Laptop Oracles: Forget Me Not

Posted on August 27, 2011 by ehurst

In virtual space, what you smell is yourself in front of your computer. It won’t matter what sort of deplorable habits you bear in your personal space.
However, if the virtual world is your whole world, you are not civilized even if you get the Networked civility perfect. That we are compelled to bring the Networked civilization into our real world does not justify forgetting meat space is not the same as virtual space. Civilization means you are civilized wherever you go.
In ancient times when someone from a high civilization visited a part of the world still clinging to a more primitive lifestyle, they never forgot themselves. It’s one thing to act as Romans do in Rome, because that was a civilization. You adapt yourself to what keep civility alive, but you don’t forget your own. There is a dynamic blending which recognizes you can’t correct everyone’s moral flaws, especially if you have no sense of what is moral. As we build our new civilization, it requires we closely examine the meaning of morality itself, so we can rightly recognize those things we should embrace in their place, and things we cannot. A critical element in the calculation is reducing your social rules to a minimum without throwing them all away.
The West is an inferior civilization, largely because it’s full of hot air. We put up with a lot, and we can’t morally justify wallowing much in it. That Western Civilization is so patently superficial does not excuse bad habits which don’t register over the Net, however. We of the Networked Civilization are trying to escape that fake world, but it requires sufficient thought and intelligence to grasp some issues are not merely a symptom of the disease.
We can afford to trash most of high etiquette as almost purely Western phoniness. A fundamental flaw of the West was pretending things could be perfect, that people could be perfected, and we just should not put up with basic icky human traits. But civility itself is something more fundamental. You are still trying to work out living in close physical proximity in meat space. If you understand careful wording on the Net, you should also understand what constitutes an offensive intrusion in the real world. Some things can’t be helped, but it’s a good idea to make some signal you realize your farts are not sweet.
Anything which affects others obliges you to make amends where possible. It is equally uncivil to pretend you have some God given right to a perfect world. The burping, stinking grouch is no worse than the prissy, whiny grouch. If we fail to understand people are the cause of all the imperfection in this world, that’s a philosophical weakness. If we fail to understand we are no better than anyone else, that’s a moral weakness. Humans are not smooth ball bearings, so we need someway to lubricate our necessary rubbing together in a confined space. On the Net it’s by your careful choice of words, but in meat space it’s by restraining yourself reasonably.
Where Western Civilization has remained hopeless is in the truculent demand for unreasonable restraints. This is not simply a philosophical difference of opinion. The West is coming apart for this primary failure, and we should not simply let it go, but help to kill it. But we do so by proving its failures, by demonstrating something better. A perfect image is from the movie, Matrix, when Neo dove into Agent Smith before bursting out and destroying him. You have to get fully involved before your superiority has any useful effect.
You can abuse yourself; that’s between you and God. But if you abuse others in the same fashion, God encourages them to act. Being invulnerable in the Net, however much a self-deception that may be, does not translate to invulnerability in meat space. God grants various types of strength to some with an attached obligation to protect the weak, and it’s a moral blessing if someone roughs you up in order to contain your bad habits from harming others.
We can discuss across human lifetimes what constitutes a threat and what is simply the necessity of human existence, but the moral compulsion to act right now is pretty strong. It’s an instinct God built into us. People will miscalculate, and you may not ever get justice in the narrow sense. Prepare for that. Prepare by making some effort to recognize where your humanity pokes outward at others, accept it as reality, and do what you can to limit harm to others. When you fail, always be eager to clean up your part of the mess.
Humanity cries out that you not forget there are other people with whom you share this world.

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Overwhelming Generosity (Updated)

Posted on August 25, 2011 by ehurst

I’m at a loss for words due to a generous computer ministry client.
I spent the whole evening, up almost to midnight, helping someone. It was no big deal; these are fine people and old friends. Their Sony Vaio RS620G running XP had given them BSODs. We debated upgrading to Win7, but I couldn’t promise I could fix the BSODs. Besides, I knew the graphics card was badly dated (Radeon 9200) and it wouldn’t do videos that well. So they decided to just buy a new one. Went to Sam’s Club and he picked out a really fancy HP Pavilion with a huge monitor and quad-core CPU.
It took me about three hours to break down the old one, unpack and set up the new one, and then answer all their questions while doing basic setup tasks. They have a pretty extensive computer desk, so the cables had to go through all the right holes. They told me to take the Viao home and give it a good home if I could. Then they gave me a couple other gifts and some cash. It was far more than I expected. That will probably be a dandy Linux server.
I’ve done it for several folks without any kind of offerings, and never looked back. This was huge, and more than makes up the difference. Since I’m about the pass out from exhaustion, it will have to wait until tomorrow to see what I can get to run on it. Sometimes you just run out of words.
Update: Turns out the machine’s graphics card was burned out. Sony’s factory had placed another accessory card too close to the Radeon AGP card and it got overheated enough to quit working properly. Fortunately, a replacement was in stock at my favorite computer parts house just a half-hour bike ride away. We are now up and running Ubuntu Lucid.
Update 2: I eventually gave this computer away to someone who didn’t have one. They are enjoying it right now (December 2011).

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Just a Small Dose of Reality

Posted on August 24, 2011 by ehurst

If you were to search the alternative press and talk to folks who have been there, or are there now, you’ll realize just how vast the lies are.
For example, when you read of terrorist attacks on, say, an Israeli bus, it’s actually a military target. You see, almost every bus in that little country is loaded with soldiers on subsidized duty travel. That’s rather like a lot of European countries do with their trains and buses. The military issues an ID which gets them free travel to work or for any duty purpose. Except in Israel, the average random passenger is more likely a soldier than a civilian, because most of the bus lines were created to support military use. Civilians are permitted to ride, of course. Most of the buses shot up or blown up are at least half filled with troops, and many of the dead and injured were in uniform. Sounds like using civilians as shields, no?
At least once or twice I mentioned the whole mainstream narrative about Libya was 100% lies. We do have “boots on the ground” pretending to be reporters and other civilians with excuses to be in a war zone. Every poll shows the majority of the US citizenry want this action stopped. Gaddafi was better to his countrymen than our government is with us, whatever his flaws. A greater share of the economy went to the common people than what does here in the US. Images of rebels in Gaddafi’s palace? He abandoned it several months ago because NATO kept targeting it for bombs. A slender corridor into the city was blown open by massive bombing for this big photo op. Independent reporters on the scene keep contradicting the MSM about how much of the city the rebels control.
Syria is far more complex than anyone wants to admit. CIA and allied clandestine agencies have been placing snipers in every action zone, shooting people on both sides of the conflict. Most of the protests are in cities dominated by Assad’s enemies, rival clans and tribes, etc. The CIA arms them, too. These could have been easily stirred up any time since the current government rose to power. These political opponents talk about wanting more freedom, but what they really want is a simple change or regime. In case anyone is wondering, these are harsh Islamic regimes they are proposing, compared to the relatively mild and secularist government currently in place. It would be rather like arming and giving lots of money to all the KKK and White Power groups here in the US and encouraging them to rampage for “liberty.”
It’s the same every place Washington DC touches. If the people in power aren’t our clients, it matters not a whit whatever else is going on, our government will try to create a revolution. Then we’ll send plane loads of money and weapons to whatever filthy slime ball is willing to do our dirty work. Everything else is just window dressing. Then our government will lie, but most boldly lie to our citizens, about what’s happening.

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Laptop Oracles: Thick Skinned

Posted on August 24, 2011 by ehurst

A corollary to consistency is the power to resist attacks.
Every civilization has predators within and barbarians without. What makes a civilization strong is many things, but among them is the ability to take and hold real estate against attacks. The Internet is a metaphor for geography, and the greatness of the rising Networked Civilization is how well it exploits available resources, and fends off attacks from those less well suited.
When the geography was small and simple, the Internet was exclusive to those who could be trusted a priori. That was long ago. The strongest form of virtual life on the Internet now is the device which can face the onslaught of predations without disconnecting. In simplest terms, that would be a computer with good security against known and likely attempts to hijack. Every civilization attempts to tame the wilderness and pacify the barbarians, but it first has to survive them without losing its character as a civilization.
God does not smile on a civilization which cheats on His moral laws, and the Networked Civilization is not exempt. The task is to abstract them properly to our context.
Conquering and pacifying goes too far when it crushes the freedom of your citizens. What’s the point? Civilized people aren’t quick to slaughter, but they also don’t disarm those under threat. In the real world, there cannot ever be a time and place when there is no threat so long as there is more than three living souls. It’s the nature of this plane of existence, and it’s the nature of the Net. Civilized people prepare themselves to face threats based on probabilities, not wishes.
If you realize the necessity for computer security, you should recognize the same need for your mind. Your place on the Net becomes strong when your machine and mind together are prepared for attacks. The very nature of civility is cynicism. You expect to encounter a generous helping of fools and predators, and you prepare accordingly. The moral high ground is not demanding everyone else behave, but demanding it first of yourself, then conspicuously contrasting your manner against others. You expect to be in the minority against the larger population, but if some few don’t show the way, it all comes apart. To be civilized is to hold uncommon high morality, and to offer whatever defense is necessary to keep it.
Taking a single potshot and running away is cowardly and common. Trolling is a favorite pastime of those with nothing better to do, whose real lives are so empty, causing trouble in the Net is all they have. Whining is unbearable. If we object to these things, we should object to them in ourselves. Civilized people are committed to a standard they can’t actually achieve, but never quit trying. The elite generally succeed, and deserve all the wealth and power that tends to come with it. Whatever it is that counts for success in civilization depends on self-discipline in pursuit of making the world more thoroughly civilized. Moral superiority is not compelling compliance in others, but inspiring it.
Don’t get too wrapped up in yourself, nor in despising what strikes you as riffraff. Civility keeps the doors open to peace and takes nothing personal, even when it’s intended as a personal insult. Consider the source. Everyone can change, and the best way to help them want to change is let them see your character. That character should include relative resistance to attacks, baiting, trolling, and other digressions from the matter at hand. Computers don’t care; they are serene. You can be serene on your own level.
Serenity is a virtue, and makes God smile.

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Update on Lynx Browser for Windows

Posted on August 23, 2011 by ehurst

Getting the latest and greatest Lynx browser for Windows is possible.
I’m working with Thomas Dickey to get his latest iteration of Lynx for Windows working properly. My focus is on the PDcurses color version with all the latest patches. If you would like to test it with me, there are some external support packages you’ll need to install first.
1. Get the C++ Redistributable libraries from MS. Just install it; you aren’t likely to see any conflicts with anything.
2. You’ll need OpenSSL for Windows. I recommend the Light version for 32-bit, since all the stuff here is 32-bit. During the installation I elect to put them in the standard Windows DLL folder.
3. You’ll also need Gzip and Bzip2. This will require a bit more work than any other part. These packages come from GnuWin32, of which I’ve written in previous posts here. For each package you want to install, click the “Setup” link off to the right of the list to download. These all install in C:\Program Files\GnuWin32\bin\ and you’ll need to make sure that goes into your system’s PATH statement. It’s not for the faint of heart.
Proceed with caution!
I’m using Windows 7 for this, so the link is “Computer” instead of the older “My Computer.” Right click on the link and select “Properties” from the context menu. Select “Advanced system settings” — a window will open with several tabs at the top. Select “Advanced” and hit the button at the bottom marked “Environment Variables…” This opens yet another window with two panes and buttons for each one. In the bottom pane, scroll down to the word “Path” and click the “Edit” button. You will see a very small window with an edit field. The whole thing will come up highlighted, so be careful what keys you hit, because typing will replace what’s there. It will really ruin your day, and your computer. I hit the END key to remove the highlight and place the cursor at the end of the line. Make sure you know where that “Cancel” button is in case you fat-finger things.
Add a semicolon. Then add this — C:\Program Files\GnuWin32\bin\. Be sure you get it exact, either by typing carefully, or copy and paste carefully. Once you have it, start hitting the “OK” buttons until it’s all closed. You’ll have to reboot the computer for this to take effect. Once the GnuWin32 packages are in your system path, they’ll be found automatically when anything needs them. This includes Lynx asking for Gzip or Bzip, which does happen on some webpages.
Then, download and install your choice from among the various Lynx packages at Invisible Island. The installer should place an icon on your desktop. Depending on your habits, the thing should work well enough as is. Making changes requires you dig into the configuration file and variables for Lynx. You can change the color scheme of the display, what it loads as the start page, etc. Also, if the window which opens when you double-click the icon is not suitable, you can right-click on the top bar of the window frame and set the options for fonts and window shape/size, and Windows 7 remembers them automatically. I recall XP asks if you want to save them by modifying the icon settings.
As noted, the current packages as of this writing are still a work in progress. Mr. Dickey is aware of some display problems and, in the midst of several other projects on his hands, he’s trying to fix this. In my testing, I find any site which requires Lynx to process a webpage through Bzip or Gzip causes ghost text to display from background processing, which makes things hard to read. Not many sites I visit use either of those libraries, so you may not have a problem with this.
For those of you not familiar with text-mode web surfing, it can take quite some time to adjust to the vertical display layout. All web pages are shown in a single vertical column. Most web pages with multiple columns display starting with the left column, stacking the other columns below in whatever order the page codes them, usually left to right. Quite a few elements are simply not displayed; the whole point is to get the text and little else. Lots of spacing is lost; some pages render the paragraphs without any blank lines between them. Tables (data in columns and rows) are unstacked, too, and it makes them hard to read. Keep your eye on the status bar at the bottom of the screen in case you need to make some input from the keyboard.
Links are a different color from regular text, and the “cursor” selecting them moves by changing that color. It always starts at the top of the page. Moving from one link to the next is the UP or DOWN arrows. The RIGHT arrow always selects the current link and loads whatever is at the other end. The LEFT arrow takes you back to the previous page. Moving up and down responds to the usual PGDN and PGUP. There is a hard-coded limit on short movement, two lines at a time. The DEL key shifts the display down two lines, INS up two lines. If you want to capture any text displayed on the screen, first right-click and select “Mark”, then highlight in the usual fashion with your mouse. Right-click again and it’s on the clipboard. There are dozens of other tricks you can learn by trial and error. Explore.
The colors of the text are controlled by a configuration file which ends in “lss”. The default color scheme is opaque.lss. You can learn to edit the file itself or choose one of the other files bundled in the package by editing the lynx.cfg, way down at the bottom. We don’t have room to explore all that here, so you’ll have to learn how to parse those files which are kept in the same folder as the Lynx executable at which the desktop icon is pointing. If nothing else, you can examine the LSS file and discern what elements get which color.
Plain text web browsing is much faster, so it’s really useful for slow connections. It’s also a good way to filter out distractions when text is what you seek. Finally, since it’s about as secure as it gets, because it won’t automatically download or render anything likely to harm your computer. By default, cookies are not persistent, so you can accept the all when when the status bar offers the option. I just hit “A” every time, because for sites like the New York Times, it gets the article without any hassle. When you close the browser (hit “Q”) the cookies are erased and you can do it all again. The only drawback is some servers won’t allow Lynx because at one time crackers used it for mucking around in websites. I typically protest to the Webmaster if I can identify an address for the site in question.
Enjoy!
Update: Mr. Dickey informs me you can turn off the encoding feature which tells websites you can’t accept any compression. Most sites will likely honor this. In your lynx.cfg hunt down a reference to “PREFERRED_ENCODING”. Remove the hash mark (#) in front it, then change the “all” to “none”. This is a temporary fix until he has a chance to trace the source of the problem using Bzip2.

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Laptop Oracles: Stand Your Ground

Posted on August 23, 2011 by ehurst

Be consistent, even if others don’t understand.
In a very few years, we shall have ubiquitous video communications over most of the earth. Cell phones are nearly there now. But it’s not a question of hardware; it’s a question of access to bandwidth. Localized economics and personal poverty won’t prevent the presence of network access, but may make it awfully expensive for anything but the most primitive level of textual transmission.
The heart and soul of the Networked Civilization remains plain text. We cannot easily transmit all the hundreds of visual and auditory cues which provide nuance in a conversation. You can easily presume those who know you well will deduce some measure of such things, but the vast majority of the Net will need more overt clues.
We all have read talented writers who can draw you into their world quickly. While much of this can be learned, it’s not essential for the Network. This is not simply a style issue, but a matter of consciousness. Aside from issues arising from the various cultural and language contexts, the fully civilized Netizen must grasp the necessity of presenting however much of oneself as can be transmitted over the network, within the context of the protocols in use.
Machines already process and transmit facts. To be human and networked with other humans requires transmitting the self. On the level of the network itself, the machines can identify each other, but for one human to recognize another requires something of substance, something machines may never quite understand. Even if they do someday understand, it will be an emulation of humanity, not a uniquely machine personality. Machines on the network facilitate reaching out to touch other humans; there is no other reason to have the Internet.
You can’t reach into someone else’s head and make them understand. You can only do so much to put yourself in reach of another human. You can’t make people believe about you what you would prefer. You will for that person ever only be what they imagine. There is only one thing you can do. The single greatest factor in Networked Civilization is consistency. Wrapped up in the whole business of trust, secrecy and openness is the necessity you wrap your own head around who you can imagine you are, followed by how best to transmit that within the medium.
We use the term “character” which comes to us from the art of typography. The word indicates something which makes one thing distinguishable from another. To have character is to be not simply unique, but recognizable. Even with the radical appearance changes of someone like Lady Gaga, there has to be an underlying character or she can’t sell albums, since it depends heavily upon branding. Someone amorphous is no one. Translate that to the Networked Civilization, and we cast aside all the visuals and sounds, and we have only the ability to express the self in text. To be a true Netizen starts with not simply a writing style, but a consistency so others can make sense of who you are. Your textual expression is who you are.
The fastest way to find yourself rejected from the Networked society is to be inconsistent. Not simply in style of expression and vocabulary, but in content. It naturally requires you know your own mind. We expect children to be flighty and variable, because they haven’t learned enough to nail down what matters to them. They are still learning to participate in whatever “civilization” exists for them. A great many adults, upon first using the Net, appear childlike and annoying. They have entered another civilization, and it’s foreign to them. With varying degrees of patience we Netizens try to help or simply avoid them. Their presence is for many a disruption.
Moving forward into the Networked Civilization will be greatly blessed by a self-conscious recognition of what it takes. Your place in such a civilization depends entirely on knowing what you really believe and doing to your best to state your belief. Stand behind them; don’t toss them like a grenade and run away. It matters not what others think of your beliefs or of you. What matters more than anything else is character, the consistent presentation which can be recognized by those involved. Godliness in the Networked Civilization is character, a recognizable presence which comes across in the most fundamental mode of communication of plain text.
Know yourself and how to present.

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Biblical Law and Children

Posted on August 22, 2011 by ehurst

A couple of items came to my attention today regarding how Scripture handles children.
In the Ancient Near East (ANE), a child was seldom away from mother during the first five years of life. A mom could get a break only because she belonged to a larger, extended family household with other women. However, they would sternly lecture any woman too lazy to care for her own kids. The men of the household would back that up.
Application: Today parents are quick to dump their kids far too young on a babysitter. If you can’t take the kids, don’t go. There’s something wrong with a culture which does not recognize the maternal duties and the needs of the children. Thus says the Lord.
The issue in modern developmental studies has to do with identity formation and ability to process. We knew, for example, the Prophet Samuel was not permitted to apprentice in the Temple until age five, which was after he was considered “weaned.” He was ready to attach himself to his primary role model. At that point, he would normally have begun hanging out with dad, and adult men seldom spent time with the younger children for very good reasons. But as a Temple servant, Samuel’s “dad” was one of the priests who stayed in the Temple. There were specific points in ancient times when children bore certain rites of passage. Modern behavioral sciences, when honest, bear out these age points. Only God haters will twist the scientific data to come up with a different answer.
And no, men did not change diapers, as it were, because God said mom wasn’t allowed to shirk her duties. It had nothing to do with what feminists today assume is the man’s whiny excuse, though modern men are pretty whiny. Back then, men were not permitted to touch little kids much; it had nothing to do with escaping the chores. For a man to do what God required of Him meant he left the toddlers with mom. This was partly why the Disciples tried to shoo away those little tykes from Jesus. His response did not negate the cultural assumptions, but He used that moment to teach a parabolic lesson.
We know a child begins developing the capacity for formal logic sometime around eight, and can typically use it by age nine. In the ANE, a child was not brought before the court for much of anything before age nine. He could not testify, and his death was not likely investigated by the court until then. At that point, he was protected by the laws, and was permitted to begin whatever education was possible. In some Western countries, children do not attend formal schooling before age nine, and in that first year catch up with children in every country which pushes them into school earlier.
Application: It’s possible some adults aren’t going to do the right thing before a court, but at least they are theoretically capable. Children before age nine were not capable. Having a child testify in court at a younger age is simply an excuse to manipulate them and manipulate a case, a sort of kangaroo court. Since all justice was presumed the justice of God, courts would err on the side of caution in favor of the accused. This was God’s way for His people, and we are in sin for doing it differently.

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Laptop Oracles: Sheeple

Posted on August 22, 2011 by ehurst

There must be sheeple.
The selection of folks who have some realistic idea how the Internet works is very small, indeed. Fact: The majority of all Internet connections terminate with a machine running some version of Windows poorly configured. The networks are clogged with them, and they do not behave properly, defying the trusted negotiations of how things ought to work among those who really do know. Because of this, we who do know something about proper behavior on the Net are forced to endure a very heavy background noise.
Who is to say their uses of the Internet are any less moral than that of the experts? The Internet knows nothing of morality itself, only function. Personal morality affects the Net, but the Net is not the proper space for addressing human sins of that sort. In our communications over the Net, yes we would discuss morality, but the Net itself is another matter. The Net cannot be made to filter for moral righteousness. So we must permit, even encourage, uses which fit in with the mindless, soulless traffic.
Granted, that there are so very many of them who cling to the non-compliant technology of Microsoft and others empowers big corporations to ignore standards, it all remains within the bounds of what we can broadly tolerate for the sake of our needs. Were it not for their money and investments into the infrastructure, the Internet would hardly be so useful and so cheap to access. The basic laws of economics require we tolerate them, even at the cost of finding ourselves a tiny minority.
They need us and we need. It is good and godly to accommodate them where we can. The world is fallen and God has a plan for those who wallow in it. In His time, all things will end, but we cannot hope for better things until then.
Rather, the mission for us is to continue the search for ways to work within the situation as it is, seeking ways to better our own uses. Whatever pure truth we wish to share between us who know can only be borne on such accommodation as we can make for mass consumers of frivolous and even harmful nonsense. There has always been, and always will be, a majority of idiots upon this planet. In their own domains, they may well be the masters of righteousness, so we tolerate them.
Nothing is sacred. Among the users of Linux we are saddled with a vast horde, a majority of users, who are just as idiotic as mindless users of every OS. The only way to prevent mass adoption of anything by idiots is to make it harder to use, and then we all waste time on things which should be simple. So we sigh and realize we cannot protect our favorite OS from people who demand whatever it is which destroys the essence of the thing. Windows can be made tolerable, Macs can do real work worth the price, and Linux or BSD can be easy to use. Our number one problem is not technology, but people.
Narrow and rough is the path, and few be those who find the truth about networking. Broad is the way which leads down to destruction, and someday they’ll take the Internet down with them. We who build the Networked Civilization must be always ready with a new technology, another form of networking, to continue what matters. Let not your zeal for the network flag, for God will prosper those efforts.

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Laptop Oracles: Secrecy Is Evil

Posted on August 21, 2011 by ehurst

Thus saith the Lord: Withholding information is as the sin of murder.
So very much has been made of the insistence some things need to be classified, to protect from enemy eyes things which might give them an advantage of us. They insist there is a tactical advantage to secrecy about our plans and methods, and that advantage is absolutely necessary. Short term military operational security is one thing; long-term secrecy from your own citizens is another. God calls the latter “lying.”
He has made it abundantly clear there is no such need. It won’t matter who your enemy is, what they know and what great mighty things they possess to use against you. If you will but choose to proceed as God has said you should, they cannot win without His permission.
Notice, I do not say they cannot win, but that they must have His permission. If He wants them to win, nothing you do can prevent it. If you obey His Laws, you vastly increase the probability He’ll never want them to win. He alone is permitted to keep secrets about His plans, but He has made it clear your best chance on this earth is to do things His way and let Him handle the outcomes. Refer to the Hebrew boys in the Fiery Furnace.
If you insist on defying His ways, you will guarantee He has to break you down by handing you over to your enemies. Whatever calculus He uses definitely tips in favor of destroying you one way or another if you defy His Laws.
His Laws declare unequivocally you shall not have secrets. A secret is any information which affects others, but is denied them. It won’t matter the motives; all humanity has the right in God’s eyes to be as fully informed as every other human. More accurately, God demands we reveal anything we know which is pertinent to the life of others. Otherwise His judgment of that person’s choices fall upon us. So classification systems and secrecy veils are a defiance of God because they deny others that final necessity of moral choice, and arrogantly seeks to interfere with divine processes. You are not God, you blasphemers who keep secrets.
There is no perfection in this world. Individuals, communities, nations, governments — all of them are destined to rise and fall. God has it under His hand, and keeping secrets attempts to interfere, to stay His hand from His decisions. All it does for you is make you a target for His wrath. When any nation defies His commands regarding secrecy, torture, and other evils, they beg God He release the demons of Hell upon them. He removes any protection He might have otherwise offered, and He permits a relentless degradation of life as that nation descends into Satanic filth. So it is with individuals and any other entity.
So it is with computers and data. All this applies most especially the moment you place data into a digital format. You have crossed a barrier, you have entered that data into another realm. It now belongs to that other realm, and you are not free to handle it in the same fashion as while it remained in some other format. Physical objects you can control and hide, but electrons belong to the ether. God sees and knows, and will not tolerate attempts to treat electrons as physical property. It violates divine principle for this earth.
Obfuscate as you wish things which are simply private. Private information is that which affects only the parties sharing it. It really is no one else’s business, and you are required by God to keep it away from others not involved. Use encryption and whatever other means. But secrets are another matter, a denial of pertinent information, a form of indirect slavery designed to unjustly shape the behavior of others. No human force can prevent you using encryption unjustly, not really. But God knows and sees, and demons stand slavering over the opportunity to devour your life if you abuse it.
Secrecy is a sin.

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Laptop Oracles: Copyright Is Dead

Posted on August 20, 2011 by ehurst

Thus saith the Lord: Withholding information is as the sin of murder.
Placing a gateway, or any other impediment to information access, is an abomination to God. If you depend on selling such access, you are a thief at the very least. Find another business model, or know the wrath of God will fall upon you.
The Network is based on trust. Trust is the currency of our commerce; it is earned by openness. Not just access, but accuracy, too. Twisting the facts and lying to promote your agenda is a form of access denial. Keep it up and you’ll be marked a liar by those who know. When justice comes, no one will trust a liar and keeper of secrets.
Naturally, their evaluation of you depends on what they seek. Civility itself does not change with the new civilization; there is such a thing as TMI (learn the acronyms). Broadcasting your private life is a sin, too. Share with those who ask, if you will, but keep your personal details off the Net, please. It’s as the sin of public nudity. Humanity is fallen, and pretending everyone can simply go along without being arrested by the sight of nude bodies is a slap in the face of God.
But the burqa goes too far. Anonymity is a precious commodity reserved for those who truly need it, and only when and where they need it. Keep hiding and no one will trust you. Your IP address is always exposed, or the Net won’t work at all, so don’t make us track you down, because if we have to work that hard, we’ll demand our pound of flesh. You can be anonymous when it doesn’t do any harm.
Share your gifts. That’s why God gave them. Those who have much, of them much is required. We reject any human controls over such matters; it’s that voluntary nature of the Network. But if you withhold the treasures of your soul, for whatever reason, no one will trust you. Love your Net neighbor as yourself. Everyone’s needs are your needs, and yours are theirs.
If you in any way touch the Net, you must participate fully, or get off. Digitize your art/data, and it is free. Period. No further discussion. Once it assumes a format which can be passed on the Net, you cease to control it. If it can be shared, it must be shared. God is angry with any attempts to restrict access to anything digitized. He blesses and supports the pirates, because they do His work.
Attempts to restrict how information is passed over the Net will fail. God Himself will see to that. All those of you seeking the means to bypass evil technology are friends of God. In dodging evil and oppression, in this alone is secrecy and privacy warranted and blessed by God. May His mercy rest upon you and all your sins be forgiven. May His kindness fill your days with joy and peace.

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