Daniel Taylor @RandomDamage@mastodon.technology

us schools: "students must adhere to the dress code while distance learning, no pajama pants!!111"

also us schools: "but we can't force the children to wear masks :(:(:(9;9;9;9"

@mdszy I'm a centrist

I'm actually pretty right wing but don't wanna alienate my cool left wing friends

@thegibson It makes sense, though.

TikTok is a Chinese company. The US is doing EVERYTHING in their power to cut China off from US data.

It's a war on secrets. No nukes, no battles. Just cold information.

It all makes perfect sense. And plus, it's not unusual. Every country wants two things:

1) Find dirt on all other countries
2) Keep their own secrets locked away so other countries can't get to it.

It's a dick-swinging competition, and China has been like that for MILLENIA. It's the Art of war all over again, but reborn for cyberspace.

War never changes. Right now, the keys to the kingdom are not the bridge to your castle, it's read access to your computer. Just imagine: If all the data you got on your PC had to be printed out, it would be EXPENSIVE. Like, simply price of paper expensive. The computer you have is no longer just its horsepower someone can use to crack keys or DDoS someone else, it's just about rummaging through your files. It's standard procedure.

Scouts used to look for enemy encampments by blending in and sneaking around, now they can do the same thing by monitoring Fitbit tracks you run around the compound.

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." --Sun Tzu

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win" --Sun Tzu

The fact is, China is in a great position to strike. US is chaotic, dealing with its own issues on the inside, and, as such, weakened. This is what China was waiting for all along. I would not be surprised if the whole TikTok debacle was a red herring aimed at taking the public focus off some other plan China has for the US.

Make no mistake, US, Russia and China are all at war. However all behave differently. US is currently split apart on so many fronts. It can barely hold itself together. Russia is showing off strengths and hiding its weakness. China is quiet. They lay in wait, assessing the situation. All the news about China doing shit is very heavily discussed in other countries, while China itself does not give two shits. It is not their battle and there will be little repercussions for them. Right now, they can just wait, open a beer and watch as their enemies rip each other apart over a bone they tossed in.

Sure, Tiktok may be a valuable intelligence tool for them, but I highly doubt they didn't consider the alternative of the app's true purpose being discovered. Then, they will support the idea of their app being super-sensitive and destructive. Why wouldn't they? If your enemy thinks the baseball you have is a grenade, of course they will freak out!

This may be one last use of TikTok before they burn the whole project and move on to something different.

"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak." --Sun Tzu

The Legend of Zelda: Link in The Description

what was the best part of Animaniacs?

@shaderphantom never ceases to amaze me that he failed at running casinos and then people thought he could run a country

literally the business plan is "people walk in and give us money" and he couldn't pull it off

Why's it so difficult to write a pacemaker?

I'm not familiar with what it does exactly. But I presume

@mdszy what about this

most people don't seem to know the difference between the state judiciary, the state executive, the state legislative body, the federal judiciary, the federal executive and the federal legislative bodies

what i want to know is what the fuck has been being taught in fucking government classes in school if not that?

"Why companies struggle with recalcitrant IT" https://www.economist.com/business/2020/07/18/why-companies-struggle-with-recalcitrant-it

"Airlines are […] now advised to turn the plane off and on again every 51 days, to stop its computers displaying false data in mid-flight."

Love our glorious computerized future