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I am not planning any nuclear attacks

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Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#41

Post by idibidiart »

Zikes wrote: post #23
crazypyro wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhhh? The "mouse click" was a dead give away. Also, Occam's Razor. Is this guy programming a game in his apartment or is he programming a ICBM with 0 related hardware plus probably no other corroborating evidence. No reason to act like it takes more than a couple minutes of investigation to figure this shit out. Edit: for the guy below me, since I can't reply directly, find me a nuclear missile guidance system that i…

Yep, you'd never find something so silly as a computer mouse in the Pentagon.

except ICBMs are not launched with a mouse click.... wth.

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#42

Post by samspot »

Devil's Advocate:

You are a nontechnical person and stumble upon what appear to be plans for a terrorist attack. You talk to the person about it and they say "Don't worry. is computer game".

A great exploration of this is the 30 Rock episode where Tina Fey reports her neighbor for what ends up being a plan to get on the show 'The Amazing Race'.

The problem is, not knowing any better, you feel obligated to report the activity just in case. Let someone much smarter than yourself decide what is really going on. If you say nothing and someone gets hurt, can you forgive yourself?

As a hacker, I would understand this is definitely a game. But can I really expect the same from non-technical people?

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#43

Post by madaxe_again »

omh wrote: post #32
madaxe_again wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fine state of County Durham. As a tenant - a student tenant, no less - your rights are virtually squat.

In the UK you almost certainly have an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (even if the agent says you don't). This gives you a lot of strong rights which you can use if you know how. In practice the agent or landlord has a lot of leverage but you can often win if you use the law to your advantage. In particular there is a very specific set of steps they have to follow to evict you.

Oh, I'm aware, and I essentially rolled over as I wan't too bothered about having to move, as I was sick to the eye teeth of dealing with them, and the property was barely habitable. Eviction was their threat if I didn't leave of my own volition.

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#44

Post by hyyypr »

ryan-c wrote: post #17
apple314159 wrote: post #4

Wow, sounds like 1990 over again i.e. Steve Jackson Games.

For those not familiar, Steve Jackson Games makes RPGs and were nearly driven out of business due to a secret service raid[1] done in response to the "GURPS Cyberpunk" book (described by the secret service as "a manual for computer crime") they were working on. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sundevil

"This raid is often wrongly attributed to Operation Sundevil, a nation-wide crackdown on ‘illegal computer hacking activities’ that was occurring about this time."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GURPS_Cyberpunk#.E2.80.9CThe_b...

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#45

Post by [deleted] »

mattmaroon wrote: post #34
crazypyro wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhhh? The "mouse click" was a dead give away. Also, Occam's Razor. Is this guy programming a game in his apartment or is he programming a ICBM with 0 related hardware plus probably no other corroborating evidence. No reason to act like it takes more than a couple minutes of investigation to figure this shit out. Edit: for the guy below me, since I can't reply directly, find me a nuclear missile guidance system that i…

It's not irrational to think that launching an ICBM might involve a computer and therefore a mouse. Hell, I'd be surprised if it didn't. I doubt the Pentagon has posted videos of whatever it is they use on YouTube, so it's silly to ask for proof. As I said, I agree that it is irrational to think the guy was whiteboarding an ICBM launch. (Not to mention while terrorists could conceivably get a dirty bomb, an ICBM seem…

[deleted]

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#46

Post by DanBC »

samspot wrote: post #42

Devil's Advocate: You are a nontechnical person and stumble upon what appear to be plans for a terrorist attack. You talk to the person about it and they say "Don't worry. is computer game". A great exploration of this is the 30 Rock episode where Tina Fey reports her neighbor for what ends up being a plan to get on the show 'The Amazing Race'. The problem is, not knowing any better, you feel obligated to report the…

But the people higher up the chain don't get to see the whiteboards and so can't easily dismiss this as planning a computer game. Unless the agents took photos?

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#47

Post by stevebot »

This reminds me so much of an awesome 30 Rock episode where Fred Armisen plays the middle eastern neighbor of Tina Fey's character. She ultimately gets him turned in for planning an attack, when he was just preparing for The Amazing Race with his friend.

Its sad how sensationalist and afraid we have become.

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#49

Post by pyre »

Someone1234 wrote: post #29

Common sense isn't quite as "common" anymore. If you actually read those diagrams it is pretty obvious (to me) that that is a game, and not some missile design or "plan" (although who plans a state missile attack from their apartment?).

If we assume that all terrorists that are planning to launch ICBMs are smart, then all of the ICBMs launched by dumb terrorists will fly under the radar. Then we'll have nuclear attacks that could have easily been prevented! /s

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#50

Post by mikeash »

samspot wrote: post #42

Devil's Advocate: You are a nontechnical person and stumble upon what appear to be plans for a terrorist attack. You talk to the person about it and they say "Don't worry. is computer game". A great exploration of this is the 30 Rock episode where Tina Fey reports her neighbor for what ends up being a plan to get on the show 'The Amazing Race'. The problem is, not knowing any better, you feel obligated to report the…

It takes only the barest application of common sense to realize that an ICBM attack is not going to be planned on a whiteboard in plain view in some random apartment. It does not actually appear to be plans for a terrorist attack, because terrorists don't have ICBMs.
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