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

On Mon, 24 Feb 2025, Salvador Mirzo wrote:

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

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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.

Yes, not to perpetuate the system is one of my reasons for not voting. It is
funny, when I was young, I was very conservative. And as the years have passed,
I've become more libertarian. My father, when he was young, was a communist, and
during his life, he becase a moderate conservative.

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.
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So for 1 years, that's what I did. =D

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Lol.  She got tired. :)

Yep! But the did also not like the vaccine, and let me in on a little secret.
About 30% of her clinics staff were not vaccinated because they thought the
tests were too few and it was too early. Officially all said they were, and no
one spoke about it out of fear of getting kicked out of the clinic, but in
private, during hushed lunch conversations, many admitted to not getting
vaccinated.

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.

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That wouldn't been wild. :)

Yes. I hope I will never have to. An acquaintance told me about a croatian
doctor who earned good money with fake vaccinations of italian patients.
Italians who did not enjoy getting vaccinated traveled to croatia to this
doctor, he would fake a vaccination, emptying the vials and putting on a fake
bandaid and all, enter "all good" into the EU system, and that was it.

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

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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.

True!

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.

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Precisely.
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 ``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.
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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.
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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?

Good question!

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

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Lol.
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She tattooed the logo of the company on her arm.

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Omg.

Yep... clearly not the brightest human being in the world. But in my experience
woke-soldiers seldom are.

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

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They kicked her out.  Sad.  But pretty typical.
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I laughed a lot! What goes around, comes around. I still wonder if she has that
tattoo? =D

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

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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.

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

Well, not no matter what, but let's say there is a very strong desire there.

End results imply a direction, a strategy.
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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.

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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.

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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.

This is good wisdom. A certain amount of friction and fighting is healthy and
necessary in order to make progress... but there also needs to be some kind of
"meta-awareness" so that you don't keep bashing your head against the wall, but
realize that a different approach might be in order eventually.

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. :)

Yes, I'm generally a happy camper. Especially since I struck out on my own.
That made a huge difference to me in terms of life satisfaction. Working from
home, setting my own schedule, choosing my customers, building up a great team
of technologists and business partners, it all has made a huge difference.
Despite not being religious I am thankful every single day.