I’m glad he surfs this way. It makes the odds vanishingly small that I’ll ever bump into him online, since technically, he isn’t.
The fact that ANYONE takes this man seriously in any way should be a sign of clinical paranoia.
Yes. Who would believe that the governments and corporations would collude to promote, sell, and abuse technology against the people that they serve?
Preposterous, indeed.
Or you could believe he is completely nutso AND realize that the gov’ts and corporations are colluding.
Hearing him talk is like listening to your paranoid uncle that came back from 'Nam wrong. The fact that he is right every now and then doesn’t change a thing about how screwed up he is.
The thing is RMS is right, and he took security seriously before it was cool and stays to his line, I like most might run some filters but am ultimately lazy to our detriment. He is the prophet who keeps to the law.
I like him, he is one of the few famous people who actually answers emails, and has provided some useful ideas for a project I am involved with.
He might be an orthodox alpha geek but he is personable and interesting to converse with.
Bless his fiercely ideological outlook and saintlike determination to boycott everything FOR GREAT JUSTICE. His way of dealing with technology does sound less practical and fun than just throwing everything with a microchip out a window and be done with it, but to each their own.
I believe that he feels a bit of physical pain for everyone who ends up being abused by tech they are supposed to own rather than being able to use their own equipment to work toward their own good.
Not to mention being early in to champion placing IP to the public domain by exploiting copyright.
The guy is principled but he is surely among the greatest tech liberty altruists in an uncaring world.
I just. I dunno.
What’s the point, then?
Maybe I’m not worried enough.
Maybe they really are out to get me.
But I’d have a hard time ignoring (which is, I’d argue, nearly what he’s doing) the riches that the internets offer. Baby with the bathwater and all that.
[EDIT]
I have a limited number of things I can choose to care about- there’s only so much room in my brain. Worrying about someone knowing which album I just bought online isn’t on that list, I’m afraid.
It’s not so much surfing the web, as it’s taking a correspondence course in the web or something.
Plus there are plenty of DRM-free music sites these days. EULA, maybe not but GPL is an EULA (and worse to me since it’s implicitly agreed upon not explicit) so like, I don’t get where that platform of nope starts and where common sense comes in.
I would honestly hate to be a genius who is simultaneously bound by arcane rules around which I can express that genius and enjoy the use of it.
People are weird. I don’t know everything about this guy (and really don’t care) but I’ve known people that are for instance, paranoid to buy something off amazon, but hand their card to a waiter who walks off with it.
I knew a guy that wouldn’t under any circumstances use wireless anywhere but his house.
I knew another guy that used to turn off his router at night - this is an IT professional - because he wasn’t using it and wanted to reduce the chances of it getting hacked.
Yeah, I’ve got other things to do with my time.
I try to keep my paranoia in check- and this guy’s “use” of the “internet” falls way into the tinfoil hat realm for my taste.
Does he only purchase things with cash? Is it even possible to buy a plane ticket that way anymore?
I’d guess that for many of us, setting up a system like that would be a lot of work, but for him it’s like a snap of the fingers. Old hat. It’s the kind of thing he does all the time, with a much lower investment and different ROI calculation from you or me.
Like that guy’s ever going to fly in a plane.
No idea. I mean, I guess you could go to the AAA travel office (or any travel agent) and have them get a ticket for you and you pay them cash.
But when you get were you’re going, if you need a car, you’re fucked if you don’t have a CC.
Try checking into a hotel that’s not infested with cockroaches with only cash.
Try getting a job without a bank account.
Whatever, people can do whatever they want, I just don’t want to have to deal with their craziness.
I believe that he would be happy with older aircraft, the newer stuff with overly integrated wifi networks and entertainment computers would probably not.
I also feel a little weird piloting planes with the glass cockpit displays with closed source interfaces vs the old dials which could be understood by their basic mechanical workings.
Given the chance I would fly a F-22 or F-35 but I could never trust those flying computers with afterburners it like an old F-15 or F-4.
Yes, but you go right on the watch list. That’s even more suspicious than… what were the tells again? Clearing your throat and itching your nose?
Whistling. Definitely whistling. Either that or not whistling, I forget.
I was going to say, “Completely nude.”
How do you feel about our government leaders? They do whatever they want, and we have to deal with their craziness.
