[LongTermBond007]

> “But James,” you protest, “there are many best practices for choosing passwords!” Yes, I am aware of the “use a vivid image” technique, and if I lived in a sensory deprivation tank and I had never used the Internet, I could easily remember a password phrase like “Gigantic Martian Insect Party.” Unfortunately, I have used the Internet, and this means that I have seen, heard, and occasionally paid money for every thing that could ever be imagined. I have seen a video called “Gigantic Martian Insect Party,” and I have seen another video called “Gigantic Martian Insect Party 2: Don’t Tell Mom,” and I hated both videos, but this did not stop me from directing the sequel “Gigantic Mar- tian Insect Party Into Darkness.

This is hilarious, thanks for pointing this out!

[acqq]

I like:

"It’s like, websites are amazing BUT DON’T CLICK ON THAT LINK, and your phone can run all of these amazing apps BUT MANY OF YOUR APPS ARE EVIL, and if you order a Russian bride on Craigslist YOU MAY GET A CONFUSED FILIPINO MAN WHO DOES NOT LIKE BEING SHIPPED IN A BOX. It’s not clear what else there is to do with computers besides click on things, run applications, and fill spiritual voids using destitute mail-ordered foreigners. If the security people are correct, then the only provably safe activity is to stare at a horseshoe whose integrity has been verified by a quorum of Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman."

For his claim "YOU’RE STILL GONNA BE MOSSAD’ED UPON" I still don't know how to interpret the fact that Snowden seems to be relatively fine. Maybe that he had the idea about the blind spots of the system in which he worked.

His opinion on PGP "web of trust":

"“Chains of Attestation” is a great name for a heavy metal band, but it is less practical in the real, non- Ozzy-Ozbourne-based world, since I don’t just need a chain of attestation between me and some unknown, filthy stranger— I also need a chain of attestation for each link in that chain. This recursive attestation eventually leads to fractals and H.P. Lovecraft-style madness."

It is an opsec problem that all the connections are then cryptographically provable.

[dom0]

> For his claim "YOU’RE STILL GONNA BE MOSSAD’ED UPON" I still don't know how to interpret the fact that Snowden seems to be relatively fine. Maybe that he had the idea about the blind spots of the system in which he worked.

What reason would any agency have to un-live Snowden? Any damage he has done was already done in HK and before; he has nothing more to reveal. It would only turn public opinion against the agencies.

[oldsj]

True that it would hurt public opinion even further of the agencies if they were to take him out - but I thought he only revealed a portion of what he grabbed.

[dom0]

My understanding is that he handed everything off to the journalists.

[xorxornop]

Yes, for precisely the reason that he did not want to be the arbiter of what is released. That's probably why he's still alive. It was a good decision