Re: Schneier, Data and Goliath: no hope for privacy

D <nospam@example.net> writes:

I think that's already more or less true in commerce.  For instance,
I've been at times confronted with the situation that without using
Whatsapp, I could not get service.
>
During the pandemics, for example, so many people could not find a way
out of following protocols they did not want to follow and even taking
chemical substances they did not want to take.  So many people I know
did not want to do it and did it anyway because it was a hassle
otherwise.

>
Oh that was a pain. My wife got vaccinated once against her will
because of it.  I did not, and I spent many 100s of hours avoiding
the unethical restrictions. I printed my own corona vaccination qr
codes for a while, until that didn't work, I found a medical loop
hole to allow me to travel without a mask, towards the end, I copied
other peoples foreign qr codes, which would get me into stores,
despite being unvaccinated, since the system in the stores only
checked if the qr was valid, and nothing else like last country of
use, or matching it with id checks.

>
I did the same.  (It's amazing the kind of parallels we can find on the
USENET.)  I'm happy to hear you managed it too.  I did a COVID exam
every week, getting it negative 100% of the times, for an entire
semester and archived my exams with my employeer.  I was very happy with
the alternative: I would not have taken any substance at all.  I would
have gone to the last resort.  I saw no point in taking in an unknown
substance so try to avoid an aggressive /cold/.

>
It is amazing! It was the 2 worst year of my life, and destryoed my trust in
democracy. I stopped voting after that.

I stopped voting by never quite beginning.  As soon as I could vote, I
went to live abroad.  I got back 10 years later, when I didn't want to
vote anymore.  A vote contributes to a perpetuation of a system.
Politicians use our votes to make their money.  I want nothing to do
with this.  Similarly to why I don't run Whatsapp.

I did one corona test and they almost damaged my nose by showing some stuff up
into my brain. Extremely painful, and I had an irritated nose for several days
after that. That's when I decided, no more tests for me.

Yeah.  (Sorry to hear that.)

But I found a company that did saliva-based tests, and I called a doctor who
watched me perform the saliva based tests on the phone, and eventually she was
so tired of the process that she said, what ever... write your own certificate,
slap my name and signature on it, and just email me if you travel so I know.
>
So for 1 years, that's what I did. =D

Lol.  She got tired. :)

I believe I also tired the two pharmacists who did my tests by looking
up the sensitivity and the specificity of the tests and then trying to
explain to them what it means.  That's what they get for holding me for
some 20 minutes.

But towards the end they hooked up all testing facilities to some EU
surveillance register, so then it did not work anymore, but it was towards the
end, so I didn't have the energy to get connected to it, but if it would have
continued, I would have started my own corona clinic.

That wouldn't been wild. :)

As for children, no such thing for me, since biologically I have an
extremely low chance of having children. On the other hand, my parents
got the same diagnosis from the doctor, and they had me, and the
doctor said it was not possible according to science, so who knows? ;)

>
I am sorry for hearing the news, but I also feel that we should hope for
the best here.  I think nobody should trust doctor's predictions.  I
certainly don't know the reasons you might have low chance of having
children and let's remember this is a public forum.  The subject does me
remind me of a conversation with epidemiologist Shanna Swan, which I
have been slowly rewatching again---it's a 2h conversation.  The entire
conversation is very interesting.  In this conversation, we can learn
that male fertility is decreasing by 1% *per year*.
>
 Shanna Swan on male fertility (et cetera)
 https://youtu.be/C9aqGqjC1kE

>
I've actually seen the video before, when my wife was the most crazy
about our problem. In my case, it is just a chance mutation that
resulted in low quality sperm. That's all. It is not impossible, but
but very, very low probability of fertilizing eggs.

>
I'm not a religious person in the traditional sense of the word, but
turns out I find myself one of the most religious person I've ever met
because patience, perseverance, lack of ambition and a certain mastery
of the art of listening seem pretty religious to me.  For instance,
pretty much every religious person I know has at least one tattoo on
their skin.  I think that's totally non-religious because a tattoo
effectively destroys (at least a bit) something natural that took a
zillion years to be prepared---to protect the person.  I think that if
God speaks to us at all, it is done through the movement of nature.

>
Never been a fan of tattoos. But in my case it is a conservative upbringing
where tattoos where seen as low class.

I also grew up in a world that didn't approve them, but I think for the
wrong reasons.  Today, I don't recommend them for religious reasons. :)
Although I'm not religious (at all), I don't think we should destroy the
health that's given us at birth.  Destroying your skin, even if it's a
tiny bit for something so frivolous... It's appalling.

It is strange how things like that still stick with you. On the other
hand, it is permanent, and since I don't have anything permanent to
say, I don't really see why I should get a tattoo.

Precisely.

  ``I would never die for a cause because I might be wrong.''
  -- Who said this?  The Internet says it was Bertrand Russell.
  But I don't buy it up front.

Even if I had something permanent to say, I could put it in a book and
make lots of backups of it.  It doesn't have to be on my skin.

What about those who wear t-shirts with messages and put stickers in
their cars?  Why is it that they want to keep shoving the world with
their messages?

It was funny, at a consulting gig there was a woke witch, constantly harping on
how evil I was as a white man.

Lol.

She tattooed the logo of the company on her arm.

Omg.

Then 6 months afte I quit the consulting gig, she kicked her out.

They kicked her out.  Sad.  But pretty typical.

I laughed a lot! What goes around, comes around. I still wonder if she has that
tattoo? =D

She could do another one on top, which is a typical thing.  But the more
you do it, the more it hurts your skin.  So if she removed it (somehow)
or did something over, it's just getting worse.

Sad, but can we do?  People can be pretty... You know.

Lol.  I'm saying all of this to say that I would never believe that it's
really impossible for you to have kids.  Life is full of adversities.
My idea is that we should work on them 'til the end---unconcerned with
the end result.

>
This is a very sound philosophy! I do feel perfectly at ease with either result,
child or no child, but I have told my wife that as long as she wants it, I
support us continuing trying. No matter the outcome, I'm fine with it. She is
not however, which does make me sad.

She's not fine with either result?  Meaning she wants kids no matter
what?

End results imply a direction, a strategy.
>
We try to fix the bug in the software because we want to understand what
caused the bug and how it works.  Not because we want the software to be
flawless.  So we don't fret if we can't figure it out, but we always
work on it.  We work directionless because we don't really mind not
getting to the end result.  Anywhere we go is natural enough; it's
divine enough.

>
I think enjoying the process is very conducive to being able to perform the
activity for a long time. It's almost as if you describe some zen like state.

There's just no other way, really.  In fact, if you're ever struggling
to do something, I think it's the perfect sign that something has to
change.  Surely it doesn't mean that we should just stop doing it.  It
could be our jobs, for example.  But surely something is wrong and then
we should have the light to find out what it is and somehow be able to
continue on another path.

I think life can be pretty joyful.  I pray to God (not literally) to
help me keep doing what I'm doing because I've been enjoying it.
Perhaps, though, there are even new things that I'd enjoy even more.  If
I need to change my life radically, I will.  God should show me the way
in His own way.  Lol---my language has been getting wildly religious. :)