Skeptical Cynic 's BestNetTech Comments

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  • On the post: AT&T Has Employees Embedded In The Gov't Providing Near Realtime Searches On Nearly Every Phone Call

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 03 Sep, 2013 @ 11:45am

    Re: Re: Decimate

    Mike,

    Thanks. I really wanted to provide the same type of standard modern definition. Decimate means f**k all else: To destroy or utterly remove from existence. To in other words affect to the point that a thing or person is counted as barely surviving.

  • On the post: AT&T Has Employees Embedded In The Gov't Providing Near Realtime Searches On Nearly Every Phone Call

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 03 Sep, 2013 @ 11:55am

    Fools are we...

    We are fools to believe that the greatest monopoly ever allowed and then re-allowed (by consolidation and mergers) by government was without agreements that the government found favorable.

    AT&T is and always will be to some extent an extension of the pursuit to monitor each individual by entities that allowed it to act as it did and does. AT&T is the largest phone, cell service provider not because it is the best but because it is the foundation for those that control access to services and data bandwidth. And to provide to the government the access needed to do what the government wants to do in the name of power, and secondarily control. AT&T gets the room to re-consolidate and the government gets the ability via a near universal access to what they want.

  • On the post: Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Says Anti-Terror Laws Should Be Used To Stop Investigative Journalism

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 26 Aug, 2013 @ 11:49am

    The terrorists are not really the target

    They know already about this stuff.

    Correcting the quote:

    "It just is something that is extremely dangerous for individual citizens to [make] those secrets available to the taxpayers."

  • On the post: NSA Agents Told To Withhold Target Information From Those In Charge Of Oversight

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2013 @ 08:54am

    Re: Re: Normal SOP - Move on nothing new here

    Right! But even if they ask you still don't spell it out in too much detail. You give them enough detail to make them understand how much work you did. Unless of course you are trying to impress them with all the hard work it took.

  • On the post: Simple Question: How Could President Obama Not Know That Ed Snowden Had The IG Report That Showed Widespread NSA Abuse?

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2013 @ 08:48am

    Re:

    Sadly, I agree with you. I really don't think anyone in our government really knows all the information that Snowden has.

    And that in and of itself is very worrying. Not because of Snowden but because it also means that they might not know what information that people intent on harming America might have.

  • On the post: Simple Question: How Could President Obama Not Know That Ed Snowden Had The IG Report That Showed Widespread NSA Abuse?

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2013 @ 08:44am

    Re: Snowden "was bothered by technology companies"

    Been meaning to comment on an OOTB rant for a while but it always seemed pointless, but this time I just decided to do it.

    OOTB you confuse me. You hate corporations so much and wear your tin-foil hat with a strange pride. Yet you rant against the person that is exposing a lot of the corporations cooperation with the government.

    You have every right to speak your mind!! And I have never once voted your posts to be hidden as everyone should see how an insane person can make articulate arguments to the world with inarticulate information.

    But really your mind seems to be a place of conflicting rants and one of very little substance.

  • On the post: NSA Agents Told To Withhold Target Information From Those In Charge Of Oversight

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2013 @ 08:30am

    Normal SOP - Move on nothing new here

    I can see that this can viewed as trying to hide stuff and it more than likely has some of that going on. But really it is SOP for the letter orgs. I bet if you looked at the internal documents from any of them, FBI, CIA, NSA, NASA, DOE, DOI, and any other one you can think of they would pretty much read close to the above documents.

    They don't want oversight. They don't like oversight. They like to do what they think they need to do and only subject themselves to providing the overseers with the legally required information. And not one single thing more.

    And as much as I hate to admit it, that is actually logical. The people in Congress are largely elected based on some knowledge and a lot of personality. So 90% of time they really don't know what the heck they are looking at.

    For example: Let's say you are computer tech. You fix a customer's computer. Do you explain to them all the steps you had to do to remove the 5000 pieces of spyware and viruses from there computer and why it was causing all the issues they were seeing? Or do you give them the simple break down. "Everything is fixed and your computer is running great now."

    I know my answer.

  • On the post: Microsoft Folds Again: Xbox One Will Now Work Without Kinect Enabled

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2013 @ 10:32am

    Re:

    And Sony has already been a part of the spying scheme. Look to the whole Sony Spyware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal

    So you can embrace the world that your computer AND console are going to spy on you.

  • On the post: Did The NSA Think The Public Can't Do Math? Attempt To Downplay Data Collection Fails Miserably

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2013 @ 09:12am

    Re: Re: Statistics

    Much truer than we would like to admit!

  • On the post: Did The NSA Think The Public Can't Do Math? Attempt To Downplay Data Collection Fails Miserably

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2013 @ 06:31am

    Re: Well...

    As bad as American is at math this is not about math but laziness. The NSA knows very few people will actually look in to the BS they are spouting because they are just to lazy to actually do some simple research.

  • On the post: Did The NSA Think The Public Can't Do Math? Attempt To Downplay Data Collection Fails Miserably

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2013 @ 06:29am

    Re: Statistics

    ?If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.?


    ― W.C. Fields


    Requoted for the NSA age:

    If you can't dazzle them with bullshit, baffle them with stats.

  • On the post: Microsoft Folds Again: Xbox One Will Now Work Without Kinect Enabled

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2013 @ 06:21am

    Choice, control, ownership

    This whole Xbox 180 debate comes down to 3 things.

    Choice: If I buy your product let me chose what I want to do and allow. Offer benefits to me to allow those things you want me to do. But let me choose.

    Control: When you allow me to chose what I want to do with what I buy from you and enable what I want you give me the control you did not by mandating stuff.

    Ownership: It all comes down to ownership. MS and the game companies want to allow you to buy what they are selling but they still think they are the owners. The reason choice and control were taken is because they in their f**ked up corporate profit minded minds can not get their heads around the fact that if I buy your product I OWN IT!!! So I should get to chose what I do with it and I should be able to control it!

    The associated companies involved in this debacle just need to understand as you offer more control, more choices you will increase your profits not the opposite. Those choices are called (head back to your MBA text books) "reasons to buy". The more reasons you give me to buy by offering the control I might want and the choices I might choose the more you will sell.

  • On the post: DOJ: There's No Expectation Of Privacy In Your Phone Records Because People Don't Like Terrorists

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2013 @ 05:24pm

    HaHa DOJ!!

    Good joke!!!

    You had me going there for a minute. I really thought you meant all of this.

    I know this has to be a joke since the DOJ abbreviation means Department Of Justice. And the DOJ is suppose to serve the American People.

  • On the post: Don't Insult Our Intelligence, Mr. President: This Debate Wouldn't Be Happening Without Ed Snowden

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2013 @ 05:19pm

    Political party

    Elected Democrats: Surveillance is good and helps us help people.

    Elected Republicans: Surveillance is a matter of security and helps us help people.

    Both are deluded by the office and refuse to serve the people.

    I am baffled by this debate. Either Snowden did help America see the abuses or Snowden helped America by providing us clarity in how our elected officials are working to protect us.

    So spin left or spin right or spin to the middle if they were really looking after the people's best interest then they would have little to condemn Snowden of.

  • On the post: NSA Tries To Justify Its Surveillance Programs With Ridiculous Assertions

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2013 @ 04:36pm

    Yep, you are paranoid.

    "The proof is unfortunately classified.

    USA!!!!

    We will help you find the appropriate help to correct your misinformed thoughts."

    1984 is I guess alive.

  • On the post: Obama's Simply Wrong: Whistleblower Protections Would Not Have Applied To Snowden

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2013 @ 04:02pm

    Patriot, Enemy, Leaker, Al Killda, Whistle Blower, Terrorist, Citizen

    They were all the same to Bush and just as much or more so to Obama.

    Only Al exempt would be Al Gore.

  • On the post: DOJ Agrees To Release Redacted Court Ruling About How NSA Practices Violated The 4th Amendment

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2013 @ 03:57pm

    Redacted defined as..

    Redacted defined as: Information we do not like anybody but those people that agree with us and respect our desire to keep it from the uninformed and unreasonable masses.

  • On the post: Every Time The NSA Is Asked About Its Ability To Spy On Everyone… It Answers About Its Authority

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 07 Aug, 2013 @ 09:14am

    Re: Re:

    And in all cases with the letter agencies the qualifiers are the more important information.

    It's like saying when asked did you murder this person. And you did but you answer this way.

    No (with nothing else) means one thing and with a qualifier...

    No, I committed justifiable homicide.

    Means a completely different thing.

  • On the post: Surprise: Obama's New US Trade Rep Overturns ITC, Stops Ban On Apple Products

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2013 @ 07:20am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    I was at first a bit Skeptical and Cynical about the decision by the Obama Administration to interfere with the process but I did some other reading and found this great break down of the whole dispute

    http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/08/05/samsungs-vetoed-push-for-an-itc-ban-against-apple-inc-in-pictures

    and honestly I think they actually did the right thing. It looks a lot like Samsung is double dipping and not following FRAND terms.

  • On the post: Congress Flips Out About 'Snowden The Traitor' As They Try To Pass Legislation To Stop The Program He Revealed

    Skeptical Cynic ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2013 @ 08:02am

    Huh?

    I am confused. Is America the country that embodied freedom, liberty, and the rights of citizens or are we the country that demanded compliance and secrecy and forced each and every person to live under a tyrannical regime that defines every aspect of our lives and allows no deviation from that?

    Are we not the country that was founded by those that sought to lay off the restraints of a ruler and find the best way to live?

    Have we gone so far from the ideals of our founding that we are now becoming the country and state that this country was founded to defy?

    In are largess and fatness have we decided to become something lazy and fretful and allow others to rule us and define our lives as long as our narrow lives are not impinged.

    Ok so that was my rant in old speak. :-)

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