How NSA access was built into Windows <OT>

Ric Moore wayward4now at gmail.com
Sun Jan 21 06:27:14 UTC 2007


On Fri, 2007-01-19 at 21:13 -0800, David Boles wrote:

> Gee, thanks Ric.

Any time! :) 

> The plonk was for the 'Selinux is evil' thread not this list. I gather that I
> did not make that clear. 

No, I didn't want you to jump ship either. 

> And I guess that I have turned it off too soon? I had
> grown tired of the 'chicken little' attitude. The sky is falling!! The sky is
> falling!!

It's a matter of perspectives. I saw a lot of intelligent people
wrangling the issue of the "Right Thing", which is always the Geek
Imperative. 

> Not one of you had any idea of what you were talking about here. Not one of
> you had any idea what SElinux does. Or why it does what it does. But you all
> were more than willing to damn SELinux and search for bogey men in the closet.
> Or bogey men under the bed. To spread FUD. 

That's a rather broad brush to tar us all with. It's merely a matter of
deciding to wield it, which you did. 

> And all of this started by an
> article about Windows dated mid summer 1999. Which has nothing to do with
> Linux. And certainly does not qualify as news.

Yeah, once that was pointed out, my jaw dropped too! I try to stay
current on Geek News, and that one sure passed me by. That was when we
had the last RedHat Expo in Chapel Hill, and while hanging with my
Caldera buddies there, it was never brought up that I recall. Evan
Liebovich brought a bag of chicken feet from Canada for me to salt cure.
We were big on "waving a chicken foot" at a computer problem, one of my
inventions. I was trying to build some. God did they stink by the time
they traveled from Canada to NC. :)


> But once again thanks for the invitation to rejoin the list that I did not leave.
> 
> Next time you have I problem I hope that I can help. Feel frre to ask. I'll be
> glad to help if I can.

Sure! Dnload Croquet and see if you can make it run under Linux. It's
supposed to, and plenty of folks haven't managed to do so. 

Back to the topic though, to me one of the main benefits of lists like
this is the sense of community. No one gets paid, everyone pitches in as
they are able, and from personal thoughts and revelations we can make
new friends and associates. Sure, this topic has really broken all
attendance records. But, you can also gain insights into the
personalities here and how they problem solve. 

LX smoked his machine (no greater love hath a man that he lay down his
computer) testing the removal of SELinux. What a hoot! I enjoyed that
telling of his experience. I now also know that he is the type that will
jump into a thing, to gain some new knowledge. I know from all of the
posts where people stand on personal liberties, and Government
encroachment, which is a very relevant issue to computer users as
Citizens. Some will take more, some will take less. People expressing
their personal views, the thing between the chair and the computer makes
the community that makes the OS go as well. 

You betcha that some of us (like me) are clueless as hell about SELinux
except to turn it off. But, I am not condemned to remain so, as I pretty
much trust what is written here from a pile of folks that I have come to
care for. Without the OT stuff, I wouldn't know any one well enough to
do so. As the commercial says "It's the human element." In my personal
avocation a computer is just a shovel, as a useful tool to do useful
work. At one time it was my life. I don't do that anymore. It wasn't
healthy for me. I just see this whole NSA deal as an opportunity to know
everyone better. Plus, a computer will filter it all into the dustbin,
especially if the Subject line properly contains <OT> to respect those
that do not wish to receive the chatter. On that point you are
completely right. You should not be inconvenienced. Please note I
replied after inserting that into the Subject Line. It would be better
if we did that, I'll agree. Ric

 
-- 
================================================
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
Linux user# 44256 Sign up at: http://counter.li.org/
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/oar
http://www.wayward4now.net
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