Canada, you have my sympathy

It was just announced that Canada is going to buy 65 F-35 fighters.

Where does this fail me? Let me count the ways. The biggest mistake was that the Pentagon bought in to the defense industry saying that 'this plane can do everything! Air superiority! Low-level bombing! Launch from carriers! Hover like a Harrier! And STEALTH!' Well, the problem is that if it can do everything, it'll do nothing well.

The problems have been numerous, up to the point of building actual planes before the designs were finalized, requiring those units to go back to the factory for massive refits. It's been unreliable, requires massive maintenance hours per flight hours, and is basically a total POS. Countries around the world have cancelled orders, and the fiscally-conservative government of Canada is going to drop $9 billion Canadian on it.

My sincerest condolences at your loss of sanity.

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN0EG2P820140605?sp=true

In other Eric Cantor news

With him leaving office at the start of next year when the new House will be sworn in, the House will be 100% Christian (assuming no big surprises in the November elections). Eric was the only Jew. And with the exception of one appointed black man, the House is 100% white. There are a few women, but for the most part, it's a sausage-fest.

In addition to Heatbleed, there's another serious vulnerability in OpenSSL

There's a concept called a man in the middle attack, you can think of it as someone listening in on your phone call so they here both sides of the conversation. In the way the internet works, it's doable, but not as easily. Well, this bug makes it kind of easy.

If you're able to position yourself between two computers that are both using certain versions of OpenSSL for encryption and privacy, then the middle man has the ability to intercept the encrypted packets when they're trying to establish the secure session and tell both hosts, silently, to switch to a weaker form of crypto. A form that presumably the middle man knows how to break.

So if you updated your OpenSSL software for Heartbleed, now you get to update it again.

OpenSSL is used a lot, but is not universal on the internet. One place where it is used heavily: Android smartphones and presumably tablets.

http://www.wired.com/2014/06/heartbleed-redux-another-gaping-wound-in-ssl-uncovered/

US Marshals seize records from a Florida police dept that the ACLU had FOIA'd

The ACLU filed a public records request for all information about using stingray devices from the Sarasota PD and had an appointment to review the documentation, when the US Marshal Service went in and effectively raided the police department, taking all of the documents that the ACLU were going to view.

Something similar happened in Tallahassee after it was revealed that said department had used stingrays 200 times without telling a judge. The stingray manufacturer had made the police department sign non-disclosure agreements and the department thought that precluded telling judges. Interesting how corporations can now dictate law enforcement behavior.

A stingray is a piece of surveillance equipment that mimics a cell tower. It broadcasts a stronger signal than a tower which forces all of the cell phones in the area to link to it. By moving the tower around, you can triangulate and more accurately locate the phone with a specific number than is possible with tower information alone. The kerfuffle revolves around the detective getting a 'trap and trace' warrant which is effectively a phone tap, for deploying this stingray, rather than a probable cause warrant that is normally used with them.

http://www.wired.com/2014/06/feds-seize-stingray-documents/

Starbucks is paying for college for its employees!

"The only way to build a great, enduring company is by linking shareholder value with value for employees."
--Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks

Schultz was on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart on Monday night and made the announcement that Starbucks would pay for two years of classes for employees through Arizona State University's online program.

This is awesome. I assume there's some restrictions, like maybe you have to work there six months to a year before you're eligible, but it covers both part-time and full-time employees. I believe he said that Starbucks also has a $15 an hour minimum wage.

Then today I read a great article on NPR about a new classification of corporation called a Benefit Corp. The thing that is so strikingly different is that they are protected under law from suits brought by shareholders who complain that they're putting environmental responsibility (among other things) over profit and shareholder value.

This is just beyond awesome and something that the world really needs. Not all states have this structure in place, but it is growing. The article says "For example, in Nevada, the state's incorporation document clearly lists as an option. And 236 companies signed up in only four months...", so clearly there is an interest in such a thing.

http://www.npr.org/2014/06/18/316349988/benefit-corporations-look-beyond-the-profit-motive