Mr. Tact wrote on Jul 8, 2020, 11:56:
"accidentally", uh huh...

Yep, like some guy saying he "accidentally" didn't pull out.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Jul 8, 2020, 10:35:
In the end, I see this as the US government puffing up its chest and being a blowhard.

I hope you're right, I don't want that to get traction, evolving and in the end meaning a ban on even having VPN servers in the territory or even banning the use of VPNs. That would suck, big time.

As for alternatives, I don't think you'd get as good a ping and/or bandwidth ( right now I'm on Surfshark VPN 24/7 with downloads/uploads around 350mbps on a 500mbps fiber line and pings almost instantaneous to the vpn server ), but yeah I guess for secure stuff it'd be workable.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Jul 8, 2020, 07:49:

Simon Says wrote on Jul 7, 2020, 20:17:
...VPNs couldn't be operated in the US?

You shouldn't be using US based VPN services to begin with due to the patchwork mindfield of state and federal regulations requiring log retention.

Every service I use is based in Switzerland due to their extremely strong pro-customer data privacy laws.

My previous post about this, here, still holds true.

This is arguing about the barn door latch long, long after the horses have fled.

I've known that for years. But these new measures seem to imply that you'll be banned from using ALL end to end encryption, including ANY VPNs, no matter where they're based.

That's so damn egregious... Attacking EVERYONE'S privacy under the name of "protect the children from the bad pedophiles".

**************

Quotes: "The draft legislation [PDF] is nominally supposed to help rid the web of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) by altering Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which strongly shields websites and apps, like Facebook and Twitter, from liability regardless of whatever their users share on those platforms, plus or minus some caveats."

"The idea is that companies would have to “earn” their legal shield – hence the name of the bill, EARN IT – by following the best practices created by the committee."

"In the now-OK'd version of the bill, the commission, called the National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention, would still create its rules but it would be “voluntary” for online platforms to follow them. Instead, if tech companies did follow the commission’s rules, it “would be a defense in any civil suit,” said committee chair Lindsay Graham (R-SC).

Concerns over the law being used to force tech companies to introduce encryption backdoors led to an amendment [PDF], put forward by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), that stated online platforms won’t face civil or criminal liability if they are unable to break end-to-end encryption in their own services."

“The manager’s amendment would effectively make the EARN IT Act into an entirely different bill,” it noted, adding: “Most worrisome, the new language would amend Section 230 to exclude state civil and criminal laws from its protection… If a state law makes it illegal to negligently or recklessly transport CSAM, interactive computer services will likely be unable to host user-generated content at all.

"Worse, the new language potentially allows for state lawmakers to target important user-privacy features like end-to-end encryption. By excluding violations of state laws from the protections of Section 230, courts may make rulings that undermine the use of end-to-end encryption.”

**************

So, VPNs couldn't be operated in the US? That's China level authoritarian BS.

This is completely ridiculous.

theglaze wrote on Jul 7, 2020, 18:48:
AMD's performance with VR is behind that of Intel+NVIDIA

Present evidence?

Trumpers: "We must stop cancel culture!"

Also Trumpers: "BAN TIK-TOK! BAN PROTESTS! BAN ZOOM! BAN ALL THE THINGS WE DON'T LIKE!"

RedEye9 wrote on Jul 7, 2020, 12:25:
You too can be as thrilled as I was if you take fingerprint smeared glasses while looking askance through them sideways and read Half-Life 3 on PC.

Nice to see you still have a kid that can dream somewhere inside your subconscious in the current context.

Not sure going fan service is the best way to go... Depends on how it's done. The bath scene was ok tho.

Nice docu, thanks Ant/Blue!

Pr()ZaC wrote on Jul 4, 2020, 16:47:
I heard that before.

Always remember: https://imgur.com/kVBxB04

So... they had contingency plans and knew exactly what to do, but Trump and co. bungled it up.

Why am I not surprised?

Blue wrote on Jul 3, 2020, 08:17:
Do I really need to explain the slippery slope argument behind this?

Aren't slippery slopes logical fallacies?

BUT, seeing as you have advertisements running here and considering the current context ( #StopHateForProfit and all that jazz ), I'd totally understand if you were more zealous than usual on that kind of thing.

"Not only will these reactors be smaller and more efficient than current nuclear power plants, but their designers claim they’ll be virtually meltdown-proof."

But will they be fool-proof/stupid-proof?

Also, Murphy's Law: "Hold my odds".

fakespyder wrote on Jul 1, 2020, 22:10:
Good to know the game will be playable in Win7. I love my current setup and will be sad to see it go. This buys me more time.

So how's that win10 "Game mode" Microsoft was spruiking?

Short version? Best kept to off unless you have a trash rig.

Alternate version, fast pc, keep off, slow pc, put on.

Also, if running AMD GPU and you experience instability, switch to off.

"genital shaped objects"

But guns are alright even if phallic right? Violence, death, dismemberment, immolation, electrocution, gore, guts exploding.

But a PENIS whose sole purposes are positive, namely pleasure and reproduction? Nah, that's going too far...

#LogicHasLeftTheBuilding

jdreyer wrote on Jun 30, 2020, 06:32:

Bodolza wrote on Jun 29, 2020, 22:34:
I've got news for you. If the US government goes to a US company with a warrant, they too will hand over all your data. And if it goes through the FISA court, then it would be illegal for the company to tell you they did so, and they wouldn't be able to challenge it.

Did you make it past the first line of my comment? "If the government really wants to force you, they can get a warrant or some other writ, a process which may or may not be successful based on what a judge decides. Only then are companies obligated to comply."

There are many cases in the US where companies have refused to cooperate with the government: Google in refusing to grant the government millions of records for the Online Child Protection Act, MS refusing to provide data from its servers in Ireland, Apple refusing to decrypt an iPhone, etc. These acts of rebellion simply don't happen in China. If you refuse to cooperate, they throw you in jail. That TikTok is so invasive shows that it's beyond a reactive request, but proactive: the government is going to these Chinese tech companies and forcing them to build in these data collection and hacking tools.

Exceptions, ISPs/telephone companies have complied for decades. VPN not outside the reach of five eyes and co.? They just need to ask. Everything you communicate nowadays goes through that pipe, phonecalls, cellphones, internet, TV, emergency services.

Do you really think they'd build a giant data sniffer complex in, what was it, Utah? For nothing?

And don't go thinking these exceptions haven't resulted in some form or other of consequences for the companies involved and you're at their whim. For now some of them it's in their interests to try to sometimes, exceptionally, not comply. But as for the other cases we aren't aware of, that are undoubtedly legions in comparison and the moment their interests shift, forget it, they don't care about you. It's only about money.

And if you think corps and gov haven't been in bed for money for decades and that this can't happen, you're not paying attention.

2 systems of surveillance, both with their pros and cons, both just as fucked up as the other. HOW ABOUT ZERO SURVEILLANCE? Cause as far as I'm concerned, anything but zero surveillance is unacceptable.

You're arguing about not having more dick in your ass with already 7 out of 8 inches in. How about zero? No dick, fuck'em.

deqer wrote on Jun 29, 2020, 22:35:
So, I noticed most of these companies, boycotting Facebook, are the same companies that have changed their business trademarked logo to a gay pride logo this June.

Just saying, because when I read this to be about "hate speech", I had feeling what this was truly about and so I had to look into it.

I see that they're putting "race" and things like "gender identity" and "sexual orientation" into the same category. Yikes...

So, I understand racism, but... hate speech?

From my research, I'm seeing a strategy, people are using, by calling something "hate speech", which then allows them to condemn what was spoken. Basically, they didn't like someone's speech of disagreement, so they called it "hate speech".

I'm also seeing that the other side has done their share of "hate speech" as well.

This essentially all comes down to ideology, and you'll always have two sides, right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, etc., and sadly looks like evil is winning.

Makes sense for the whole comment then totally drops the ball on the last line... Life isn't black and white. There is rarely if ever only 2 sides. Good and evil, right and wrong have been dissected for millenias never arriving to any definitive conclusion.

But yeah, I guess you managed to achieve alone what generations of genius didn't.

When is that peer-reviewed and published? I'd love to read it.

TBH, if I were Blue, I wouldn't post anything from Tom's Hardware anymore... but it's his site. He chooses and that's it.

Man that community sometimes sucks, but then it surprises you with the greatest, most caring things.

Too bad I wasn't around for it, I would've went for sure had I known.

RedEye9 wrote on Jun 26, 2020, 14:49:
The Unfathomable Stupidity of Rich White Men

Good rant, VERY naïve about Obama, but still pretty good with very good points overall.