Postage Stamp Chat Board and Stamp Bulletin Board Forum

No I blame the user offhisface! hahahaha....oops fell off my chair.

Yes, all those IT people are too busy checking the date of the next comic convention or fantasy novel film adaptation release to do a proper job of programming.

This thread really IS almost as good as the Biscuit Tin.

And for any new members who may have missed the legendary 'Biscuit tin' thread, here it is:

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=13108

NOOooo not the biscuit tin !!
I'll have nightmares about internet police again


Skippy

Come on Skippy...admit it.
You were out combing the roadsides for days after reading that thread

Combing the streets? I didn't dare leave the house , the internet police were watching via google earth
didn't you all realise ?
I'm amazed anyone survived that turbulent time
Thank goodness for my tinfoil hat

A nice 25c in the big V.

I stilll think that the Sir Donald Bradman Great Stamp Heist trumps this, and the biscuit tin.

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6314

Norm

I was enjoying my macaroni and cheese for lunch, but now most of it is all over my screen.

Sshhh I hear voices....

Tinfoil hats are SO 2009.

Since the NWO (aka the Vatican, which is run by the Masons, which is run by the Rothchilds, which is managed by the Jews, but overall is overseen by our hidden alien Lizard overlords) perfected mindreading and astral projection, and now employ everybody except me and you, there is no escape.

But I for one, welcome our new Alien Lizard Overlords (Kent Brockman, The Simpsons).

There is no spoon......

I have been looking for an appropriate forum to shift this to, but there is no such animal...,so let's leave it here, and give people a chance to chill out for a few more pages Until of course, the Powers That Be intercept, and close us down.

Norm

yes all very true Norm
And Gillard nearly rhymes with lizard for a reason, it's no coincidence people !

Allanswood, you turned your PC into a Mac,

Norm have you stopped taking your Pills again,what are you on about,

Ron, I am a member of another forum where a lot of so-called conspiracy theories are discussed in exruciating detail. The people who believe in these theories believe that EVERYBODY is out to get them and that only they know the truth. It usually ends up with "THEY" are out to get me.

One of my favourites is the "no-plane" theory where proponents believe (and I am not making this up) that Planes did not actually crash into the twin towers on 9/11, and that it was all done by holograms, and explosive devices.

Another is that we are all being conned by THEM, and that Statute Law is illegal in the real world, and they are under no obligation to obey it. These are called "Freemen on the Land", and often end up in jail for not obeying laws.

A couple of oldies but goodies:

- Oswald did not shoot Kennedy.
- We never landed on the moon.
- The USA Government sponsored 9/11
- The CIA are monitoring everyone (spoofed in The Simpsons Movie)
- Group Stalking (they are being followed by 100's of people for usually unknown reasons)

There are hundreds of idiots out there that believe this sort of crap, but as I said, they all believe that somebody is out to get them, and they hide in basements (hense the Tinfoil Hat Brigade first mentioned by Skippy) and post on the Internet all day every day. Usually the "somebody" is part of a super organisation that only they know about.

It is mostly a USA phenomena (go figure!)

Norm

just a bit of geek humour...

StampBoards in the era of text-browsers... It doesn't look too bad IMO

Actually for Americans this remains to this day a clear fact.

EVERY email and telephone call to and from EVERY American in the USA can be accessed by the Feds, to this day with no warrant or advice to the citizens. By edict of the last 2 Presidents.

So much for the "Land Of The Free".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy

Leaving aside the fact that it is not practical to do this, the woos (conspiracy theorists) believe that it is actually happening and that the CIA is actually "on their case" and monitoring every piece of communication in the USA. This is not so, and that is their problem.

Norm

That's right. To suggest they are monitoring all communications in the U.S. is just plain silly. They only monitor Canada.

Or more specifically, Ontario. I have some Tin Foil Hats available cheap.

Norm

Might be an idea to read the link Norm.

When in doubt .. check the facts.

The Feds can access EVERY word of every email and phone call at their leisure, with no warrant.

I am astounded Americans are not angrier.

However having spent a half hour at a TSA Security checkpoint yesterday at SFO manned by the usual brain dead morons, nothing they do over there surprises me anymore. And remain astounded how the general public have just rolled over and accepted it.

The next nut that secrets an alleged bomb component in a body cavity will incur my particular displeasure. That's the way they are headed there. Be full cavity searches from that point on.

No liquids for millions of pax a day just as some moron years back THOUGHT he might be able to blow something up. He never did of course but "he might have".

Those TSA goons confiscated a jar of dulche du leche off us in April as they called it a "gel". We said "it is a jar of chocolate flavour food paste."

They said: "it is going in the bin"

That is how things work there. No logic comes into the process whatever.

Thanks Glen and Norm for those revelations,

I really had no idea,

I always knew the Tasmanians were a bit odd,along with the Welsh,
But to think that all those Americans were reading from the same page,comes as a bit of a shock.

Glen, I am not suggesting that what you posted is not USA law. That it is is the law is a separate issue. And I agree that it is an infringement of rights.

But did you read my post? The woos are suggesting that the CIA are actually physically checking every communication made in the USA. That is bull****. Unless you think that they have sufficient staff to actually monitor all communication? And that is what I raised.

If you are suggesting that the Wiki article states that the CIA are actually monitoring every bit of communication going on in the USA, well, Do the math! It's not possible.

But then these clowns who claim that everything is monitored, go onto the internet, make claims that they are being followed by hundreds of people, their phone calls are all being monitored, then think that posting on the internet is completely safe?

Bah! They are morons.

Norm

Singing:
"Home of the brave and the land of the... paranoid dilsuional, phsychotic episodes, we're watching you... free."
Except for those who need to take certain medications, the rest are nuts!


Just wait until someone comes up with plastic explosives that look like snot!

"Excuse me Sir, I need you to spit, snort and hurl into this bucket before boarding. By the way when was the last time you had a pee?"

"Where are you heading?" Australia. "Oh don't worry about it get on."


PS I'm sure the feds can listen in, (as I'm sure they do in Aus as well) whether they actually want to listen in to 5 trillion daily "she said, he said, I know, I know, 1 pepperoni to go" phones calls is doubtable. The computers monitor how much traffic on targeted lines are being made and when their is an upsurge in traffic they will listen in actively.

Actually (for the 3rd time!) it is fact Norm.

Clearly they have specific targets who would be monitored closely, that is obvious. As we do here too I am sure.

But ALL the other emails route via a building in SFO as I recall. Agree 99.999999% of it is not looked at, however I presume they use, like spam filters, algorithms to detect key words and phrases that catch their attention.

You are seriously suggesting that they are actually personally physically checking every bit of communication within and in and out of the USA every day?. Again, do the Math. THAT is what the Conspiracy Theorists think.



This is the fact I agree with. Unless you think that they have a warm body to monitor every woo's internet post who thinks that no Planes hit the WTC on 9/11. The CT's THINK that they are personally being targetted 24/7.



Which is exactly why the woos fail. If you had read my earlier posts you would know that these people ("the woos") actually think that the CIA is personally monitoring them by the minute, with continual (personal) monitoring, group stalking and reading everything they write, and if they "spill the beans" on their favourite conspiracy, the Black Helicoptors and/or Men in Black will come and pick them up, and give them the flashy thing.

I think we agree essentially, but are coming at this sidebar issue from different directions.

Norm

Well, I'm sure you are one who under major scrutiny Glen (even though I'm the one that always gets patted down at airports)

Were they checking for contraband stamps Margo?
Please don't say it was chocolate body oil.

Wasn't there a movie about conspiracy theories, Mad Mel and Julia R were in it?
He only got into real trouble when one of his theories proved true!

Conspiracy Theory.

The tag line was "Just because you are paranoid it does not mean that they are not out to get you"

Of course with Mel, it has now become true in real life.

Norm

I've always been partial to a good conspiracy.

But, after studying the defence mechanisms of U.S., England, et al (just for laughs, I've included Australia in the list), for nearly 30 years, I have come to the conclusion that while SOME of the nations have the capability to monitor their citizens to the nth degree (and computers have made this apparent surveillance easier), the bare facts remain that it is sheer luck - and complete incompetence on the part of the bad guy - if anything turns up

The sad fact remains that many people (particularly these days) PREFER the invasion of privacy to what they perceive as the alternative. And then there is the percentage of people who believe we have come so far down the path depicted in '1984' that they shrug their shoulders and allow their apathy to trip them up.

The only thing that bothers me about the whole she-bang is that what started out as one aspect of the 'good-guys' arsenal has been hi-jacked by the 'bad-guys', who have put all that lovely technology to very profitable use.

It is absolutely incorrect to say that the CIA monitors any communications in the
US. That is not their job. That resposibility belongs to the NSA (National Security
Agency) and their computers at Fort Meade, Maryland.

And is it a great comfort to the citizens of the USA that their communications are being monitered by the NSA instead of the CIA

What was that sandwich again, skilo54

This means the NSA / CIA / etc are monitoring postings on this site

Nah - they gave up looking for intelligent life in Australia decades ago

Am I lost Where am I

Well Stampboards may have a pathetic interface but the National Security Agency sure doesn't.

http://www.nsa.gov/

There's a virtual tour of the Cryptologic Museum, a Maths summer camp, access to declassified docs (the others you can get on Wikileaks), an article about NSA being Employer of the Year and whats more its green AND safe for kids!!!

Glen is quite right about the algorythms being used. The NSA uses key phrases and words as triggers while monitoring communications to and from the US.

This has been even more so since 9/11 and is relatively easy to do even with the vast amount of data flowing on comms networks.

Trigger phrase/words in a communication are then routed for further investigation (though still without human intervention). If the sequencing of the entire communication is such that it's flagged further, it's then routed from human investigation by Homeland Security.

WARNING

Ten seconds after reading this, your computer will be remotely commanded to spin up and perform a complete hard disk reformat. All data including this communication will be deleted

Thank, Norm, but I'll pass. I'm more of a pyramid power kinda guy. Besides, I thought you were into personal antennae.....

THATS NOT ME! THATS NOT ME!

Well it might have been once....

Norm

Well, since I don't remember any of this moment, you might be right. It was a Thai Restaraunt in Canberra, and great food, I remember that much but...

Can this thread be moved to the correct Forum? Oh, there isn't a correct forum for this thread, so let's leave it here.

It's the Seinfeld thread now. The thread about nothing.

Norm

I am hungry. I need a slab.

But doesn't this happen at almost every workplace that has a distinct IT department?

Not long ago a workmate took a 5 second peek at on line cricket scores using his work computer, and the IT manager was around to his desk spitting a hissy fit at him a further five seconds later.

The technology to intercept radio signals has been around since the second world war. In places like Bletchely Park in the UK they were doing exactly what you say is "not possible" in the 1940's!!! That technology was maybe the most crucial factor that kept Britain ahead of the Nazis.

There are 'listening stations' in the south of England. I imagine there are others in every country. This is not conspiracy theory Norm....you can apply for a job there if you want!

About 6 years ago, a US soldier came to the UK to marry a girl he had been chatting to on-line. When he arrived, he discovered that she was only 13 or 14 years old. There was huge media interest as they ran away together to Holland or Belgium. (Personally I think that he was completely fooled and genuinely thought she was in her 20's when chatting....but that is an aside) The FBI were involved in tracking them down. A comment made by an official made me pay attention. He said, "We never moved in because were able to track him at all times using his mobile phone". Using their technology they knew to within 2 metres where he was standing!
In my life, I have worked for the 'Electronic Warfare' department of a major electronic company. For the Civil Service in the UK, I have done undercover surveillance work. I can assure you, the technology exists to trace just about anything!

The technology exists to 'listen' for keywords, and then to focus, and refocus as needs be.

Earlier in this very thread, another member traced Stanley7 to China.....do you think large organizations can't do more? In the 1840's in the UK the government got into trouble for intercepting mail and reading it on it's way to the recipient.....the scandal almost brought down the government... Punch Magazine made a Mulready Charicature of it which you can see here


Of course, every word of every email is not checked, that is not possible, nor desirable (not yet ), but filtering and then refocusing....even a high-school computer programmer could write that program!

And an honest citizen living in a nation with an honest government (as those of us in - for instance - Australia, Canada, UK and USA do, in spite of our often-profound criticism of those governments) has NOTHING to fear from this.

I absolutely agree with you, Gavin. In my first trip to China last year, I saw some of the differences between living in a free country, with the right to 'moan', and living in an 'economically powerful, but don't dare say anything bad' country.

However, the 'honest government' part mentioned above is very easily (sometimes rightly) ridiculed by teenagers/students with no "life experience" .....and OhMyGod....that makes me a Grumpy Old Man!