📣🚨 BAT SIGNAL: A law in France that would mandate a backdoor in end to end encrypted communications is set for a vote within the next day, after some start-stop skirmishes.
The French Narcotraffic law would require encrypted communications providers—like Signal—create a backdoor by giving the government the ability to add themselves to any group or chat they like. In the name of (checks notes) fighting drug trafficking.
While those hyping this bad law have rushed to assure French politicians that the proposal isn’t’ ‘breaking encryption’ their arguments are as tedious as they are stale as they are laughable. For those catching up, let’s review the basics: end to end encryption must only have two ‘ends’—sender and recipient(s). Otherwise, it is backdoored. Whatever method is devised to add a ‘third end’ —from a perverted PRNG in a cryptographic protocol, to vendor-provided government software grafted onto the side of secure communications that allow said government to add themselves to your chats—it rips a hole in the hull of private communications and is a backdoor.
Indeed, the ghost participant proposal was roundly rebuked (humiliated, even) when it was first proposed in 2019 in the UK. The technical community was united, and it was never implemented in law or otherwise.
We cannot accept any backdoor, however it’s dressed up. Communications don’t stay within jurisdictional boundaries. Which means a hole created in France becomes a vector for anyone wanting to undermine Signal’s robust privacy guarantees, anywhere. Instead of contending with unbreakable math, they only have to compromise a French government employee, or the vendor-provided software used to sideload government operatives into your private chats.
This is why, as always, Signal would exit the French market before it would comply with this law as written. At this moment especially, there is simply too much riding on Signal, on our being able to forge a future in which private communication persists, to allow such pernicious undermining.
We hope—WE HOPE—that this callow, dishonest attack will fail, and will be the last. We would love to get back to the work of maintaining and improving our core technologies, instead of fighting legislation which is distinguished in nothing as much as its refusal to listen to decades of expert consensus in its drive to imperil global cybersecurity and the human right of privacy.
For those who don't follow the language, RSS goons are accosting Indian-Christian women on the streets and forcing them to say "Jai Shri Ram" - a war cry for #Hindutva terrorists!
"If you are living in #HinduRashtra why do you have a problem with saying JSR?!"
20 years ago we released Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas.
The original plan was for the 3 cities to be on separate maps. The player would travel between the cities using trains and planes.
(Gta 1 and 2 also had three cities on separate maps)
Memory was very tight on the ps2 and with separate maps, the other cities’ skyline models wouldn’t have to be in memory.
It would also make it easier to have different police/ambulance/firetrucks for each city. Different pickups, weather types etc.
It would also be easier to contain the player until it was time for the next city.
It would also make it easier to organize the models on the DVD city-by-city which would help the streaming.
Just before the artists started working on the three maps, we had a final meeting at R* North in which we changed our minds and decided to go for a big map after all.
We still ended up doing city-specific pickups, police cars and weather.
Happy birthday San Andreas. You turned out all right.
I am Tamil, but I am as alien to Tamilnadu s govt healthcare system as someone from Bihar or UP. I haven't studied ,worked or gotten treatment from TN govt hospitals.
When doctors with years of experience in TN govt healthcare systems talk about the demonstrated ability of the system in delivering exceptional outcomes with low resources, they are asked to not gloat, introspect about the deficiencies or given examples of ailing healthcare systems elsewhere in the country. They are asked to learn the best practices of other systems from the UK, US .
These doctors know it's not all rainbows and unicorns. They know that lacunae exist. They know it's important to commit to continuous improvement and learning. And they do, within the prevailing constraints.
The problem is this is only expected of Tamilnadu - not others. While the others, including the west, are fine with seeing the glass as quarter full, TN is expected to see it as quarter empty. While they don't like to examine or learn anything from the success of TN system, TN is supposed to learn from all and sundry. While a failed student can question why a topper missed 5 marks, the topper can't ask why you failed - lest the failed students' "feelings" are hurt. While failure is collectivized as a national phenomenon, regional success isn't allowed to be celebrated as a regional victory.
Tamilnadu doctors talking about their success is neither chauvinism nor exceptionalism. It's not propaganda, but policy evangelism. It's not a cry for validation or acknowledgement, it's an invitation to learn.
Some of the reluctance to acknowledge this success could be politics or even racism. People may have political differences , but facts don't care for our feelings.
I get it- It's hard to believe you can get a scan the same day or see a specialist in a few hours if the govt facility in your own place is dilapidated. When you are in the desert, it's perfectly reasonable to be cynical - to see water on the horizon as mirage, instead of an oasis.
This is why, I wish TN govt made it possible for MD /MS / MBA / Civil services from other states to come and see for themselves. A short elective. A glimpse into the successes and failures, challenges and the response, the terrain and the map of our healthcare landscape.
Perhaps then, people will realise that the doctors were saying the truth, all along. And then realize that TN must have done SOMETHING (S) right.
Consequently, I think, the left wing has better prospects of uniting a warring world, making humans more empathetic to their fellow humans, driving sustainable growth, reducing inequality and helping us evolve into better versions of ourselves.
This is funny.. A conservative right wing candidate, a party for whom overseas friends of BJP have campaigned, and currently headed by Rishi Sunak, is canvassing for Muslim votes highlighting India's highhandedness in Kashmir and making anti-Modi rhetoric.
Right-wing across the world can support each other but by design, their ideology which considers their own people, nation, culture or religion as superior can never dream of the bonhomie that left parties enjoy subscribing to an universal Marx or derived ideologies. #Melodi
#DigiYatra#Aadhaar This is why it is difficult to trust any of the government's digital initiatives - the lack of transparency, accountability and misuse easily trumps any claimed advantage.
Digi Yatra Foundation drops app maker after ‘data-breach’ https://t.co/mtALoQsw9j
#digiyatra I hope @DigiYatraOffice comes clean and transparent on the scam and the apparent loss of personal data that was widely reported before implementing it in Chennai.