The Internet Part 3 by KimB

Back to the Cake Mix

Like any great recipe, the quality of ingredients, the order in which they are added, the way they are mixed, how it is baked all need to be done exactly the same way every time to get the same cake. Adding extra salt, changing the amount of baking powder, or flavoring, all change the cake and it's not the same cake as before. This is what will happen with the Internet and the NSA's surveillance will fail in it's current format.

For every layer in the cake, a simple change will break the Internet as it is today.

One of the many layers that is changing is described as Internet Balkanization or Splinternet, where various forms of sub-division will be implemented on the Internet. One way to understand how this will work is using the train tracks for analogy. Train tracks come in different widths called Track Gauge, when a train comes to a track using a different gauge, the train stops, the train cars are shifted onto a set of wheels matching the new track width or passengers have to move from one train to another, then everyone proceeds until they come to another track gauge change.

All countries have the ability to turn off the Internet at will. We can see this in the Middle East and other countries in conflict, when governments just turn the spigot off. This is a different method than Balkanization, where the Internet is completely severed. It doesn't last too long because businesses need to do, well, business.

Splinternets may be parallel Internets that would be run as distinct, private, and autonomous universes or have more “stop” in their “stop sign”, like the Great Firewall of China (Golden Shield Project). Some countries have already declared their intention to break off from the current set of “internet track gauge one size fits all” and move to their own. Brazil and Russia are two of the newest declarants of this process.

The common cry is “But... but... but... NOTHING will work!” And that's exactly right. It won't work … the way it is now. It won't be the same. It will be different. And all the NSA surveillance options on this layer of the cake using this ingredient will fail.

There are many more ingredients that will change too. This is only one of them. Each layer has a weakness that is exploited not just by the NSA but all malware developers. The NSA has a lot in common with malware developers and employ some of the best the FBI can arrest. The NSA with their internal cadre of malware developers and independent business malware developers, both will have to develop new techniques to exploit not just each item on the ingredient list and each layer but for each type, style, size and flavor of cake. That will take time and of course a lot more money. Their current investment will yield less and less over time. The echo effect of changes may accelerate changes in other aspects of the current system.

There will be a lot of gnashing of teeth and crying in the wilderness in the process. It won't be “fun”, it won't be “easy”. It will be “messy” and “nasty” and very “inconvenient”. It will take some time but like an avalanche, a small change can make a big heap of snow fall down the mountain. The NSA will try to influence all the changes, they will try to get “back doors” and “encryption keys” on demand. They will try with all their might to hold on to what they have.

Those of us in the USA may be subject to their demands and FISA warrants and secret courts (there are many) and ex parte legal proceedings and “wrong check boxes” being ticked on purpose, renditions and “enhanced interrogation” methods (by any other name known as torture), mourning the disappeared and all the other NSA activities disclosed not just by Edward Snowden but by whistleblowers all over the globe. The NSA maybe able to silence some but not all; not all the time and not forever.

The scope of the changes to the Internet is world wide and is already being implemented. Each change reveals more and more that The Emperor has No Clothes.

And like the story, in the end, The Emperor is Naked.


[Editor's note: This story is Part 3 of 3 and was written by KimB.]




Internet Connectivity Access Layer



Internet Connectivity Distribution Core

The Internet Part 2 by KimB

“The Emperor has No Clothes”.

The NSA and all of the other world's security services, are dependent on a simple requirement: That Nothing Change. A small change and their entire empire of surveillance collapses. So the NSA et al, will attempt to block changes but they control only a small part of the world, a very small part. Once a change is initiated elsewhere, it cascades through the system. Their job is to prevent changes at all costs.

The first change is:

The Internet was build on “trust” but it was never designed to be “secure” and it was never designed to be “securable”.

The great idea that we, the people of the world, could “trust” the Internet to perform our tasks was a laudable vision. I could “trust” that a email I sent to someone would get there auto-magically and without being intercepted and read along the way. I could “trust” that my personal information was secure and that no one without my authorization could see it.

Unfortunately, there were some who did not share in this view, both the NSA (as a catch all phrase for all world government surveillance organizations) and corporations took advantage of my “trust”. Some did ask for permission but hid what they were doing with the information or subtly changed or reworded their requests because they knew that few would willing agree to their ultimate goals, not even for free email.

Once you understand that the basis of Internet Trust cannot be recovered, then you have to look deeper into the technology to see all the places The Emperor has No Clothes. The changes won't be “fun” and they won't be “convenient” but they will happen, they are happening and they've been in progress for sometime because while the average person on the planet may not have been aware of the NSA data trawl, other governments certainly were and those governments are no longer going to Go Along To Get Along. The benefit to any government not on the NSA's “friends list” has expired.

Techie Talk Time
Warning eye-glazing-over information about to appear. Try to prop the eyelids open for a short period.

Everything in the Internet or any Computer System is based on a 7 layer cake called the OSI Model. This 7 layer cake defines exactly how your email gets from your PC to the Destination. It's applied to Big Iron like supercomputers as well as your cellphone or phablet. It's the recipe for how things happen, where and when.

Just like a cake, there's a time for mixing, there's a time for baking, there's a time for frosting. All the items go in order, every time, all the time. When it goes in order, according to the recipe out comes the Internet all nice and tasty, ready to eat, looking like “MORE!” as soon as you see it.

Within each of the 7 layers, are specialties. You may buy Organic Flour at the store, but the flour is milled and packaged by someone else, before that it was planted and harvested. There are many kinds of flours to select from. Each different and unique but all fitting within a particular layer.

The NSA has tinkered in every single layer of the cake recipe. There's no layer they have not compromised, accessed or exploited. Your Organic Flour is not Organic. The flour is not 100% wheat. The wheat did not come from a farm in Kansas as stated on the package but comes from an undisclosed location. There are GMOs in the flour and it has some additives not listed in the ingredients list too. In short, the flour is not at all what you thought it was and you won't be buying that brand again.

The same goes for every layer in the OSI Model. It's all tainted. The reason the NSA et al. were able to taint the layers, is because we “trusted” the Internet and “trusted” that other providers of each ingredient or component would be honest and do the best they could for their area. But clearly we were wrong in our trust.

The NSA made sure “we” didn't know, but many did know. The history of the Internet and the results of the exposés, showed that many did know what was going on but the NSA could easily overwhelm the their concerns with “You know nothing John Snow...” and submerge their true purposes by isolating and limiting the sources of information and using “Trust Me” answers.

[Editor's note: This story is Part 2 of 3 and was written by KimB.]

OSI 7 Layer Model

The Internet Part 1 by KimB

The revelations of whistle blower Edward Snowden have certainly changed the Internet forever. Glenn Greenwald's book No Place to Hide is a great explanation of how the information came into the public domain and the many articles in news papers, blogs, journals around the world help explain what it all means. There is certainly a lot to take in.

During my career in Silicon Valley, I was fortunate to have worked in nearly every field mentioned in the exposés or worked with other specialists in those fields on combined projects. I am familiar with many of their aspects even if I am not an expert in any one of them.

While it may not seem to be obvious to some, things will not go back to where they were. Knowledge cannot be “un-done”. If you know, you know. When they don't want you to know, they hide it, but sometimes you can figure it out anyway. If it's hidden deep enough, you need someone like Edward Snowden to point to the X Marks The Spot on the map to actually see the zebra under the stripes.

Of course they can try to hide their zebra among other zebras but zebra spotters can tell one from another, just like shepherds know all their sheep. Similar to the current offerings in the US Congress purporting to change or “fix” the NSA overstep [ex: USA Freedom Act], none of them change anything. They actually make the NSA data trawl worse. There are 3 zebras on offer but they are all the same when it gets to the part about halting the NSA data trawl.

So, some things may not change directly but things will not go back to where they were before, because we know. And what we know affects everything around us, our interactions and our behaviors.

But within the “Same Old, Same Old” processes offered up as “fixes” there are other “fixes” that are needed and will be made. They may not be made by “US” but they are going to be made anyway. The US is not the World and there are others who will enact changes for their own benefit and these changes will affect “US”. But to understand what these changes will be takes a bit of techie-talk to get to the bottom of the heap of changes.

The most important thing to know about everything the NSA does is: “The Emperor has No Clothes”.

[Editor's note: This story is Part 1 of 3 and was written by KimB.]

The Emperor's New Clothes

A vain Emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes hires two swindlers who promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "hopelessly stupid". The Emperor's ministers cannot see the clothing themselves, but pretend that they can for fear of appearing unfit for their positions and the Emperor does the same. Finally the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects. The townsfolk play along with the pretense, not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid. Then a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all...

Room Names

I still refer to certain rooms in my apartment with names, that at one time were logical, but with the passing of time, no longer actually apply. I call one room, the 'bird' room because at one time I had a cockatiel. Its large cage was placed in a corner near the bay window in such a way that the bird could see who entered the room and also watch the people and autos passing by on the street. Unfortunately, the bird died and we gave the cage away.

Our closet under a stairway is large enough for a sleeping cot. It reminds me of the famous literary Harry Potter's bedroom, so I call it the Harry Potter closet. It has two doors. One where I keep the card table, vacuum cleaner and other paraphernalia. The other door opens to an area where a wire shelving rack on wheels holds canned goods and other items too numerous to store in the kitchen pantry.

The spare bedroom is called, Esther's room even though she hasn't visited for some time. We toss things on the bed like cold weather jackets because its easier than hanging them in the closet. Besides, we many need them tomorrow. The bedroom floor is littered with boxes. One with books intended for the VA hospital that have been weeded from those purchased at library sales. There is a box of knitting yarn that I will need later as my knitting progresses. Esther will have to give me a day's notice when she plans to visit, so I can clear out all the junk and make her room attractive again.

Continuing the use of these descriptive names became a habit and I never thought much about it until an acquaintance made the remark that she had never heard of people naming rooms. People do name rooms and areas, but use the descriptive words like 'dining room', 'front room', 'guest bedroom', 'back porch', 'entrance hall', 'rose garden', 'corn field', 'cow pasture'.

Besides rooms, people name houses. Theodore Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill, Tara of Gone With the Wind, Jefferson's Monticello, General Lee's Arlington House to name several. I never lived in a 'named' house, although we did call one house that we lived in for many years by the street name, Hillcrest. The house actually was located at the top of one of the California foot hills with that street name.

The family still uses the address number, 460, to refer to a much loved house that we once lived in. Our using just the number when referring to a particular house puts us in a select category. The following famous address numbers are universally understood; 1600 Pennsylvania (White House), 221b Baker St. (Sherlock Homes), Number 10 Downing Street (home of the British Prime Minister).



Sagamore Hill

Humor

The juxtaposition of incongruous concepts always makes me laugh. A lot of things tickle my funny bone and one of my favorite types of humor is political satire. There is an abundance of it on social media as well as television programs specializing in the work of several well known comedians. When comments are cleverly constructed, they can be funny regardless of one's political point of view.

Among the many types of humor I found listed on the internet was: slapstick, parody, spoof, satire, irony, sarcasm, farce, black comedy and surrealism. A play on words such as puns, double entendre, misunderstandings, flawed plans, out of context, and mockery are some of the devices used to make us laugh.

I rarely remember jokes so never pass them on, but for some reason, the following has stayed with me for years.

An acquaintance was listening to a radio broadcast of a game between her favorite baseball team and a rival. A dear friend of hers phoned to chat and my acquaintance told her she couldn't chat just then, she was listening to the game on the radio and the score was 1 to 1.

The friend asked, “Who's winning?”

I read somewhere that President Reagan kept a file of 3x5 cards with jokes and one liners on them and he's well known for always being ready to tell a joke. Lincoln was famous for telling stories, but I think they usually served to underline a point of view.

So How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

KimB

Four and a half pounds

As ever, I struggle to grow potatoes. I would surely starve if I had to rely on the ones I grew but I am compelled to keep trying.

Last year, I asked my friend from Belarus, how they grew potatoes on her family farm. We went down the list, well past the part of "Well, they just grow. You don't need to do much." Finally, we arrived at what we thought was the problem: I was giving them too much water and they never "tatered". The plants need to dry out like onions and garlic to get the "tater" part to work.

So armed with that new knowledge I forged ahead, following her directions and I GOT TATERS!

So this year I tried again, wondering if I would be successful using her directions.

In the winter time, the plants were beautiful. Luscious green leaves, lots of stalks and just looked fantastic. As we live in a dry climate, there's not a lot of rain so after what little natural rain fall happens here, I just "pulled the plug" and turned off the water.

Potatoes Winter Time 2014

I couldn't bare to look. Those beautiful leaves soon withered and shriveled and I consoled myself that the taters would be worth it and that's what the plants are supposed to do. I just walked away and didn't look back.

Last week, prepping my few gardening pots for the new season, I decided it was time to look at the potato pots. The plants had all withered and dried and a slight tug pulled them from the soil. It seemed like a good sign.

So, I stuck my fingers in the soil and it was hard. Rock hard. Drat. The dirt had turned into concrete, so I pushed harder and wiggled my fingers around the edge of the pot to yank up the dried clump. Except it wasn't a dirt clod, it was a tater!

I felt around in the pot and realized it was FULL of potatoes. A LOT of potatoes! Every inch of the pot was crammed with taters!

Out they came by the handfuls and I overflowed my harvesting bowl. I got a good sized plastic bag and filled it up with taters but there were MORE taters and I had to get a second plastic bag. Both pots were full of potatoes both big and small. It took several hours to empty the pots of all the potatoes in them.

When I tallied up my taters I felt like a truck-farmer with a REAL harvest. I weighed up the biggest ones and the scale tipped over at 4 1/2 pounds!



Potato Harvest April 2014
4 1/2 pounds