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NSA revelations could hurt collaboration with 'betrayed' hackers

reuters.com

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Re: NSA revelations could hurt collaboration with 'betrayed' hackers

#101

Post by smtddr »

saraid216 wrote: post #98
smtddr wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're completely right. This discussion is almost impossible since, for the human brain, I can't define "knowledge", "capacity", "limit", "intellect". I mean really, what does it mean for a human brain to reach capacity anyway? What function is it not able to do once it reaches that point? What does it mean to be smart or intellectual? Do we all agree that Stephen Hawking is those things? Why? I don't know and I can…

> I don't know and I can't even begin to debate it, I'm not smart enough. Well, no. You lack the knowledge for having a useful discussion about it. Spend time brushing up on pedagogical techniques, neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology: all the fields that touch on growth in the mental dimensions of a human being. My own expertise is pretty minimal, but just seeing the cutting edge of the research is fascinatin…

Science doesn't fully understand the human brain so I cannot agree that intelligence can be fully measured by any scientific means today. We have some tests, but the value of them is debated.

Re: NSA revelations could hurt collaboration with 'betrayed' hackers

#102

Post by e3pi »

"Closest to home for many hackers are the government's aggressive prosecutions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which has been used against Internet activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in January, and U.S. soldier Bradley Manning, who leaked classified files to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks."

With also Binney, Drake, Snowden, with the Justice Dept's Eric Holder and Carmen Ortiz prosecuting with trump upped draconian charges, and that we also know the intel/security agencies spokespeople with an eagle logo are consistent prevaricators, it is clearly recklessly dangerous to become directly involved with these federally sanctioned criminals. At least factor that in, while negotiating your compensation.

Re: NSA revelations could hurt collaboration with 'betrayed' hackers

#103

Post by sampsonjs »

tptacek wrote: post #29

The most dangerous and stupid meme percolating in pop tech culture is that the people engaged with tech culture have a unique claim to computer science, electrical engineering, cryptography, information security, and privacy technology. The Slashdot diaspora genuinely believes that most of the world's computer engineering talent reads their comments. The reality is that not only does money do a fine job of buying tal…

"I don't do work for the USG". Talk about burying the lede. So where did you get this knowledge about the awesomeness of Government training? I DO work for a contractor, one that hires from the same market as everyone else, with lower salaries. We're not all morons, but I was unaware we were turning substandard hires into geniuses. I must have missed the training program.

Re: NSA revelations could hurt collaboration with 'betrayed' hackers

#104

Post by socialist_coder »

tptacek wrote: post #29

The most dangerous and stupid meme percolating in pop tech culture is that the people engaged with tech culture have a unique claim to computer science, electrical engineering, cryptography, information security, and privacy technology. The Slashdot diaspora genuinely believes that most of the world's computer engineering talent reads their comments. The reality is that not only does money do a fine job of buying tal…

"The kinds of commercial organizations that take in raw recruits generally turn out extremely mediocre J2EE and .NET developers"

Maybe the NSA is different but from my experience, the big contractors that do programming for government programs are exactly the same. Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, etc- they have lots of mediocre .NET and J2EE devs.

Those types of developers you can attract with money. But the truly bright and intelligent people just aren't interested.

Re: NSA revelations could hurt collaboration with 'betrayed' hackers

#105

Post by tomjen3 »

majelix wrote: post #71
bit_genesis wrote: post #22

It's worth pointing out that you don't need to work "for the NSA" to be contributing to state surveillance. If someone is hired straight out of college to work for any type of cloud services provider with revenues over a billion, it's probably safe to say that they your prospective employer has enough market reach to have attracted the attention of state surveillance programs. Of course, by law, your prospective empl…

> It's worth pointing out that you don't need to work "for the NSA" to be contributing to state surveillance. The flip is also true: you're not necessarily contributing to state surveillance just because you work "for the NSA". Two easy examples are SELinux and the various NSA Guides to Securing .

I always assumed SELinux was backdoored. I am still waiting on the proof that I am wrong.
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