#us certificate attestation

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Find trustworthy UK Certificate Attestation and US Certificate Attestation services to ensure your documents meet legal requirements and are recognized abroad.

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USA Certificate Attestation: A Comprehensive Guide

The process of moving, working, or studying in a foreign country often involves the verification of academic credentials or personal documents. This is where document attestation comes into play. If you hold a US degree and plan to use it in the UAE, you’ll need to undergo the process of USA certificate attestation. This article provides a detailed overview of what USA certificate attestation entails, the steps involved, and essential information to guide you through the process.

https://ai.cheap/read-blog/26296

[powerattestaion]

US Certificate Attestation in UAE: Streamline your attestation process with our professional services. We specialize in authenticating US certificates, such as degrees, birth, marriage, and other documents, for legal and official use across the UAE. Our experienced team handles each step, including document verification, notarization, and final attestation from UAE authorities. Trust us for efficient and reliable attestation services to ensure your US certificates are recognized for all your needs in the UAE."

[jangillman]

[globoprimeuae]

Unlock Success: Best Attestation Agency in Dubai

Looking for comprehensive attestation agency in dubai? Trust in our capabilities to authenticate and translate marriage, degree, and birth certificates.We provide legal translation services and seamlessly handle Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Apostille attestation. Rely on us for swift UAE Embassy attestation to ensure your documents meet all legal standards.

For further details, please visit https://globoprime.com/

[schengenvias]

Navigating Legal Procedures: Marriage Certificate Attestation Services in Dubai

In the UAE, a marriage certificate holds immense significance for various legal, residential, and official purposes. To ensure its recognition and validity in Dubai and across the United Arab Emirates (UAE), individuals often undergo the process of marriage certificate attestation. This authentication procedure involves several steps, making the document legally acceptable for visa applications, sponsorships, and other official requirements.

Understanding Marriage Certificate Attestation:

Marriage certificate attestation is a formal procedure that confirms the authenticity and legitimacy of the document. The process involves verification by both local and international authorities to ensure that the certificate is valid and recognized within the UAE. This authentication process is essential for individuals seeking to sponsor their spouses, apply for family visas, or address legal matters in Dubai or elsewhere in the UAE.

The Marriage Certificate Attestation Process:

The attestation process typically starts with the local verification of the marriage certificate. Following this, the document undergoes attestation by the UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), which validates the certificate's credibility for use within the country. The final step often involves attestation by the applicant's home country's embassy or consulate in the UAE, ensuring the document's acceptance and validity.

Importance of Marriage Certificate Attestation in the UAE:

The attestation of a marriage certificate is crucial for legal and official reasons within the UAE. Whether it's for spousal sponsorship, applying for a family visa, or dealing with legal matters, an attested marriage certificate is indispensable. Without proper attestation, using the document for official purposes within Dubai or the UAE becomes challenging.

Marriage Certificate Attestation Services in Dubai:

Due to the complexity and multi-step nature of marriage certificate attestation, seeking professional services in Dubai is highly advisable. Numerous agencies specialize in providing marriage certificate attestation services, offering expertise in navigating the intricacies of the process. These services assist in managing the documentation and streamline the attestation process.

Keywords such as "Marriage Certificate attestation," "Marriage Certificate UAE," and "MOFA Attestation Dubai" are essential for optimizing online visibility and reaching individuals seeking assistance with their marriage certificate attestation in Dubai.

Agencies offering these services understand the nuances of the attestation process and provide tailored assistance to individuals, simplifying the bureaucratic requirements and ensuring a smooth and efficient attestation process.

In conclusion, marriage certificate attestation is fundamental for individuals needing their documents recognized and validated for legal and official purposes within the UAE. Understanding the significance of this process and seeking help from reputable attestation services in Dubai is crucial for a hassle-free experience.

Opting for professional services significantly eases the burden on individuals, offering guidance and expertise throughout the attestation journey, ensuring that marriage certificates are legally recognized and valid for various purposes within Dubai and the broader UAE.

[certificateattest]

UAE Residence Visa

In the bustling and vibrant United Arab Emirates (UAE), the residence visa holds the key to establishing legal residency for expatriates wishing to live and work in this dynamic country. Understanding the intricacies of the UAE residence visa is crucial for those seeking to call this nation their home. This comprehensive guide will delve into the requirements, types, and application process for obtaining a UAE residence visa.

Importance of UAE Residence Visa

The UAE residence visa is more than a mere legal requirement; it's a gateway to stability and opportunity. Holding a residence visa enables individuals to reside in the UAE, open a bank account, obtain a driver's license, sponsor family members, and much more. It provides a sense of security and access to various benefits and services.

Types of UAE Residence Visas

Employment Visa

The most common way to obtain a residence visa in the UAE is through employment. Individuals sponsored by an employer in the UAE can apply for this visa, which is typically valid for two to three years. The employer is responsible for initiating the visa process.

Family Visa

Residents with a valid UAE residence visa can sponsor their immediate family members (spouse, children, and, in some cases, parents) to live in the UAE. This visa is tied to the sponsor's residency status.

Investor Visa

Entrepreneurs, investors, and business owners who meet certain criteria can apply for an investor visa. This visa is often linked to a specific business or investment in the country.

Retirement Visa

In 2019, the UAE introduced a retirement visa for individuals over 55 years old, offering them the opportunity to live in the country post-retirement.

Requirements for Obtaining a UAE Residence Visa

The specific requirements for a UAE residence visa can vary based on the type of visa being applied for. However, some general documents are commonly required, including a valid passport, passport-sized photographs, a completed application form, a health check report, and a sponsor’s guarantee letter.

Application Process

The application process for a UAE residence visa involves several steps, including medical tests, document attestation, and biometric data submission. The process can differ slightly depending on the emirate where the visa is being processed. It's crucial to work closely with your sponsor or a reputable service provider to navigate through the process seamlessly.

Conclusion

Obtaining a UAE residence visa is a pivotal step for individuals aiming to live and work in this dynamic country. Understanding the different visa types, their requirements, and the application process is essential to ensure a smooth transition and legal stay in the UAE.

Whether it's for employment, family reunion, investment, or retirement, the UAE residence visa is the key that unlocks a world of opportunities and experiences in this thriving nation.

If you are considering a move to the UAE, be sure to research and seek guidance from official government sources or legal experts to ensure a successful and hassle-free visa application process.

[power-index-management]

Exploring the Different Types of US Certificates and Their Advantages

Certificates have become effective instruments for skill development and job advancement in the dynamic field of American education. Certificates offer specific benefits, such as professional excellence, trade expertise, and academic development. This journey examines a variety of certificates, including professional, trade, completion, and graduate degrees, highlighting their distinct advantages and the opportunities they offer in a professional environment that is continually changing. US certifications, where opportunities abound for those ready to accept them and where expertise takes numerous shapes.

Following are some typical US certifications and their benefits:

Professional certifications: These certifications are made to offer particular knowledge and abilities needed for a certain career or occupation. Professional associations, trade associations, or educational institutions frequently provide them. Project management, digital marketing, coding boot camps, and paralegal studies are a few examples.

Advantages:

Focused Skill Development: Professional certificates provide specialized instruction in a particular subject, assisting students in gaining useful abilities fast.

Enhancing Your Career: Including a relevant professional qualification on your resume will improve your work prospects and possibly result in a greater income.

Career Change: People who want to change occupations or enter a new industry frequently obtain certificates instead of committing to a full degree program.

Trade and Technical Certificates: Developing practical abilities in trades like welding, plumbing, vehicle repair, and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) is the goal of trade and technical certificates.

Advantages:

Trade and technical credentials place a strong emphasis on hands-on learning, preparing students for activities and needs found in the working world.

Demand in the labor market: Because skilled crafts are crucial for many businesses, people with these credentials are frequently in great demand.

Quick Entry: These programs typically last less time than regular degrees, making it possible to enter the workforce more quickly.

Certificate of Completion: These certificates, which confirm that the participant has finished the program, are frequently presented at the conclusion of short courses, workshops, or seminars.

Advantages:

Validation of newly gained skills: Certificates of completion offer proof of enrollment in and successful completion of a course.

These certificates are a means to show that you are dedicated to your professional development and ongoing learning.

Graduate Certificates: People who already have a bachelor's degree and wish to gain knowledge in a particular field without obtaining a complete master's degree frequently pursue these certificates.

Advantages:

Graduate certificates enable people to increase their expertise in a specialized sector without committing to a more time-consuming degree program.

Career Advancement: Including a graduate certificate on your resume might help you stand out in crowded job markets and may open up new career prospects or promotions for you.

Path to Master's Degree: If you decide to subsequently pursue a master's degree, you may be able to use some of the credits you earned through a graduate certificate program.

US Certificate Attestation in Abu Dhabi it is evident that education has advanced beyond the boundaries of the past. Certificates provide specialized skills for various objectives. Professional credentials advance careers for those with in-demand talents. Trade certificates offer practical experience. Certificates of completion attest to continuing education. Bachelor's degrees are refined by graduate certifications.

Certificates allow you to customize your education in a society that values flexibility and knowledge. To fulfill the demands of modern jobs, each type offers particular advantages. Recognize that certificates are more than just pieces of paper; they are steps toward your goals.

Accept the strength of certifications for your adventure. US credentials give avenues to development and shape your victories. Your journey begins right now, with the correct diploma guiding you toward a future of success and education.

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Embassy Attestation in Chennai

An Embassy Certificate is issued if you want to travel abroad. An attestation from the Embassy poses as one of the basic and third most important requirements in the overall process of attestation. An attestation from the Embassy is an important requirement for seeking important documents in a foreign country. An attested copy of an Embassy Certificate is also important for seeking a work or residential Visa. An attested copy of an Embassy Certificate is also important for seeking a permanent residency in the country you go to. It is also important for seeking important documents like a Police Clearance Certificate or other legal documents for going abroad. The attestation of an Indian Embassy Certificate is handled by the Indian Embassy for travelling to other countries. They will validate your documents well and will assign an attestation onto your Indian Embassy Certificate. An Indian Embassy Certificate Attestation is also important for seeking a job in a foreign country, for higher education or for starting a business in a foreign country. An attested copy of an Indian Embassy Certificate might also be used for getting a Citizenship in the country you travel to and also for immigrating from one country to another.

[mindfulmuse88]

Unbiased: Is it true that the SAVE Act will take away the right to vote for married women who have changed their last name?

Disclaimer: I am neither Republican nor Democrat. Everything is purely unbiased and factual. This is false, but we need some context here:

The SAVE Act, officially known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, was first introduced last year. Its main goal is to require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for individuals registering to vote in federal elections.

Currently, while only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections, the Supreme Court precedent states that documentary proof is not required—it is sufficient to simply attest to citizenship under penalty of perjury. As a result, not all states require proof of citizenship when registering voters. However, if the SAVE Act is passed, this would change.

Under this proposed law, voters would need to provide proof of citizenship with a document that meets REAL ID requirements in order to have their voter registration application accepted for federal elections. This could include a passport or another government-issued ID, but if using a non-passport ID, the applicant would also need to present a birth certificate or a similar document, such as a naturalization certificate. It is important to note that this requirement applies only to federal elections—state election requirements may differ.

Concerns About Married Women and Name Changes

Since the bill’s introduction, concerns have been raised about how it might impact married women who have changed their last names. Some claim that the SAVE Act could effectively prevent married women from voting. However, the bill does not explicitly bar married women from voting.

The concern arises from the bill’s requirement that a birth certificate must include the applicant’s full name, date of birth, and place of birth. For a married woman who has legally changed her last name, her birth certificate will not reflect her new surname, which may create an issue when presenting a government-issued photo ID.

However, the bill does not explicitly state that the name on the birth certificate and the name on the government-issued ID must match exactly in order to be accepted. If discrepancies arise, applicants may need to provide additional documentation, such as a marriage certificate, to verify their name change. This aligns with existing government processes where name discrepancies can be resolved by presenting legal documentation.

Since the bill has not yet been passed, the exact implementation of these requirements remains unclear. However, it is important to emphasize that claims suggesting the bill outright bans married women from voting are false. Furthermore, a woman’s right to vote is protected by the U.S. Constitution under the 19th Amendment. For this right to be revoked, a new constitutional amendment would need to be passed, which is highly unlikely.

What Happens Next?

The bill previously passed the House of Representatives in the last congressional session, with support from five Democrats and 216 Republicans. However, since that session has ended, it must pass the House again before moving to the Senate, where it would need to overcome the filibuster before a final vote.

[attestation02]

Choosing Reliable Services for UK and US Certificate Attestation in UAE

Document attestation is now crucial in the present era where internationalization of information is inevitable especially for those residing in the UAE. If you are planning to move to the UK for studies, work in the US or even organizing a family visit, you need to have your certificates attested before you travel to another country. This is because the attestation process involves several steps and requirements which make you overwhelmed when your documents are being attested. That is why; it becomes crucial for applicants to select reputable executives in UK & US certificate attestation services in UAE.

Choosing the right agency may be a time saver, less stressful, and definitely a less disappointing task. Because there are so many choices out there, it helpful to understand what to expect from a service provider. Only if you know the need for document verification and all the complications associated with attestation, you can take proper decisions. They are intended to act as a complete guide for the reader when selecting reliable services for UK and US certificate attestation in UAE to enable you overcome this process with ease.

Here are the Choosing Reliable Services for UK and US Certificate Attestation in UAE

1. Check Credentials and Reviews

To get the best service for the US certificate attestation in UAE, one has to verify the accreditation of the agency. Choosing proper companies which are registered and have the best reputation in the markets is crucial. This is especially so when it comes to customer reviews that can depict the kind of experience other customer had with the service provider. Positive reviews will often be seen within the homepage of an agency or within their social media platforms.

2. Experience Matters

In the certificate attestation process, experience is important. Older agencies will not only have experience in filling out a variety of forms but if they have been in the business for long they know the correct authorities to approach. Whether you have to get UK Certificate Attestation in UAE or you need US attestation, it can be more beneficial to go with an experienced agency.

3. Transparency in Pricing

Before getting into a service provider, make sure that they are Supremely Transparent as pertains to price. Extra charges are often concealed and they may arise in future; hence a competent agency must estimate its services and the requisite fees. Try to find agencies that charge reasonably for their services but don’t affect the quality of work.

4. Comprehensive Services

Select your agency as the one that can provide you with all the services you need. This is from the time the client seeks their services to the time the attestation is done, and even drafting of documents. One stop solution can help you not deal with many service providers as well as guarantee that your documents will be processed similarly.

5. Excellent Customer Support

Good customer support goes a long way to influence the degree of attestation a buyer is likely to have. You should also withdraw from agencies that seem not to be willing to give responses to questions that you may ask them. Having a beneficial and friendly support team also comes in handy if you know if your application was approved or if you have questions as to how the process works.

Conclusion:

Thus, I can confirm that often the process of attestation of your documents can turn out as a complex ordeal but if you demystify all difficulties, it becomes a smooth run. Hiring the right UK and US Certificate Attestation in UAE therefore guarantees your important documents a professional touch. Note that if you spend your time searching for the right agency, at least you will not have wasted time and efforts in the future when you are planning your education, employment or family reunion in abroad.

In the end, the plan is to get things as seamless as they could be toward your relocation to either the UK or the US. Once you have acquired the right documents, you can proceed with your trip fully aware of the fact that your certificates have been attested and can easily be certified in your passport country. Use the guidelines highlighted in this blog to ensure that you make sound decisions to make the exercise of UK and US certificate attestation in UAE a memorable one without the stress. The future is yours and you are not far from it, congratulations!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Demon-haunted computers are back, baby

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

As a science fiction writer, I am professionally irritated by a lot of sf movies. Not only do those writers get paid a lot more than I do, they insist on including things like "self-destruct" buttons on the bridges of their starships.

Look, I get it. When the evil empire is closing in on your flagship with its secret transdimensional technology, it's important that you keep those secrets out of the emperor's hand. An irrevocable self-destruct switch there on the bridge gets the job done! (It has to be irrevocable, otherwise the baddies'll just swarm the bridge and toggle it off).

But c'mon. If there's a facility built into your spaceship that causes it to explode no matter what the people on the bridge do, that is also a pretty big security risk! What if the bad guy figures out how to hijack the measure that – by design – the people who depend on the spaceship as a matter of life and death can't detect or override?

I mean, sure, you can try to simplify that self-destruct system to make it easier to audit and assure yourself that it doesn't have any bugs in it, but remember Schneier's Law: anyone can design a security system that works so well that they themselves can't think of a flaw in it. That doesn't mean you've made a security system that works – only that you've made a security system that works on people stupider than you.

I know it's weird to be worried about realism in movies that pretend we will ever find a practical means to visit other star systems and shuttle back and forth between them (which we are very, very unlikely to do):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead

But this kind of foolishness galls me. It galls me even more when it happens in the real world of technology design, which is why I've spent the past quarter-century being very cross about Digital Rights Management in general, and trusted computing in particular.

It all starts in 2002, when a team from Microsoft visited our offices at EFF to tell us about this new thing they'd dreamed up called "trusted computing":

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/05/trusting-trust/#thompsons-devil

The big idea was to stick a second computer inside your computer, a very secure little co-processor, that you couldn't access directly, let alone reprogram or interfere with. As far as this "trusted platform module" was concerned, you were the enemy. The "trust" in trusted computing was about other people being able to trust your computer, even if they didn't trust you.

So that little TPM would do all kinds of cute tricks. It could observe and produce a cryptographically signed manifest of the entire boot-chain of your computer, which was meant to be an unforgeable certificate attesting to which kind of computer you were running and what software you were running on it. That meant that programs on other computers could decide whether to talk to your computer based on whether they agreed with your choices about which code to run.

This process, called "remote attestation," is generally billed as a way to identify and block computers that have been compromised by malware, or to identify gamers who are running cheats and refuse to play with them. But inevitably it turns into a way to refuse service to computers that have privacy blockers turned on, or are running stream-ripping software, or whose owners are blocking ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/02/self-incrimination/#wei-bai-bai

After all, a system that treats the device's owner as an adversary is a natural ally for the owner's other, human adversaries. The rubric for treating the owner as an adversary focuses on the way that users can be fooled by bad people with bad programs. If your computer gets taken over by malicious software, that malware might intercept queries from your antivirus program and send it false data that lulls it into thinking your computer is fine, even as your private data is being plundered and your system is being used to launch malware attacks on others.

These separate, non-user-accessible, non-updateable secure systems serve a nubs of certainty, a remote fortress that observes and faithfully reports on the interior workings of your computer. This separate system can't be user-modifiable or field-updateable, because then malicious software could impersonate the user and disable the security chip.

It's true that compromised computers are a real and terrifying problem. Your computer is privy to your most intimate secrets and an attacker who can turn it against you can harm you in untold ways. But the widespread redesign of out computers to treat us as their enemies gives rise to a range of completely predictable and – I would argue – even worse harms. Building computers that treat their owners as untrusted parties is a system that works well, but fails badly.

First of all, there are the ways that trusted computing is designed to hurt you. The most reliable way to enshittify something is to supply it over a computer that runs programs you can't alter, and that rats you out to third parties if you run counter-programs that disenshittify the service you're using. That's how we get inkjet printers that refuse to use perfectly good third-party ink and cars that refuse to accept perfectly good engine repairs if they are performed by third-party mechanics:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

It's how we get cursed devices and appliances, from the juicer that won't squeeze third-party juice to the insulin pump that won't connect to a third-party continuous glucose monitor:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

But trusted computing doesn't just create an opaque veil between your computer and the programs you use to inspect and control it. Trusted computing creates a no-go zone where programs can change their behavior based on whether they think they're being observed.

The most prominent example of this is Dieselgate, where auto manufacturers murdered hundreds of people by gimmicking their cars to emit illegal amount of NOX. Key to Dieselgate was a program that sought to determine whether it was being observed by regulators (it checked for the telltale signs of the standard test-suite) and changed its behavior to color within the lines.

Software that is seeking to harm the owner of the device that's running it must be able to detect when it is being run inside a simulation, a test-suite, a virtual machine, or any other hallucinatory virtual world. Just as Descartes couldn't know whether anything was real until he assured himself that he could trust his senses, malware is always questing to discover whether it is running in the real universe, or in a simulation created by a wicked god:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/28/descartes-was-an-optimist/#uh-oh

That's why mobile malware uses clever gambits like periodically checking for readings from your device's accelerometer, on the theory that a virtual mobile phone running on a security researcher's test bench won't have the fidelity to generate plausible jiggles to match the real data that comes from a phone in your pocket:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/01/google-play-malware-used-phones-motion-sensors-to-conceal-itself/

Sometimes this backfires in absolutely delightful ways. When the Wannacry ransomware was holding the world hostage, the security researcher Marcus Hutchins noticed that its code made reference to a very weird website: iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com. Hutchins stood up a website at that address and every Wannacry-infection in the world went instantly dormant:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#the-matrix

It turns out that Wannacry's authors were using that ferkakte URL the same way that mobile malware authors were using accelerometer readings – to fulfill Descartes' imperative to distinguish the Matrix from reality. The malware authors knew that security researchers often ran malicious code inside sandboxes that answered every network query with fake data in hopes of eliciting responses that could be analyzed for weaknesses. So the Wannacry worm would periodically poll this nonexistent website and, if it got an answer, it would assume that it was being monitored by a security researcher and it would retreat to an encrypted blob, ceasing to operate lest it give intelligence to the enemy. When Hutchins put a webserver up at iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com, every Wannacry instance in the world was instantly convinced that it was running on an enemy's simulator and withdrew into sulky hibernation.

The arms race to distinguish simulation from reality is critical and the stakes only get higher by the day. Malware abounds, even as our devices grow more intimately woven through our lives. We put our bodies into computers – cars, buildings – and computers inside our bodies. We absolutely want our computers to be able to faithfully convey what's going on inside them.

But we keep running as hard as we can in the opposite direction, leaning harder into secure computing models built on subsystems in our computers that treat us as the threat. Take UEFI, the ubiquitous security system that observes your computer's boot process, halting it if it sees something it doesn't approve of. On the one hand, this has made installing GNU/Linux and other alternative OSes vastly harder across a wide variety of devices. This means that when a vendor end-of-lifes a gadget, no one can make an alternative OS for it, so off the landfill it goes.

It doesn't help that UEFI – and other trusted computing modules – are covered by Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which makes it a felony to publish information that can bypass or weaken the system. The threat of a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine means that UEFI and other trusted computing systems are understudied, leaving them festering with longstanding bugs:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/09/free-sample/#que-viva

Here's where it gets really bad. If an attacker can get inside UEFI, they can run malicious software that – by design – no program running on our computers can detect or block. That badware is running in "Ring -1" – a zone of privilege that overrides the operating system itself.

Here's the bad news: UEFI malware has already been detected in the wild:

https://securelist.com/cosmicstrand-uefi-firmware-rootkit/106973/

And here's the worst news: researchers have just identified another exploitable UEFI bug, dubbed Pixiefail:

https://blog.quarkslab.com/pixiefail-nine-vulnerabilities-in-tianocores-edk-ii-ipv6-network-stack.html

Writing in Ars Technica, Dan Goodin breaks down Pixiefail, describing how anyone on the same LAN as a vulnerable computer can infect its firmware:

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/01/new-uefi-vulnerabilities-send-firmware-devs-across-an-entire-ecosystem-scrambling/

That vulnerability extends to computers in a data-center where the attacker has a cloud computing instance. PXE – the system that Pixiefail attacks – isn't widely used in home or office environments, but it's very common in data-centers.

Again, once a computer is exploited with Pixiefail, software running on that computer can't detect or delete the Pixiefail code. When the compromised computer is queried by the operating system, Pixiefail undetectably lies to the OS. "Hey, OS, does this drive have a file called 'pixiefail?'" "Nope." "Hey, OS, are you running a process called 'pixiefail?'" "Nope."

This is a self-destruct switch that's been compromised by the enemy, and which no one on the bridge can de-activate – by design. It's not the first time this has happened, and it won't be the last.

There are models for helping your computer bust out of the Matrix. Back in 2016, Edward Snowden and bunnie Huang prototyped and published source code and schematics for an "introspection engine":

https://assets.pubpub.org/aacpjrja/AgainstTheLaw-CounteringLawfulAbusesofDigitalSurveillance.pdf

This is a single-board computer that lives in an ultraslim shim that you slide between your iPhone's mainboard and its case, leaving a ribbon cable poking out of the SIM slot. This connects to a case that has its own OLED display. The board has leads that physically contact each of the network interfaces on the phone, conveying any data they transit to the screen so that you can observe the data your phone is sending without having to trust your phone.

(I liked this gadget so much that I included it as a major plot point in my 2020 novel Attack Surface, the third book in the Little Brother series):

https://craphound.com/attacksurface/

We don't have to cede control over our devices in order to secure them. Indeed, we can't ever secure them unless we can control them. Self-destruct switches don't belong on the bridge of your spaceship, and trusted computing modules don't belong in your devices.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/17/descartes-delenda-est/#self-destruct-sequence-initiated

Image: Mike (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/stillwellmike/15676883261/

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

[triviallytrue]

I see the benefit in “was able to follow along each step and check for myself that the stated claim was true” but I’ve also seen people say the private vetting process can include things like “had a phone call with them where they fluently spoke the Palestinian dialect of Arabic” that can’t be checked by everyone, or “privately showed me their ID/birth certificate/bank info/official documents”, which probably shouldn’t be publicized. if these sorts of things (which seem fairly reliable if true) are indeed being involved in the process in at least some cases, how do you think people should vouch for that beyond a “trust me it’s vetted” without further clarification, or is it impossible to do so from your perspective since they could just lie?

so my suggested solution to these would be:

post a recording of the phone call, so that other Palestinian Arabic speakers can also attest that it's true

post redacted, watermarked versions of official documents

but you're getting at a very big problem: it takes a lot of information to vet people. the post i reblogged was only able to vet that one fundraiser because she's a PhD with a linkedin, instagram, tiktok, and pictures of her on a scientific organization's website. most people won't have that.

at a certain point, it also becomes a nightmare for the vetters (all or almost all of whom i suspect are just people trying their best in a horrific situation). if it takes an hour (or more) to fully vet one single gofundme, there are a single digit or low double digit number speakers of Palestinian Arabic on here with blog histories that stretch back before October 7th with the ability to vet people, and hundreds of gofundmes... well, you do the math.

this is the kind of work that is normally done by people who are paid to do it full-time, in a centralized fashion, not ad-hoc on the internet. amateurs are going to make mistakes - i've seen blogs successfully filtering out unsophisticated scammers, but this current discourse has already rooted out at least 3 scammers who made it onto the vetted lists. it's asymmetric - scammers can do this full time, hone their methods, figure out what exposed them last time and fix it, and overall iteratively improve the credibility of their scams, but vetters can't really keep raising the standards with the time and resources they have access to.

so unless we make the standards so high that they exclude many actual Palestinians (standards like the ones used in that ask), i think there will be some risk of even vetted fundraisers being scams. how big? 1%? 5%? 10%? i don't know, but it's definitely nonzero, and based on the uncovered scams so far, they are diverting thousands of dollars (possibly tens or hundreds of thousands) away from actual Palestinians.

which is why i think people should just donate to the UNRWA. there's a 100% chance your money will go to helping real Palestinians, and while it won't be as impactful for an individual as getting them across the Rafah crossing, that's only an option for a very small percentage of Palestinians anyway. as said before, there are 800,000 Palestinians in Rafah, something like 500 of which cross each day. those that can't cross and the Palestinians in other parts of Gaza deserve aid as well. people are at risk of starvation and have very limited access to medical care. donation to the UNRWA and organizations like it doesn't free anyone, but it does keep them alive, and the money doesn't end up in the pockets of corrupt Egyptian border officials who will wring every penny they can out of Palestinian refugees.

people are, of course, welcome to do whatever they want with their money, but those are my 2 cents.

[theother-will-grayson]

Well the class is over and I doubt a few years after wrap anyone is still under NDA so let me finally tell this story.

I just finished a stage combat SPT class (bear with me I'm about to drop a few fun facts but all of this is relevant info I promise) -- I was getting my certification in smallsword which for anyone not in the know is the smaller, faster, fancier son of the rapier -- the weapon of choice for dueling among nobility and the predecessor to modern day sport fencing. It was used around the time of the golden age of piracy. Think the Jack/Will fight in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Well if you hear that description, you might be like me and think "Oh like Our Flag Means Death" as well. (You have to also have a scene around the fight to get your SPT because they judge your acting as well as your technique.) So on the day we pitched scenes, I walked in and told my instructors I wanted to do the Izzy/Stede scene in Our Flag Means Death.

Instructor A gets this goofy little smirk on his face and turns to Instructor B and goes "I suppose you'll be coaching them on that one, then." (NOT a direct quote but it was something like that).

I go "Why."

A goes, "Oh because he worked on that scene."

WHAT

I never got full clarification whether he actually choreographed it or if he was just the style/technique coach but apparently he worked with Con O'neill for approximately 5 hours on smallsword technique and with Rhys Darby approximately 2 hours (because apparently Stede didn't need to be super good at it which is HORRIBLE practice for safety reasons. Like...the actor still needs to be good at it lmfao). He says he told Con that he's gonna teach him to wield a smallsword but they would undoubtedly give him a rapier because it's very common for Hollywood to just merge the two. He was like "I guess they'll explain it as he was trained in smallsword but the rapier would be whatever they could find laying around on a pirate ship which doesn't make sense because he's supposed to be this super skilled swordsman...I don't know." From what I can gather fight directors are generally perpetually tired.

Let me tell you as a fan that 5 hours SHOWS because Con definitely looks like a skilled swordsman. But half of that has to be Con himself because 5 hours is also in the grand scheme of things NOT THAT MUCH TIME especially for what I can attest to be a very difficult weapon. And also the additions this gives to Izzy's lore because he's so skilled a dueling with that weapon specifically...

Anyways if I ever get my hands on the video of me doing the scene I'll post it. Also this is not a homestuck cop story. I live in Los Angeles and all of my professors have been industry professionals. If I wasn't afraid of doxxing the guy I'd post proof. But the way my mind blew in that moment.

[mariacallous]

When I first changed the gender marker on all my documents in the spring of 2022, it was during a brief, shimmering moment of legal recognition for trans people across the United States. A year earlier, the Biden Administration had announced that people would finally be allowed to self-select their gender on their passports. Now there would also be an option for nonbinary people to mark their sex as “X.” The move was a fascinating display of liberal tolerance, even if it did not go so far as to enshrine the right to trans health care. The option to self-identify on federal paperwork stood in stark contrast to the numerous states around the country that were starting to crack down on the ability of trans people to change their sex on driver’s licenses and birth certificates. As someone born in Indiana, a red state home to former Vice-President Mike Pence, I was worried about being able to update my birth certificate. I was ultimately able to do so, but only after getting a court order. Other states, like Arkansas and North Carolina, are more draconian, requiring proof of a so-called sex change. Of course, what qualifies as this kind of operation is a moving target. Now it’s a moot point. Donald Trump has issued an executive order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” declaring, among other things, that government-issued I.D.s must reflect one’s sex assigned at conception.

Some have snarkily noted that everyone is female at conception. It is not until later in the fertilization process that male chromosomes may reveal themselves. But such jokes, which take aim at Trump’s misunderstanding of biology, ignore the fact that he simply does not care about biology, aside from using it as a signifier for his various “anti-woke” positions. The executive order banning trans and gender-neutral passports is only one of the anti-trans pronouncements that Trump has made during his first few months in office. This evisceration of long-fought-for civil rights marks a ruthless changing of the guard. For years, the U.S. government has used “sex” and “gender” interchangeably. Today, gender is considered a dangerous ideology that seeks to eradicate the immutability of sex. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently stated in an e-mail to department staff, “The policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable.”

The executive order’s text is even more damning: “The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.” Validity, of course, is not a political measurement. It’s a social one. The war that Trump is waging is cultural, based not on complex legal jargon but on feelings. Transphobia is generally a form of extreme discomfort weaponized as systematic dehumanization. “They don’t want any trans person to feel validated,” a twenty-two-year-old named Zaya Perysian recently told NBC. “They want it to go back to how it used to be where we were seen as like these creatures . . . like night stalkers.”

Identity documents are essential to public movement and travel. There are currently fourteen countries that allow applicants to self-attest their gender on passports and sixteen that allow “X” gender markers. When trans people don’t have any I.D. that matches their visual presentation, they are often held under heightened scrutiny by T.S.A. agents, police officers, and other representatives of the state who may think that these individuals are committing identity fraud. (The U.S. State Department first established gender markers on passports in 1977, when androgyny was all the rage, citing the rise of unisex fashion and hair styles as the justification for the shift.) For trans people who pass, it’s a logistical nightmare to have to explain why they appear to be one gender while their documents tell a different story. These are intentional Kafkaesque problems that the Trump Administration is creating.

The executive order currently just applies to new passports, affecting people who are either getting their passports for the first time or who are attempting to renew their outdated documents. Many trans Americans rushed to change or extend their old passports before the executive order was officially signed—only to find that passport office workers weren’t so eager to accommodate their pleas. Some had their applications suspended indefinitely. Those who have tried to amend their documents after the executive order have had their documents returned with their biological sex reinstated on their passports as a “correction.” This is what happened to Hunter Schafer, the trans actress best known for her role in the HBO series “Euphoria”: she applied for a new passport after her original one had been stolen, and received a new document stamped with a male gender marker. “I had a bit of a harsh reality check,” she said in an eight-minute TikTok. Schafer explained that she thought the executive order was a lot of “talk” until she received her updated passport. She went on to recite her laundry list of privileges: not only is she famous but she is a white trans person who passes—allowing her greater leeway under more liberal administrations. What’s to come of trans people if even the most upwardly mobile, beautiful movie stars aren’t safe?

The case of Mary Fox has also sparked immense fear and debate among members of the trans community. Fox went to a passport office in Los Angeles in order to apply for a passport. Given that her visit was after Trump had issued his executive order, Fox had come to terms with the fact that she would likely have to accept a male gender marker. As she told Vox, “being able to travel is more important than the letter on a piece of paper.” Yet receiving a male-designated passport quickly emerged as the best-case scenario: after submitting an application, Fox was told that the agency couldn’t issue her a passport at all. “We don’t have authorization right now to issue a passport,” the official told her, according to a recording of the conversation. All of Fox’s documents—her birth certificate, her driver’s license—were taken away. “So I can’t leave the country?” Fox asked. “I can’t answer that,” the official responded. After her experience, Fox took to the internet to share her story. Pain begets visibility. Soon, many were outraged over what they took to be a blatant case of discrimination. Public pressure may have swayed the eventual outcome: Fox’s documents were issued and returned but with a male gender marker.

Understandably, many trans people are hesitant to discuss these issues publicly, in part because they’d rather not give the Trump Administration new ideas about how to close legal loopholes. A nonbinary TikToker in Florida recently went viral, for instance, after posting a video explaining how to get your state I.D. gender marker changed by pretending to have lost your previous I.D., only for Libs of TikTok, a popular right-wing account, to pick up the story and report the trans vlogger to the government. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s former press secretary even mocked the nonbinary TikToker by saying that they should “thank” the D.M.V. for its “dedicated service.” Meanwhile, Texas state representatives are attempting to pass a bill that could charge trans people with identity fraud. These issues are not limited to American citizens, either: Bells Larsen, a trans Canadian musician who was set to tour in the United States, was forced to cancel his concerts after he was told that he would be unable to secure a visa since U.S. Immigration only recognizes identification that corresponds with one’s assigned sex at birth. The legal and economic consequences of these policies are just beginning to make themselves known.

In the months since the executive order went into effect, the American Civil Liberties Union has been contacted by more than seventeen hundred trans people and their family members looking for legal advice. The A.C.L.U. has also filed a lawsuit—Orr v. Trump—challenging the order. On “At Liberty,” an A.C.L.U.’s podcast, Chase Strangio, a trans lawyer at the A.C.L.U., discussed how the order, which essentially renders certain documents useless, may infringe on the right to travel. The A.C.L.U. has also asserted that anti-trans laws are a form of sex discrimination—although it’s unclear how the courts will respond to this argument. (Judges have blocked Trump’s executive order banning trans people from serving in the military, as well as the order banning trans passports.)

Based on the scale of Trump’s anti-trans policies, the goal is not just to limit trans people’s ability to move through the world safely, or to keep them out of the military; it’s to codify a moral judgment: that trans people are deplorable. By predicating his executive orders on issues of morality, Trump has created an uneven playing field. Throughout the years, many pro-trans protests have used slogans such as “Trans Rights Are Human Rights” and “Trans Kids Deserve Better,” which, of course, are true. But the problem is that these types of statements are utterly banal. They are tautologies that fail to contend with the vicious rhetoric of the right.

Similar counter-statements by queer and trans activists did not save Sam Nordquist, a twenty-four-year-old Black trans man from Minnesota who was brutally tortured and assaulted for more than a month until he died, allegedly by seven adults who had lured him to a motel in upstate New York under the false pretense of a romantic weekend. While state police did not link the case to the broader anti-trans panic occurring on a national scale, it is impossible for trans people to ignore the connection. Some trans people are more vulnerable than others—this has always been the case, but even more so now—whether because of their race, their class, or their incarceration status. Melissa Gira Grant, of The New Republic, has written about how trans women in prison may be among the first to suffer under Trump’s anti-trans policies, given his executive order calling for them to be held in men’s prisons. Children, too, are at risk, having in some cases lost access to gender-affirming medical care—which is to say, life-saving care. Since the 2024 election, crisis hotlines for trans kids have been flooded with calls. Additionally, a new study by the Trevor Project found that suicide attempts went up by more than seventy per cent in states where anti-trans bills were passed. For Democratic state senator Karen Berg, of Kentucky, these statistics are personal. In 2023, during a floor debate over a bill that banned health care for trans children, Berg, whose trans son had recently died by suicide, emotionally addressed her fellow-lawmakers: “You know my child is dead.” The bill passed anyway.

None of this occurs in a vacuum. Violence echoes. The attacks on transgender people are intimately tied to the current waves of deportations and the fall of Roe v. Wade, which are part of a larger crackdown on bodily autonomy. Rights are won, and then they are stripped away. For many trans people, this ambivalent dependence on the state is both a privilege and a weakness. We are tied to a political machine that ultimately does not want us. For years, we have been forced to work out creative solutions to bureaucratic snafus; we have celebrated hard-fought victories that often turn out to be short-lived. The state will not save us, we joke, even as we fear that it may very well try to extinguish us.

The last time I travelled abroad was shortly before I underwent major surgery. At the airport, I walked through the body scanner at security and, as always, an alarm went off. When T.S.A. workers believe someone to be a certain gender, based on the individual’s appearance, they press a corresponding button somewhere behind a curtain. If any anatomical anomalies are detected, an invasive body check ensues. This means that trans people are far more likely to undergo additional security measures. I was pulled aside and a T.S.A. agent asked me if I preferred a woman or a man to pat me down. My body froze up and I tried to act as if I were already at my vacation destination, somewhere far away from the container of my anatomy. The indignity of being singled out flooded my mind, and I blacked out until I was allowed to cross over to the other side of the line. Safe, but perhaps not entirely sound. When I flew back to the United States, the airport security agents in Tokyo merely waved me through, perhaps less preoccupied with the imagined spectre of gender ideology.

[power-chords]

But seriously, Solaris for Dummies is smarter than it seems. A fantastic example is in the translation from book to film of this key scene, where Norman alights at last at his destination* and he is introduced to the swarm of government gatekeepers as well as re-introduced to his fellow team members. In the novel, this is how we meet Beth:

And in the film:

Crichton's prose is not without its merits, but I wince from implications that Levinson would never permit. She says nothing before the Gatekeeper closes the door in Norman's face, and in lieu of the subtle dig at/flirtation with him she simply gazes at him. On her face is a mixture of confusion, intrigue, and trepidation. Since it would be difficult to perceive her "large and liquid eyes" in this medium, the textual metaphor of the Sphere — and make no mistake, that is exactly what Crichton is foreshadowing — gets transferred to a rather modest shirt of the same color and visual pattern. She's nervous, yes, and there's complicated history, but she comes in peace: check out the patch on her arm. She's as pretty as Crichton attests she is, but in the film that's just an accident of nature; nothing in the scene suggests that she's performing anything for anyone, masculine or feminine, seductive or standoffish. What Norman finds enchanting in her — and clearly, he's enchanted, not intimidated — goes beyond mere sex appeal. The visual motif of the Sphere is repeated around Norman's head in the partially obscured, slipped halo of the porthole light; there's a black turbine much more visible, and you can practically see the shadows spinning inside his head. He has eyeglasses on, a glint of reflection in them. He's trying to read her. She's doing the same with him.

Perhaps a part of Levinson needs to relate to Norman, and that requires some mensch-y modulation, for which I am grateful. There's a reason Norman Johnson becomes Norman Goodman. A definite improvement, here. And Norman has got some thinking to do, not just about why the hell he's here, but whether he's got some atoning to do.

This is how brilliant an actor Hoffman is: without a word, just in his body language and facial expression, he embodies the tortured fatherly professor-type and at the same time a teenager sulking in his dorm room. (And in that intro scene with Ted we do get the vibe of old friends and colleagues re-convening as if the naval ship were just host to a surprise college reunion, everybody interacting with both the ease and shock of instant familiarity, bristling with the same old affections and irritations.)

What I want to know is what the fuck those notices are, framed along the wall; when the gatekeeper departs, he passes by rows of them. Honorable discharge notices? Deck logs? Memorials to fallen comrades?** To a layman like me, the "search image" calls up certificates, diplomas, credentials you'd hang on an office wall. Reminders of station, occupation, legitimacy.

I have no fucking idea what they actually are, as I know fuck-all about the Navy, but then again, we know this is no ordinary military vessel. I just did some cursory googling, and, well:

Just as a town or city has a system using street signs and addresses to help you find your way around, so does a Navy ship. Each space in a Navy vessel has a unique identifier that consists of a yellow rectangle with black letters and numbers, known as the bullseye. It will have several lines of information, with the topmost line, made up of numbers and letters, providing location information. For example: 4–95–3–M.

That's weird. Not a whole hell of a lot of clear, helpful labeling that I can see around here.

Definitely some clear, hostile labeling Before the Law Restricted Area, though! Barnes is such an asshole, but he's great. Man, Peter Coyote is so good. You know I love a jobbing character actor who always gives 110%.

*His destination is always a doorway. The Sphere is also a doorway. But you knew that already.

**I suspect it's this, purely on a gut hunch. Why? Levinson makes a point to show a pin, a mark, on this officer's collar. Later, the scar on Beth's neck is revealed to be the result of a car accident. And as Harry deduces after their first glimpse of the Sphere... they were not supposed to make it out of there alive.