Lenore Skenazy (once again) demands that kids — and their parents — be free to walk free.
It’s fascinating just how many ways the $15/hour minimum wage is backfiring. J.D. Tuccille has yet another. (And it’s great to see his Disloyal Opposition blog back again!)
Yep, as I guessed yesterday, Chrysler is handling the hack-a-Jeep (or anything else we make) fix staggeringly poorly.
Also yesterday I said that no writer had ever come up with a description of heaven that wasn’t snoozeworthy. There was one who did: Mark Twain, of course. Here’s an HTML excerpt from “Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven.” (Project Gutenberg also has free Kindle and ePub versions. Not sure whether those are complete or also just extracts). And here’s an Amazon link in case you want to spend actual money on a complete copy.
I tried to check out OpenBazaar.com, but the first thing it wanted was Javascript enabled. When I gave it that, the next thing it wanted, without first offering any actual content, was for me to enable Flash. Um … no thanks; not until I know you better. Still it sounds intriguingly like both Son of eBay and Silk Road reborn. And Forbes is terrified of it. So that’s something. (H/T MJR)
RE: your experience with OpenBazaar – I’ve abandoned lots of internet sites because of their scripting. I’ve noticed that some sites have over 30 java scripts embedded. And then there are the Flash addicts…
Sorry, sport, ain’t doin’ it. Bye.
Thank you, NoScript.
Carl "Bear" BussjaegerJuly 28, 2015 8:10 am
I can tolerate some javascript. Depends on where it’s coming from. But any site that requiresFlash (in this day and age??) is an instant no-go.
It doesn’t instill a great deal of confidence in the privacy and security of the OB client. Sure, being open source will let people look for vulnerabilities. But the demonstrated preference for web hazards doesn’t bode well for them minimizing vulnerabilities in the first place, or fixing them in a timely matter in the second place.
Carl "Bear" BussjaegerJuly 28, 2015 8:18 am
Great Ghu…
I sent OpenBazaar.com an email explaining my objections (as stated above) to all those vulnerabilities. I just received a reply from “Brian Hoffman”:
== Ok peace. You can go get the client from GitHub directly and avoid the marketing site. Your style of browsing the web isn’t the only one so we’ll continue to do things the way we see fit, but thanks for the heads up. Everyone is free to do what they like and so are you.
==
Apparently he doesn’t get “But the demonstrated preference for web hazards doesn’t bode well for them minimizing vulnerabilities in the first place, or fixing them in a timely matter in the second place.”. My problem isn’t the marketing site. It’s what the marketing site tells me about the nonchalant security attitude of people professing to build a private, secure product.
ClaireJuly 28, 2015 9:01 am
Amazing, Bear. The rudeness of the response is one thing. I can believe that. But there’s no freakin’ way that a site whose raison d’etre is privacy and security could be so clueless about … privacy and security.
Makes me wonder if the alleged millions of venture capital being poured into OpenBazaar.com are actually coming from (or at the behest of) some security-state agency. We already know that the CIA has a venture capital arm. Heaven knows which other No Such Agency might also. Pure speculation of course, but it looks as if OpenBazaar could be nothing more than a trap to lure in the criminally unwary.
Carl "Bear" BussjaegerJuly 28, 2015 9:01 am
Re: OpenBazaar again. Oh. My.
So I replied to Hoffman: My “style of browsing” (i.e.- Linux, Pale Moon, NoScript, Flash blocking, etc) is exactly what is used by tech-savvy people, who would want a secure, private OpenBazaar client, use. Except the ones who go even farther with dedicated machines running through multiple proxies, and so on and so forth.
The Internet Exploder users who don’t care about Flash and scripting (and security and privacy) aren’t looking for an OB product. They’ll just use Etsy, eBay, Craigslist, and Cousin Charlie’s friend’s contact. You should probably take another look at your targeted demographic.
Hoffman’s answer: Our product is not just targeted at the niche audience that is anarchic, libertarian, highly technical users. Sorry to disappoint you. Probably want to look elsewhere.
Well, yeah. That I won’t be looking at his little security violation was my point.
MamaLibertyJuly 28, 2015 9:16 am
Oh me… so many hypocrites posing as free marketers. And they think we can’t see or understand the difference?
I’m seriously grateful to “No Script,” Ghostery and my awesome new Mozilla firewall. No remote content allowed in email either, and the spam filters work just great. Pretty much anything they block or warn me about is never looked at. Saving a LOT of time for other things these days. 🙂
Jim B.July 28, 2015 11:26 am
Nice to see that not everyone toes the corporate line.
Yeah…That OpenBazaar exchange certainly leaves a little to be desired. Very telling, however. Thanks for sharing, Carl.
Re: Lenore Skenazy – “Fixing” the problem through additional legislation isn’t really fixing the problem. Adding pages isn’t the solution. At a minimum, we need to be replacing or amending. Ideally we should be repealing. Even if this does pass, we’re carving a very narrow exception window which won’t prevent any of the other abuses we’re seeing. Ms. Skenazy is an excellent resource, and someone I follow regularly, but I think there’s much more that needs to happen than this legislator scoring points via this particular legislation.
davidJuly 28, 2015 12:15 pm
Fun sales spike up every time Obama opens his mouth against them. Thank you, Mr. Obama!
LarryAJuly 28, 2015 1:12 pm
Well, they do call it OpenBazaar.
jedJuly 28, 2015 9:11 pm
Sure, being open source will let people look for vulnerabilities.
Which goes right out the window the minute they use Flash.
I just pulled up their website in my “wide open” browser configuration. The status bar message is “waiting for twitter.com”. Puh-leeze!
Okay, I’ll allow that if you’re looking to build some buzz and get a project going, Twitter is something you’re probably looking at using. And, reading the About page, it does seem as if the main thing is to use the client program, not the website. So the website is really just the publicity part. Is there something I’m missing, that states that transactions will be possible using their website? That would seem contrary to their stated goal of a decentralized transaction system.
I’m also having trouble with what seems a disconnect in audience. The only payment method they have is Bitcoin. But aren’t Bitcoin users exactly the types who will be put off by an apparent lack of concern for security? Well, again, I won’t leap to judgement of the client program based solely on how they publish their website. But, since I’m not a Bitcoin user, I have no incentive to try out the client program either.
I’m a bit fuzzy about how listings are communicated. Their website states, When you publish that listing, it is sent out to the distributed p2p network of other people using OpenBazaar. But that makes no sense, since it’s pointless to send all listings to all subscribers. That’s just needless network traffic and local storage overload. I suppose there’s some simplification going on there, for the sake of brevity.
I’m intrigued by the idea. But I don’t get how they’re going to get away from having some degree of centralized server operation to accomplish it. I’d have to dig into the architecture some, and I have other fish to fry.
I will note that it isn’t unusual for highly technical people to come off poorly in e-mail communications. In fact, my general opinion of e-mail is that it often sucks.
jedJuly 28, 2015 9:13 pm
Oh, also meant to mention something I came across the other day. It’s a crypto-helper tool. Tomb. I’ll likely be playing with that sometime, maybe soon.
Carl "Bear" BussjaegerJuly 29, 2015 5:28 am
jed:“Which goes right out the window the minute they use Flash.
[…]
Okay, I’ll allow that if you’re looking to build some buzz and get a project going, Twitter is something you’re probably looking at using. And, reading the About page, it does seem as if the main thing is to use the client program, not the website
Yes, the web site is essentially just advertising for the client. I haven’t looked at the client source code, but so far as I know the client does not incorporate Flash. I’m not saying the site is a security vulnerability for the client. I do think that mandatory use of Flash on the site suggests — at best — a lackadaisical attitude towards security that would make me uncomfortable using the the client.
Bitcoin: Yeah, the use of Bitcoin pretty much limits the audience (for now; maybe that’ll gradually change in the future if more people adopt it) to exactly the demographic he says he isn’t targeting. If he really wants to target the Internet Exploder crowd, he’s going to have to incorporate transparent Bitcoin purchases (with credit card), a Bitcoin clinet like Multibit, and the basic P2P
“I’m a bit fuzzy about how listings are communicated. Their website states, When you publish that listing, it is sent out to the distributed p2p network of other people using OpenBazaar. But that makes no sense, since it’s pointless to send all listings to all subscribers.”
That really is one mode for P2P. Not efficient, but highly redundant. Also, clients will relay file search requests to other clients (allowing the searcher to assemble a local list of everyone who has the file). By using your client, you’re automatically becoming a temporary “server”.
Think of it as a sort of DNS. When you surf to a site, your computer checks its local DNS cache for the address. If it doesn’t have it, it then goes to (typically) your ISP’s DNS. If the local DNS doesn’t have it, it then sends a request for the address “file” to a main DNS. The difference in P2P is that there is no main root server hosting all the file locations, so inquiries just get bounced around the connected clients. Again, inefficient, but highly redundant, with no one server vulnerable to shut down (which would kill the entire network). [Geeks should excuse the overly simplified explanation. Please. -grin-]
Or think of it as a cork bulletin board at your local supermarket. You post a wanted ad. Someone else sees it, but doesn’t have the item, so he carries your ad to the board at another store. It keeps getting distributed until someone calls you offering the item you want, at which point you pull your ad (and the other copies expire).
Tomb: Seems interesting. I’ll have to check it out in detail later. It appears to be terminal-based, but claims enough functions that I might wish it were GUI.
RE: your experience with OpenBazaar – I’ve abandoned lots of internet sites because of their scripting. I’ve noticed that some sites have over 30 java scripts embedded. And then there are the Flash addicts…
Sorry, sport, ain’t doin’ it. Bye.
Thank you, NoScript.
I can tolerate some javascript. Depends on where it’s coming from. But any site that requires Flash (in this day and age??) is an instant no-go.
It doesn’t instill a great deal of confidence in the privacy and security of the OB client. Sure, being open source will let people look for vulnerabilities. But the demonstrated preference for web hazards doesn’t bode well for them minimizing vulnerabilities in the first place, or fixing them in a timely matter in the second place.
Great Ghu…
I sent OpenBazaar.com an email explaining my objections (as stated above) to all those vulnerabilities. I just received a reply from “Brian Hoffman”:
==
Ok peace. You can go get the client from GitHub directly and avoid the marketing site. Your style of browsing the web isn’t the only one so we’ll continue to do things the way we see fit, but thanks for the heads up. Everyone is free to do what they like and so are you.
==
Apparently he doesn’t get “But the demonstrated preference for web hazards doesn’t bode well for them minimizing vulnerabilities in the first place, or fixing them in a timely matter in the second place.”. My problem isn’t the marketing site. It’s what the marketing site tells me about the nonchalant security attitude of people professing to build a private, secure product.
Amazing, Bear. The rudeness of the response is one thing. I can believe that. But there’s no freakin’ way that a site whose raison d’etre is privacy and security could be so clueless about … privacy and security.
Makes me wonder if the alleged millions of venture capital being poured into OpenBazaar.com are actually coming from (or at the behest of) some security-state agency. We already know that the CIA has a venture capital arm. Heaven knows which other No Such Agency might also. Pure speculation of course, but it looks as if OpenBazaar could be nothing more than a trap to lure in the criminally unwary.
Re: OpenBazaar again. Oh. My.
So I replied to Hoffman:
My “style of browsing” (i.e.- Linux, Pale Moon, NoScript, Flash blocking, etc) is exactly what is used by tech-savvy people, who would want a secure, private OpenBazaar client, use. Except the ones who go even farther with dedicated machines running through multiple proxies, and so on and so forth.
The Internet Exploder users who don’t care about Flash and scripting (and security and privacy) aren’t looking for an OB product. They’ll just use Etsy, eBay, Craigslist, and Cousin Charlie’s friend’s contact. You should probably take another look at your targeted demographic.
Hoffman’s answer:
Our product is not just targeted at the niche audience that is anarchic, libertarian, highly technical users. Sorry to disappoint you. Probably want to look elsewhere.
Well, yeah. That I won’t be looking at his little security violation was my point.
Oh me… so many hypocrites posing as free marketers. And they think we can’t see or understand the difference?
I’m seriously grateful to “No Script,” Ghostery and my awesome new Mozilla firewall. No remote content allowed in email either, and the spam filters work just great. Pretty much anything they block or warn me about is never looked at. Saving a LOT of time for other things these days. 🙂
Nice to see that not everyone toes the corporate line.
http://nypost.com/2015/07/23/rogue-dairy-queen-has-been-ignoring-corporate-hq-since-1949/
The only shame that it’s only a handful.
Yeah…That OpenBazaar exchange certainly leaves a little to be desired. Very telling, however. Thanks for sharing, Carl.
Re: Lenore Skenazy – “Fixing” the problem through additional legislation isn’t really fixing the problem. Adding pages isn’t the solution. At a minimum, we need to be replacing or amending. Ideally we should be repealing. Even if this does pass, we’re carving a very narrow exception window which won’t prevent any of the other abuses we’re seeing. Ms. Skenazy is an excellent resource, and someone I follow regularly, but I think there’s much more that needs to happen than this legislator scoring points via this particular legislation.
Fun sales spike up every time Obama opens his mouth against them. Thank you, Mr. Obama!
Well, they do call it OpenBazaar.
Sure, being open source will let people look for vulnerabilities.
Which goes right out the window the minute they use Flash.
I just pulled up their website in my “wide open” browser configuration. The status bar message is “waiting for twitter.com”. Puh-leeze!
Okay, I’ll allow that if you’re looking to build some buzz and get a project going, Twitter is something you’re probably looking at using. And, reading the About page, it does seem as if the main thing is to use the client program, not the website. So the website is really just the publicity part. Is there something I’m missing, that states that transactions will be possible using their website? That would seem contrary to their stated goal of a decentralized transaction system.
I’m also having trouble with what seems a disconnect in audience. The only payment method they have is Bitcoin. But aren’t Bitcoin users exactly the types who will be put off by an apparent lack of concern for security? Well, again, I won’t leap to judgement of the client program based solely on how they publish their website. But, since I’m not a Bitcoin user, I have no incentive to try out the client program either.
I’m a bit fuzzy about how listings are communicated. Their website states, When you publish that listing, it is sent out to the distributed p2p network of other people using OpenBazaar. But that makes no sense, since it’s pointless to send all listings to all subscribers. That’s just needless network traffic and local storage overload. I suppose there’s some simplification going on there, for the sake of brevity.
I’m intrigued by the idea. But I don’t get how they’re going to get away from having some degree of centralized server operation to accomplish it. I’d have to dig into the architecture some, and I have other fish to fry.
I will note that it isn’t unusual for highly technical people to come off poorly in e-mail communications. In fact, my general opinion of e-mail is that it often sucks.
Oh, also meant to mention something I came across the other day. It’s a crypto-helper tool. Tomb. I’ll likely be playing with that sometime, maybe soon.
jed: “Which goes right out the window the minute they use Flash.
[…]
Okay, I’ll allow that if you’re looking to build some buzz and get a project going, Twitter is something you’re probably looking at using. And, reading the About page, it does seem as if the main thing is to use the client program, not the website
Yes, the web site is essentially just advertising for the client. I haven’t looked at the client source code, but so far as I know the client does not incorporate Flash. I’m not saying the site is a security vulnerability for the client. I do think that mandatory use of Flash on the site suggests — at best — a lackadaisical attitude towards security that would make me uncomfortable using the the client.
Bitcoin: Yeah, the use of Bitcoin pretty much limits the audience (for now; maybe that’ll gradually change in the future if more people adopt it) to exactly the demographic he says he isn’t targeting. If he really wants to target the Internet Exploder crowd, he’s going to have to incorporate transparent Bitcoin purchases (with credit card), a Bitcoin clinet like Multibit, and the basic P2P
“I’m a bit fuzzy about how listings are communicated. Their website states, When you publish that listing, it is sent out to the distributed p2p network of other people using OpenBazaar. But that makes no sense, since it’s pointless to send all listings to all subscribers.”
That really is one mode for P2P. Not efficient, but highly redundant. Also, clients will relay file search requests to other clients (allowing the searcher to assemble a local list of everyone who has the file). By using your client, you’re automatically becoming a temporary “server”.
Think of it as a sort of DNS. When you surf to a site, your computer checks its local DNS cache for the address. If it doesn’t have it, it then goes to (typically) your ISP’s DNS. If the local DNS doesn’t have it, it then sends a request for the address “file” to a main DNS. The difference in P2P is that there is no main root server hosting all the file locations, so inquiries just get bounced around the connected clients. Again, inefficient, but highly redundant, with no one server vulnerable to shut down (which would kill the entire network). [Geeks should excuse the overly simplified explanation. Please. -grin-]
Or think of it as a cork bulletin board at your local supermarket. You post a wanted ad. Someone else sees it, but doesn’t have the item, so he carries your ad to the board at another store. It keeps getting distributed until someone calls you offering the item you want, at which point you pull your ad (and the other copies expire).
Tomb: Seems interesting. I’ll have to check it out in detail later. It appears to be terminal-based, but claims enough functions that I might wish it were GUI.