[Newfie]

Hard to say but an intriguing question. I'd kinda like to try it out.

[onlooker]

Well, I think we should all recognize that the Internet is an incredible source of information. Throughout history much of the human population has NOT had access too much information on many subjects. With the Net, we can find out so much, so easily about so many things. Anything than may be important to a particular person. Health, Money matters, relationship info, etc etc. So I think that while we can certainly become addicted and waylaid on the Net, we can also educatate ourselves and enrich our understandings of the human condition and gain the perspective of many types of people from many areas, comprising many types of cultures and ways of thinking.

[DesuMaiden]

I am not sure if anyone else in this thread has mentioned this, but with the computerization of everything, this means privacy virtually disappears in the cyberspace world. If you've even got the faintest understanding of what Edward Snowden and many other whistleblowers have been saying for the past couple of years, online anonymity is largely a myth. George Orwell's 1984 novel's Big Brother survellience state is already being enforced onto the citizens of the world. Now with governments trying to remove Net Neutrality, free speech is trying being compromised by the police state survellience grid the government is trying to enforce on all digital communications.

Of course, some people make the point that "what's wrong with having no privacy if you have nothiing to hide?". But that's like saying "what's wrong with having no free speech if you have nothing to say?". Free speech is absolutely fundamental to a just society, yet the criminal cabal in the government, big corporations and big banks want to undermine it for their own personal gain. Whoever controls all the information the citizens get to hear or see, controls all the thoughts and actions of the citizens. And the government wants to undermine free speech, so they can have a complete monopoly on all of the information we see or hear. Thereby controlling the citizen's thoughts and actions.

Our governments have us under 100% survellience online. There is nothing you do online that is truly anonymous in summary. If TPTB want to find your real identity online, they can easily do so.

[onlooker]

While I agree with what you're saying Desu, I have been pretty unrestrained in saying some pretty damning and outrageous things about the US where I currently live. Case in point that I believe the US was complicit in 911. Nobody has come knocking on my door -so far haha

[Ibon]

Cultivate a cyber presence that is sanitized for those who do the surveillance. Save your deepest darkest secrets for the analog world.

[KaiserJeep]

The sad truth is that internet privacy disappeared about the turn of the century. We have all had online dossiers since then. Each release of Windows and Apple OS and Android and each version of browser software bares more of the user's soul to scrutiny. They know pretty much everything you buy, everything purchased with credit and bitcoin and every serialized banknote you handle, from the moment you get it from the ATM to whenever it is deposited by anybody else. Cash transactions within sight of an HD camera that can also see your face are not anonymous.

They know everything you have ever searched for, you preferred types of porn, your prescription medicines, how many STDs you have caught, what prescriptions you take for chronic illnesses, what books you check out from the Library, how much you spend on alcohol and what types, whether you give cash to known drug dealers, and whenever your serialized cash turns up in the possession of another, including corrupt cops and government officials. They know where you bank, and the approximate balances in all your accounts, even in those countries that have promised you anonymity.

Get the picture? Your whole life is transparent, you have had zero privacy for years. If you carry a phone, they also know where it is 24x7, and thus where you are.

[Newfie]

I think of the cyber spy masters as hoarders. Hoarders have all kinds of junk they keep because something might be of value. Because they have so much junk they can't find anything, it makes them terribly inefficient. If you can't find it, or don't know how to use it, you might as well not have it.

They be effective you need to be agile and proficient. Does ANYONE here think those words, "agile and proficient", describe ANYONE in our government?

Sleep tight knowing a bunch of bureaucrat nerds are collecting tetra bytes of home made porn daily. All in the name of our safety.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'C')ultivate a cyber presence that is sanitized for those who do the surveillance. Save your deepest darkest secrets for the analog world.

[asg70]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', 'W')hile I agree with what you're saying Desu, I have been pretty unrestrained in saying some pretty damning and outrageous things about the US where I currently live. Case in point that I believe the US was complicit in 911. Nobody has come knocking on my door -so far haha

[KaiserJeep]

Folks, Microsoft ended support for Windows XP on 4/8/14. NOBODY should be doing anything online with an XP machine. The various antiviral products can only provide so much protection. None of the security vulnerabilities in the XP kernel code have been fixed for over two years. If you can't update to at least Windows 7 on that hardware, it's time to buy a new computer. Cut and pasted from MS "Windows lifecycle Fact Sheet":

Client operating systems, Latest update or service pack, End of mainstream support, End of extended support
Windows Vista, Service Pack 2, April 10, 2012, April 11, 2017,
Windows 7 *, Service Pack 1, January 13, 2015, January 14, 2020,
Windows 8,  Windows 8.1, January 9, 2018, January 10, 2023,
Windows 10 **, Version 1703, October 13, 2020, October 14, 2025

Vista is no longer usable, and is vulnerable to hackers without MS patching, as well.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'F')olks, Microsoft ended support for Windows XP on 4/8/14. NOBODY should be doing anything online with an XP machine. The various antiviral products can only provide so much protection. None of the security vulnerabilities in the XP kernel code have been fixed for over two years. If you can't update to at least Windows 7 on that hardware, it's time to buy a new computer. Cut and pasted from MS "Windows lifecycle Fact Sheet":

Client operating systems, Latest update or service pack, End of mainstream support, End of extended support
Windows Vista, Service Pack 2, April 10, 2012, April 11, 2017,
Windows 7 *, Service Pack 1, January 13, 2015, January 14, 2020,
Windows 8,  Windows 8.1, January 9, 2018, January 10, 2023,
Windows 10 **, Version 1703, October 13, 2020, October 14, 2025

Vista is no longer usable, and is vulnerable to hackers without MS patching, as well.

[Newfie]

Yup, I've got an XP laptop I use for navigation. I also have a ubuntu partition with separate navsoftware and a freeware suite.

I broke down and bought a W10 machine for connected stuff. But now I have to spend hundreds more to replace various programs.

Very frustrating.

[Newfie]

As to the topic I have been very much against the trend to use Ethernet devices for internal command networks such as train control systems. Many transit agencies had Sonet systems that worked well and were efficient. But the have mostly been replaced with IP networks. The newer command devices are increasingly IP native. IMHO this is a stupid move.

I can see IP has its advantages when you are buying bandwidth, but those quickly fade when you have your own secure dedicated fiber.

What I and others have observed is that the IT departments have increasing power within the "corporate" world of the agencies. Even when Engineering departments try to buck the IP wave they are usually defeated. The IT "engineers" mostly are really just Cisco accolades. They make a lot of promises but really can't deliver. I've seen various projects in trouble because the IP environment just can't meet the requirements for security and redundancy and response. The old systems, sometimes wireline, worked just fine. Then we end up with layers of customization and having systems locked to vendor specific products.

But I'm a Dino and my voice falls on deaf ears. But the heart cringe.

Thus we get a statewide agency that REAUIRES its speakers to be POE and individually addressable off their network. The speaker costs $150, the Cisco IP/analog POE POS costs $1,500 and you need many more of them because they are power limited.

I was at a meeting with an agencies 80 year old chief engineer, a EE by trade and still sharp. The IT "gentleman" insisted that PA speakers would not work on a audio signal over an IP connection. "What are you going to do when analog speakers become obsolete!" The engineer just looked at one another, and he concluded the meeting. That argument went to the General Manager and all audio services were transferred to the idiot.

I could go on and on and on.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'Y')up, I've got an XP laptop I use for navigation. I also have a ubuntu partition with separate navsoftware and a freeware suite.

I broke down and bought a W10 machine for connected stuff. But now I have to spend hundreds more to replace various programs.

Very frustrating.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'A')s to the topic I have been very much against the trend to use Ethernet devices for internal command networks such as train control systems. Many transit agencies had Sonet systems that worked well and were efficient. But the have mostly been replaced with IP networks. The newer command devices are increasingly IP native. IMHO this is a stupid move.

I can see IP has its advantages when you are buying bandwidth, but those quickly fade when you have your own secure dedicated fiber.

[Newfie]

F#ing MS and W10 sucks! Yeah it bothers me. I'm struggling trying to make my serial devices, like my Iridium phone, talk to W10.

They keep changing things just to change them. There are legacy users out there who are really hosed by their "advancements."

Many years ago there was a DOS based program called Frameworks. It had. Spreadsheet, database, word processor and a bit more. It was blazing fast on a 286 machine. It had really neat macro functionality. The word processing outlining was embedded in the same kind of structure as a db, outlining was dead simple and reliable.

It got killed off and I believe some of its developers were early participants in Windows.

The point is, before Windows I had a suite of applications that allowed me to do everything I needed for my projects, better than what I have now. From my viewpoint very little functionality has been gained, much security has been lost.

I don't do games. I don't do complex Photoshop. So there may be advantages I don't see. But most people just send email, photos on Facebook and watch porn.

I don't know where MS is going but it's not making me easy.

[Newfie]

Outcast,

You are not alone.

I sent a lot of time as a front line maint supervisor. If the trains didn't run I got yelled at.

When I started we had copper telephone wire. Good, an average guy can pick it up and handle it. You can make an analogy to a water pipe and the average guy gets it.

Then we had T-1 circuits. A digital core, but in the terminal block you still had 2 wires. To the average guy it was a lot like a telephone pair. Ditto Sonet.

Now you have IP which is a statistical mux combined with dynamic routing. The telephone analogy completely breaks down. The average guy can't grip it. So you end up with IT departments, who are populated by average guys. They don't really get it. I've spent enough time in meetings to hear the palaver and acronym alphabet to know they are frequently clueless. They end up outsourcing support to a vendor, but to do that they need IP connections across a firewall that opens them to hacking.

BAH!

[Newfie]

BTW, I carry a sextant. Some day I'll learn how to use it. But I've got it.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'B')TW, I carry a sextant. Some day I'll learn how to use it. But I've got it.