies, and fate itself!

For the lulz 

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Supposedly released by LulzSec:

1. Salutations Lulz Lizards,
2.
3. As we’re aware, the government and whitehat security terrorists across the world continue to dominate and control our Internet ocean. Sitting pretty on cargo bays full of corrupt booty, they think it’s acceptable to condition and enslave all vessels in sight. Our Lulz Lizard battle fleet is now declaring immediate and unremitting war on the freedom-snatching moderators of 2011.
4.
5. Welcome to Operation Anti-Security (#AntiSec) – we encourage any vessel, large or small, to open fire on any government or agency that crosses their path. We fully endorse the flaunting of the word “AntiSec” on any government website defacement or physical graffiti art. We encourage you to spread the word of AntiSec far and wide, for it will be remembered. To increase efforts, we are now teaming up with the Anonymous collective and all affiliated battleships.
6.
7. Whether you’re sailing with us or against us, whether you hold past grudges or a burning desire to sink our lone ship, we invite you to join the rebellion. Together we can defend ourselves so that our privacy is not overrun by profiteering gluttons. Your hat can be white, gray or black, your skin and race are not important. If you’re aware of the corruption, expose it now, in the name of Anti-Security.
8.
9. Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments. If they try to censor our progress, we will obliterate the censor with cannonfire anointed with lizard blood.
10.
11. It’s now or never. Come aboard, we’re expecting you…
12.
13. History begins today.
14.
15. Lulz Security,
16. http://LulzSecurity.com/
17.
18. Support: http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/manifesto.html
19. Support: http://www.youtube.com/user/thejuicemedia
20. Support: http://wikileaks.ch/
21. Support: http://anonyops.com/

It immediately occurs to me that defacing government websites will do no good for anybody but the security consultants that will be retained to prevent future problems. Compromising bank systems, either to release account information or to halt transactions is almost certain to cause more serious problems for the typical prole than do any lasting harm to the folks at the top of the food chain. There's something to be said for the flair LulzSec has displayed with their efforts, though.

Off-season thoughts

Summer officially started for Sharks fans last night, ten minutes forty-eight seconds into the second overtime period. This traditionally entails gnashing of teeth, wearing of sack-cloth and ashes, complaints about officiating, excuses about late-season and post-season injuries, and optimistic starry-eyed tripe like “next year they’ll come back even better.” That may well be, but it certainly won’t be the same 2010-2011 San Jose team.

According to Capgeek, San Jose is already in the hole for about $51,000,000 of salary cap for 2011-2012, with millions locked up in Heatley, Thornton, Marleau, and Boyle, all of whom have no-trade or no-movement clauses in their contracts. They’re not going anywhere, but several over players are either potential trade fodder or entering free agency in one form or another. There’s a lot of wiggle room in the roster:

  • Joe Pavelski is a solid performer, but with $12,000,000 and three years left in his contract, it’s a bit of a stretch to assume folks are looking to trade for such an expensive third-line center.
  • Ryane Clowe, with $7,500,000 contracted over the next two years and some serious work ethic through the rough patches, may be a touch more appealing on the trade market.
  • Devin Setoguchi goes restricted free agent this summer. $1,800,000 for a winger that dumped Dany Heatley off the first line is pretty cheap, so we can expect #16 to see some tempting offers.
  • Torrey Mitchell is looking to earn $1,725,000 in the last year of his contract. He started to shine again once the Sharks put him on a line with Wellwood and Pavelski, so he is probably a viable trading piece.
  • Ben Eager is relatively inexpensive, as most 4th-liners are, and is an unrestricted free agent this summer. After some ill-advised penalties in the post-season, his stock has probably fallen a fair bit.
  • Benn Ferriero goes restricted free agent after spending most of the year in the AHL. It would be unwise to put a lot of expectation on him at this point.
  • Scott Nichol anchored the 4th line for most of the 2011-2012 season, is a fan favorite, is spoken highly of by other players and coaching staff, is a faceoff-winning machine, and works cheap. Somehow he won’t be re-signed. The Sharks do their damnedest to troll me.
  • Kyle Wellwood is much too good for the money he’s pulling in from San Jose. He answered his doubters with solid performance, and you can expect him to be working somewhere else for a fair bit more.
  • Jamal Mayers is a cheap workhorse that I keep seeing on breakaways that he just can’t close the deal on. The Sharks played him all but four games in the regular season, but I suspect they’ll let him go if they find opportunities elsewhere.

And that’s just among the forwards. Expect the Sharks to lose five to eight of their regulars (including defensemen). The depth, speed, toughness, and work ethic of the 2011-2012 team are all going to be tweaked for good or ill.