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In Cairo, the Garbage Collector Knows Everything

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Re: In Cairo, the Garbage Collector Knows Everything

#41

Post by mc32 »

chc wrote: post #40
mc32 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it’s a stretch to say using an alias makes it less real or using a ruckenfigur picture takes away from the story. If the law allows for witness protection via alias, I can’t see something less real or genuine. As someone else had pointed out this man may not realize or care about the consequences of the publicity but the author does have a duty to care and I think he betrayed that duty here.

I'm trying to figure this out: What, specifically, is the duty you think he betrayed? It's pretty obviously not the case that authors have a duty to anonymize everybody they write about — I've never even heard a serious argument to that effect. Hessler said he considered whether there was likely to be negative consequences for Sayyid if he was identified in the story, and he didn't see any likelihood of that. There d…

So, to me a lot of what he (the sanitation worker) did wasn’t “official”. Also, he scavenged (and maybe it’s lucrative to him, if so it might interest others). It also mentions he does not observe religious orthodoxy. Someone could come along and try and argue he’s not fit for the job or worse.

It’s like when writing s story about people on the periphery of society and most writers use pseudonyms for their subjects. It’s good courtesy and good practice.

Re: In Cairo, the Garbage Collector Knows Everything

#42

Post by mynameisvlad »

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #31
egypturnash wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you do not have a publicly-funded garbage collection infrastructure, then the private enterprises that fill in those gaps can, and will, make use of any physical or informational resources they find in the trash they pick up in an effort to make a decent living. Examples given include "a nice camera", "drugs", "porn", and "knowing exactly how much money an ambassador is making". There are no examples given invol…

Scary. It's not obvious to me that I should trust the government more than a big corporation with a reputation to defend. If Google was found to be leaking credit card details, for example, it would at least cost them a ton of business (and maybe do much more harm than that). They have the wherewithal to avoid it. The incentives for long-term investment in security infrastructure are weaker in government.

> If Google was found to be leaking credit card details, for example, it would at least cost them a ton of business

Would it? I can't think of a single case where this has actually happened. It's great in theory and all, but it is far from reality.

The biggest data breaches over the past century have been with giant companies that are still known today. Yahoo, Marriott, Adult Friend Finder, eBay, Equifax, Heartland Payment Systems, Target, TJX, Uber, JP Morgan Chase, the US OPM, Sony's PSN network, Anthem, RSA, Home Depot and Adobe are all still in business, and for some of them, the lack of repercussions have been staggering (looking at you, Equifax).

Granted, not all are credit card breaches specifically, but several are, and in all cases a lot of personally identifiable information was stolen.

Source: https://www.csoonline.com/article/2130877/the-biggest-data-b...

Re: In Cairo, the Garbage Collector Knows Everything

#43

Post by cbnotfromthere »

egypturnash wrote: post #26
Jeff_Brown wrote: post #18

tl;dr, anybody? I came to this article hoping to learn something about public policy, esp. regarding privacy. Whatever insights into those topics there might be are too buried in story for me to find them easily so I stopped reading.

When you do not have a publicly-funded garbage collection infrastructure, then the private enterprises that fill in those gaps can, and will, make use of any physical or informational resources they find in the trash they pick up in an effort to make a decent living. Examples given include "a nice camera", "drugs", "porn", and "knowing exactly how much money an ambassador is making". There are no examples given invol…

Actually Cairo did and still does have a publicly-funded garbage collection infrastructure, separately from guys like this one in the book excerpt.

Re: In Cairo, the Garbage Collector Knows Everything

#44

Post by JadeNB »

cpeterso wrote: post #20

See also the "Elephant in Cairo" search algorithm: 1. Go to Africa. 2. Put an elephant in Cairo. 3. Start at the Cape of Good Hope. 4. Work northward in an orderly manner, traversing the continent alternately east and west, 5. During each traverse pass: * Catch each animal seen. * Compare each animal caught to a known elephant. * Stop when a match is detected. 6. If you are in Cairo, then there are no elephants in Af…

> 6. If you are in Cairo, then there are no elephants in Africa (other than the one you placed there).

Or, perhaps, other elephants already in Cairo ….

Re: In Cairo, the Garbage Collector Knows Everything

#45

Post by anaphor »

donpdonp wrote: post #38
erik_landerholm wrote: post #16

I figured there was some new language Cairo with a next gen garbage collector.

I thought someone found a speedup for the Cairo graphics library by looking at the garbage collector.

Same. I've been messing with Xlib/XCB/Cairo/etc for the past few weeks and it's all I've been thinking about lately. I guess if you use the Xlib/XCB backends for Cairo surfaces then you would get some sort of GC on the Xorg server side.

Re: In Cairo, the Garbage Collector Knows Everything

#46

Post by matthewowen »

qserasera wrote: post #12
chc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like Sayyid knew about the story and it doesn't sound like Sayyid is trying to maintain any sort of anonymity, so what is the ethical problem you see here?

Perhaps Sayyid's ignorance of the consequences from such publicity

Did I miss something? What negative consequences were there?

Re: In Cairo, the Garbage Collector Knows Everything

#47

Post by np_tedious »

qserasera wrote: post #12
chc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like Sayyid knew about the story and it doesn't sound like Sayyid is trying to maintain any sort of anonymity, so what is the ethical problem you see here?

Perhaps Sayyid's ignorance of the consequences from such publicity

This is kinda patronizing

Re: In Cairo, the Garbage Collector Knows Everything

#48

Post by neilv »

mc32 wrote: post #41
chc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm trying to figure this out: What, specifically, is the duty you think he betrayed? It's pretty obviously not the case that authors have a duty to anonymize everybody they write about — I've never even heard a serious argument to that effect. Hessler said he considered whether there was likely to be negative consequences for Sayyid if he was identified in the story, and he didn't see any likelihood of that. There d…

So, to me a lot of what he (the sanitation worker) did wasn’t “official”. Also, he scavenged (and maybe it’s lucrative to him, if so it might interest others). It also mentions he does not observe religious orthodoxy. Someone could come along and try and argue he’s not fit for the job or worse. It’s like when writing s story about people on the periphery of society and most writers use pseudonyms for their subjects.…

I think you have a good thinking about journalistic practice here.

It might mitigate hypothetical undesirable effects, in this case, to articulate some of the effect of the article on readers for whom the article was intended.

For one example, for me, as a citizen of the US, where this article was published, I enjoyed this article, and it fostered a favorable impression of Cairo, by humanizing one of its people. In a movie, he would be a beloved character. I realize he is of humble circumstances, among a diversity of people in Cairo (we have such diversity in my own US city, too). I am glad he exists, and that his society permits him to find his own greatness of role, in his way. This gives me an impression of Cairo as good people, with whom to feel fellowship, a desire to travel there and to otherwise learn about and appreciate their culture, and with whom to have good international relations and engage in business/trade. I would be troubled to ever hear that any harm has come to this person, or that he has become unhappy.

Re: In Cairo, the Garbage Collector Knows Everything

#50

Post by 616c »

I guess I'll get in trouble for saying this again. He is compelling and be speaks Arabic blah blah blah, but I feel these articles are more about him than Sayyid, over which we haggle with him vicariously over Egyptians pounds, approximately seventeen to one US dollar now. I know that feeling, but I wouldn't even ironically brag about paying fifty cents over the other wealthy foreigner a month. I would saying something here ironically in cutesy Egyptian Arabic and explain it, but I'd be my own worst enemy.

I have to visit often for family reasons, and they are the reason I avoid being more engaged about being outspoken over there about what goes on. I feel as a westerner we have passively let Egypt totally devolved and we should feel ashamed; these lip service articles only assuage personal guilt, as I see it. I dreamed of being a Hessler and now ashamed I am part of the clique when I visit old friends.

I know I'll go get down-voted for saying it, but oh well.

I would strongly encourage everyone here to visit, and go beyond what tourist books tell you. You cannot freely write on the details of the place anymore, and I learned the most about life from Egypt.

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