Somehow, someway….
Yesterday, I tweeted, “Go to Hong Kong? Okay, if it’d mean good food, and a chance to put my fist through Snowden’s face.”
Some comments I got on Facebook made me think more about it, and the more I think and read about it, the more I want to punch the guy.
From what I can tell, what the government is doing is no different than the highway department putting traffic sensors on a roadway. You know, the wires spreading across all lanes of traffic that seem to be connected to nothing. They’re there to monitor the number of vehicles passing over that point in a given amount of time.
There’s also speed sensors that make the chromakey displays behind the perky traffic girl show congestion on a roadway.
What does she do when one goes from green to red? She pulls up that roadway camera to see if she can see what’s up.
Now, imagine if one of the little pissants running the state’s traffic centers alerted everyone that they were being monitored because of these cameras……
Do I have some issues with the possible long-term retention of traffic? Sure. Separate issue. I know that it’s tough for someone at this nincompoop’s intellectual level to understand. (Or, for that matter, the average Hannity fan. Don’t get me wrong, Sean is a genuinely nice guy. I’ve met him more than once. His big-time fans tend to be a little, shall we say, simpleminded. Only NPR has the luxury of choosing its audience.)
But I digress; back to the issue of monitoring. The now knocked-up traffic girl only goes to a camera when she sees that there might be a problem. Analysts brighter than Snowden do the same thing for Internet traffic.
As I told the folks on users, law enforcement generally notifies the provider whenever there’s an investigation going on. Otherwise, that oh-so-cute fuzzy puppy pic your aunt sent you (because she won’t get on Facebook out of fears someone will steal her identity) just passes by unnoticed. Just like your car would on the way to the liquor store if you took the Interstate.
Stopping my babbling now. What are the takeaways?
1. If you really want to keep something private, don’t put it into a computer, or say it over the telephone.
2. Punching Snowden (and the people who think he’s a hero) is a-okay in my book. Not so much for what he did, or may do, but simply because he’s inciting panic unnecessarily.