Author Archives: Jeff Porten

  • Chris Breen:
    Managed to close port 443 on my Mac, making it impossible to use Twitter. All attempts to open have failed.

closest-to-the-metal is ipfw. Should be there. Never heard of accidentally closing a port, though.

  • Chris Breen:
    Any sudo magic for resetting ports to default?

In your shoes, I’d be reaching for an OS X installer. Easier than diagnosing/troubleshooting.

  • Chris Breen:
    I did a reinstall yesterday but no go. I think I’m looking at wiping and paving.

I dunno. Used to be a GUI app—Brickhouse?—that showed ipfw settings. I’ll check the man page and email you.

  • Chris Breen:
    it’s a long story. Not accidental but with unintended consequences.

Try “sudo ipfw list”. My unfirewalled response here: “65535 allow ip from any to any”.

I am, but I don’t think that makes a difference for my results.

  • Chris Breen:
    I’ve checked in Terminal and quit anything accessing 443.

I think it’s in homebrew and fink, if you want to go through the trouble.

That is some pretty impressive screwing. You must be a musician.

  • Chris Breen:
    Yep. And playing in the completely wrong key.

sudo pitchpipe -key C-Major

But it’s Saturday. Weekends are made for dicking around.

AFAIK, that means it’s not OS X blocking the port. Any chance you have unintended software running?

What ISPs are you using? I’m assuming you’ve switched between a few.

  • Chris Breen:
    This is confined to just one computer and I was screwing with network stuff on it so this is My Bad.

My next step would be: nmap all ports between computer-router, then computer-outside IP. But nmap not preinstalled.

  • Chris Breen:
    Dicking around with things I don’t understand got me to this point. That path looks like more of the same.

(That said—agreed, wipe-and-start-over is easiest, if reinstalling apps/data isn’t onerous.)

  • Chris Breen:
    Interesting: Booted from different drive. Still busted.

Just HTTPS?

I’m thinking bizarro network error—can you connect to Twitter through IDG VPN? (And if it’s on, turn it off.)

  • Jim Dalrymple:
    The good news: the flight home from Philly is only 2 hours. Bad news: a 6 hour layover.

Let me know if you decide to explore. I’m near 30th Street Station, where the train lets you off.

No argument: we need better safety nets in general for low wage earners, not just during crises.

Also the case that with a dragnet of thousands, easy to think a suicide attack is reasonable alternative.

  • Kee Hinckley:
    My first reaction was, “but it was a bombing”. But this is right, the shutdown actually slowed finding the suspec…

I think it’s questionable that it *did* slow it down, only that it *might* have. My thoughts here:

  • Kee Hinckley:
    it’s impossible to say. But at some point we have to say, what cost to freedom (and income) are willing to spend?

But seems to me there’s a big difference between “suspect with gun” and “suspect with explosives”. Not just damage, but perception.

  • Kee Hinckley:
    I agree. Bombs do give me pause. I’m not sure where to draw the line there.

Most of us are surprised he’s still alive, and I’m guessing he might be as well.

  • Kee Hinckley:
    A day at home to me meant nothing. I worked remote. To a minimum wage earner, that’s missed meals.

  • Amy Davidson:
    Does anyone believe the government delayed Mirandizing Tsarnaev because of fear of a ticking-bomb-style threat?
  • Glenn Greenwald:
    Anyone? RT Does anyone believe the government delayed Mirandizing Tsarnaev because of fear of a ticking-bomb-style threat?

I’m still unclear why Mirandizing is presumed bad—only “helpful” if suspect is ignorant of 5th Amendment rights.

  • Emma Story:
    I tried an oyster for the first time and I have to say it was basically a cold glob of monster semen.

Add horseradish until that association goes away.

  • Mike Monteiro:
    And technically we DON’T have the same rights. For example, I can’t be President. Which is annoying.

“Fuck you. Vote for me” WOULD be a bracing campaign slogan.

Criminal, not combatant

Posted on

We not only shouldn’t hold Tsarnaev as a combatant, we actually can’t.

Under the AUMF as interpreted by the courts, and under the NDAA as passed by Congress, the administration is authorized to hold in military detention only those who are “part of” or “substantially supporting” Al Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces. Nothing that has come to light publicly has shown that Tsarnaev was operating as part of any group covered by the AUMF.

(And I’m confused about the anti-Miranda crowd: not Mirandizing doesn’t take away his right to remain silent, it just doesn’t remind him of it. I have trouble understanding the so-called advantages of waiving it.)

Considering new data

Posted on

I went on record yesterday as being unopposed to the Boston lockdown, but Bruce Schneier linked me to an excellent argument against:

Third, keeping citizens off the street meant that 99% of the eyes and brains that might solve a crime were being wasted. Eric S Raymond famously said that “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”. It was thousands of citizen photographs that helped break this case, and it was a citizen who found the second bomber. Yes, that’s right – it wasn’t until the stupid lock-down was ended that a citizen found the second murderer.

In other news, Clark also points out that if it was dangerous enough to tell everyone to stay home, why are donut shop staff immune from harm? (Notably, I heard yesterday that Dunkin’ Donuts was providing free food to police. I hadn’t heard the police asked them to stay open, and it didn’t occur to me that this was happening despite the lockdown.)

OTOH, my theory was the lockdown was to prevent crowds forming that would be a tempting bombing target. That would allow for small numbers of people at Dunkin’. But it would also be nice if anyone other than me had stated this theory, such as the Boston PD.

The Bill of Nice Suggestions

Posted on

So this tweet I wrote is the first one that went viral in a long time:

@jeffporten: “@AlyssaRosenberg: NBC says Tsarnaev was Mirandized by the FBI. Good.” // FBI’s way of saying, “Fuck you, Lindsay Graham.”

…at least until it was announced that Tsarnaev was not, in fact, Mirandized.

Land of the (somewhat) brave, home of the (sometimes) free.

  • Alyssa Rosenberg:
    NBC says Tsarnaev was Mirandized by the FBI. Good.

“: NBC says Tsarnaev was Mirandized by the FBI. Good.” // FBI’s way of saying, “Fuck you, Lindsay Graham.”

  • Kevin van Haaren:
    Holy crap, just realized my auto-pay for my Internet service broke a year ago. I owe them almost $1,000. They never shutdown my connection.

Best. ISP. Ever.