Anybody care about secrecy on your bike?
05-07-24, 07:19 PM
#151
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The veal turned out great!
05-07-24, 09:47 PM
#152
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BITD, before they nudged me on the mgmt train and I was a fair to midland developer, I tested for a job with a pen tester. The task was to evaluate a snippet of C code for potential vulnerabilities. The code was fairly straightforward, nothing gimmicky, not obscure syntax, no clever #defines. I understood what it was doing, but couldn't find much except a potential buffer overrun. The dude proceeded to explain the multiple ways it could be exploited. So devious. I'm glad he was a white hat.
The takeaway for me was, I'm not nearly devious enough to come up with a good con, a good hack, or a good exploit, much less imagine future exploitations.
The amount and variety of data about us, collected, stored, and essentially public, is unprecedented in history. You don't necessarily need to be afraid, but you should be aware. I tend to think commercial usages of such data is more ominous; others are more concerned about the government. Maybe the happiest people aren't concerned at all.
05-07-24, 11:35 PM
#153
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Pretty much.
I know that everything I say or do, every number associated with me, any photo ... and since I do go out in public where whoever has a camera has a fairly absolute right to photograph anyone at any time .... and all of it is out of my hands.
As you learned from watching the guy administering the test ... if someone wants to break the code, the code will break.
But you know ... I don't control the weather, nor the cars coming up behind me when I ride, nor meteors, not viruses or bacteria, nor the steady decay of increasing age. Very little is in my control, and I am not gong to pretend to grasp some measure of control to pacify myself. I am grown; I can accept that the vast majority of everything is out of my control.
I don't have the time or energy to be afraid of everything, and certainly I do not want to waste what little time and energy i do have, imagining things which could hurt me. After all, something out there is coming to kill me, and there is nothing I can do. I could get cut down while riding, or while fashioning a thicker tinfoil hat, or while sleeping, or anything .... I don't want to die being afraid of stuff which cannot kill me, cannot probably even hurt me, and might be entirely imaginary. I'd like to spend my life living, not fearing and hiding or protecting stuff which cannot be protected anyway.
I don't like a lot of stuff about the way the world is now, but making futile gestures to pretend I can hold back the tides ... not my style. I cannot control the ocean or the weather, so I might as well focus on sailing the boat of my thoughts and feelings .... I can barley control those.
I find I can be at peace if I choose not to worry. it isn't easy, but none of the stuff we do is really easy. We spend as much energy fighting the inevitable as we do trying to flow with the inevitable ... just one seems less like struggling. We all drown ultimately anyway, so ... decide what is going to go into your mind, decide what you are going to do with it.
But ... each to his own.
I know that everything I say or do, every number associated with me, any photo ... and since I do go out in public where whoever has a camera has a fairly absolute right to photograph anyone at any time .... and all of it is out of my hands.
As you learned from watching the guy administering the test ... if someone wants to break the code, the code will break.
But you know ... I don't control the weather, nor the cars coming up behind me when I ride, nor meteors, not viruses or bacteria, nor the steady decay of increasing age. Very little is in my control, and I am not gong to pretend to grasp some measure of control to pacify myself. I am grown; I can accept that the vast majority of everything is out of my control.
I don't have the time or energy to be afraid of everything, and certainly I do not want to waste what little time and energy i do have, imagining things which could hurt me. After all, something out there is coming to kill me, and there is nothing I can do. I could get cut down while riding, or while fashioning a thicker tinfoil hat, or while sleeping, or anything .... I don't want to die being afraid of stuff which cannot kill me, cannot probably even hurt me, and might be entirely imaginary. I'd like to spend my life living, not fearing and hiding or protecting stuff which cannot be protected anyway.
I don't like a lot of stuff about the way the world is now, but making futile gestures to pretend I can hold back the tides ... not my style. I cannot control the ocean or the weather, so I might as well focus on sailing the boat of my thoughts and feelings .... I can barley control those.
I find I can be at peace if I choose not to worry. it isn't easy, but none of the stuff we do is really easy. We spend as much energy fighting the inevitable as we do trying to flow with the inevitable ... just one seems less like struggling. We all drown ultimately anyway, so ... decide what is going to go into your mind, decide what you are going to do with it.
But ... each to his own.
Likes For Maelochs:
05-08-24, 03:15 AM
#154
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05-08-24, 04:17 AM
#155
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05-09-24, 09:37 AM
#157
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One aspect of biking vs. other popular means of getting around is the relative secrecy it affords. You can easily and legally buy a nondescript bike in cash on a street corner without giving your name. You don't need a license, or (generally) registration. There are no secret VIN numbers hidden on the bottom of any bike parts. Without license plates, optical scanners of that sort aren't tracking you. There's no national bike registry. There's no Onstar or any realistic possibility of satellite or terrestrial tracking of your whereabouts (unless you bring a phone!). Heck, you can even hide your face behind a helmet and visor/glasses and nobody would notice.
I suppose that anybody who really values secrecy (government agents, domestic violence victims, crooks, witness protection program, etc.) won't reply to this random thread. I just find it refreshing that in this day and age of "1984" being foisted upon us, the bike provides a welcome bit of privacy to "disappear" for a little while.
I suppose that anybody who really values secrecy (government agents, domestic violence victims, crooks, witness protection program, etc.) won't reply to this random thread. I just find it refreshing that in this day and age of "1984" being foisted upon us, the bike provides a welcome bit of privacy to "disappear" for a little while.
05-09-24, 10:10 AM
#158
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