Happy Australia Day

by Bryan

6 comments

1 Kryten42 { 01.26.14 at 5:43 pm }

Yeah. wahoo. *shrug*

🙄

2 Bryan { 01.26.14 at 11:23 pm }

Well, Britain had to find some place to ship its criminals after it lost the American colonies.

I assume that the Aborigines view this the same way that Native Americans view Columbus Day.

3 Kryten42 { 01.27.14 at 7:31 am }

*SIGH* Aus is IMHO officially as FUBAR as the USA! I’m disgusted and sad to admit I’m an Aussie today.

How a teenager helpfully reported a government security flaw – and could be charged in return

See… Morons are not redistricted to the USA. And obviously, Aus organizations have the same Corporate lack of sanity, reason, morals or standards as those in the USA. We have something in common (though, many of those Org’s are run by American’s… Just sayin!) 😉

4 Bryan { 01.27.14 at 1:25 pm }

I have no problem separating my country from the clowns who constitute the government of the country at any particular time, so, while I was actively engaged in doing what I could to defeat the government of the Soviet Union I liked the majority of the people who lived there. I developed an especial fondness for the poor suckers who had to man the defense outposts in the Arctic, because I knew their living conditions were even worse than my own at Eielson in Alaska. There is nothing like shared misery to build a bond.

Keeping the people and country separate from the government makes it a lot easier do deal with the world.

Why would anyone hire Americans to fill executive positions in another country. Americans are some of the most xenophobic people on the planet and the least receptive to understanding different cultures. You can’t even trust them in Canada, where there is a history of having to replace ambassadors who insult the country.

5 Kryten42 { 01.27.14 at 6:41 pm }

The incredible stupidity of it is that that poor kid who was pretty excited that he was doing something helpful and good (in his opinion) and he even decided that he had a moral obligation to report what he found (and at 16 I might add), has now been taught that truly no good deed goes unpunished, and the best thing is to STFU! So, the Gov has now turned what would probably have been an excellent citizen into yet another *not my problem!* believer. If anything, this reaction may well have caused the kid to turn from being a *white hat* to a *black hat*. I’ve seen it before, and heard similar stories from hackers in the past. They may well rue this in years to come!

And the Gov types are always whinging and whining about the anti-social behavior of our youth (as in the USA, UK, and just about everywhere else!) The really need a lot of mirrors! Hew the hell they can expect anything BUT anti-social behavior, when the response to good behavior is a smack in the face?

I dunno about Humans being the top of evolution. I personally think we are the bottom feeders. We are destined to becoming extinct. And we will be the agents of our own demise. Lemmings are less racially suicidal than Humans.

6 Bryan { 01.27.14 at 9:08 pm }

Competent companies and organizations reward people who notify them of security problems, without making them public, and then announce that there was a problem and it was fixed. That’s how you strengthen your system, by making it worthwhile for people you don’t have to pay to do your security testing for you. They should have sent the kid a free month-long pass for the transit system, and fixed the problem that has been known about for a very long time. [My host discovered it years ago, and corrected it, and then told customers that it happened.]

There really needs to be mandatory reporting and fines to give organizations the incentive to fix their damn systems. Make it cheaper to stay on top of security problems, than to just write off the fines as the cost of doing business.