I find it amusing that the biggest supporters or Russia in its current war of aggression against Ukraine are/were Hungary, Slovakia, and Serbia -- precisely the countries that should know better, since they were the principal recipients the "love and friendship" from Russia:
Geopolitical decisions aren't made by countries, they are made by individual people.
Sometimes those people are a plurality that organically endorses that decision and votes some representative in. Sometimes those people are a plurality that has been brainwashed by compromised media to do it. Sometimes those people are just a small ruling elite that get voted in by people who didn't think very hard about those particular geopolitical decisions and just want, I don't know, their political and cultural enemies brutalized and $1.99 gas.
My brother visited some of these countries. He said most people there are oblivious to what happened to their countries. They simply don't care. It also didn't help that everyone he met (agricultural sector) was a day-drinker.
That's why they're doomed to repeat it. Again and again.
The Slovaks ultimately got federalization of Czechoslovakia from the crisis (1969), which both distracted them and made their memories less negative.
As far as Hungary goes, I asked my friend who studied Hungarian history. He explained to me that while the Soviet invasion was very traumatic, the subsequent Kádár "goulash socialism" was a lot more lenient on the people than all the other Soviet Bloc regimes, and that the Hungarians made an incorrectly confident conclusion that losing a small war to the Russians is not catastrophic.
Of course, this is NOT the experience of basically anyone else who happened to be in a similar situation. A potential puppet regime of Russia in Ukraine wouldn't look like Kádárs by any means, it would rather look like the Kadyrovian microstate in Chechnya, minus the Islam of course.
So they bought the cameras and some people pointed out they look exactly the same as Russian cameras. The government denied this but after they figured out the serial numbers matched the Russian cameras they started this investigation.
Good they investigated this before using them, but this sounds like a big fu...
> multiple reports in Slovak media that linked the purchase to a Cyprus shell company with fake certifications.
We're talking about this as if it's some precursor to a James Bond plot, but it really fizzles after learning Nina in the sourcing department skipped the compliance paperwork. James Bond doesn't need to leave the bed!
Trojan exploits aside, I just assume that it'd be easier for someone in SVR/GRU to bribe an admin.
There is a video somewhere of a Finnish university professor from around the time the war started (maybe a bit before), explaining the Russian attitude to sportsmanship, or whatever you want to call it.
Basically he suggested cheating is not considered unethical in Russia. If you are not using all means available to reach your goal you are leaving something on the table and are weak. This applies to all levels of society.
I would be cautious of such generalisations normally. But the industrial scale cheating at the winter Olympics says a lot.
generalizations about a group of people are not “racist” when not talking about race, they’re also not inherently pejoratives either. reduction is to know what to expect
still buy the cameras, still buy the natural gas
just dont go on the public record saying its not backdoored knowing the supply chain
It seems like a silly mess. But its easier than it sounds to end up in such a situation. We're are a lot of HN Kagi users that just have to trust that the Yandex collaboration is fully watertight.
Most cameras are insecure by default. Check out: http://www.insecam.org/en/ or https://www.shodan.io/ The first isn't even using default access creds, which I suspect is what was 'discovered' in this case, but cameras that immediately hook up to the internet with 0 restrictions to access.
For the goal of recording a cat scratching their car or catching an imaginary thief neighbour (a magpie or fox stole that thing that one time, you dullard) people will plug into Chinese, Russian, and American video surveillance networks in no time and pay for it.
I'd be worried about the inverters in large commercial solar plants. On a sunny day you could easily cause a blackout by turning enough solar capacity off at once. Maybe shut down the entire grid when the sudden power imbalances trip the self- protection in half the grid. That's a pain to recover from. Spain went through that not too long ago
But maybe rapidly switching residential solar on and off in a coordinated way can also do funny things to grid equipment
DDoS, anonymizer proxy, and turn off power in large commercial installations. They kinda deserve it for investing in solar. US holds all the power in social media, can't blame China if they want to utilize their lead in solar for something too.
Hopefully mutually assured annoyance keeps everyone at bay.
You reap what you sow, MFs!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_opposition_to_sanctions...
Is he? I don't see that in his comment at all. Can you point out that part to us?
Perhaps your handlers never taught you that two things can be bad at the same time.
but pointing "huh huh duurrr Russia is bad" while doing the same shit Russia doing is peak level irony
You don't have moral high ground
How are any of those false flag? They're state sponsored, by different state actors.
- Hungary: November of 1956
- Slovakia: "spring" of 1968
- Serbia: the Stalin's betrayal at the end of WW2
Sometimes those people are a plurality that organically endorses that decision and votes some representative in. Sometimes those people are a plurality that has been brainwashed by compromised media to do it. Sometimes those people are just a small ruling elite that get voted in by people who didn't think very hard about those particular geopolitical decisions and just want, I don't know, their political and cultural enemies brutalized and $1.99 gas.
That's why they're doomed to repeat it. Again and again.
As far as Hungary goes, I asked my friend who studied Hungarian history. He explained to me that while the Soviet invasion was very traumatic, the subsequent Kádár "goulash socialism" was a lot more lenient on the people than all the other Soviet Bloc regimes, and that the Hungarians made an incorrectly confident conclusion that losing a small war to the Russians is not catastrophic.
Of course, this is NOT the experience of basically anyone else who happened to be in a similar situation. A potential puppet regime of Russia in Ukraine wouldn't look like Kádárs by any means, it would rather look like the Kadyrovian microstate in Chechnya, minus the Islam of course.
Good they investigated this before using them, but this sounds like a big fu...
> multiple reports in Slovak media that linked the purchase to a Cyprus shell company with fake certifications.
We're talking about this as if it's some precursor to a James Bond plot, but it really fizzles after learning Nina in the sourcing department skipped the compliance paperwork. James Bond doesn't need to leave the bed!
Trojan exploits aside, I just assume that it'd be easier for someone in SVR/GRU to bribe an admin.
Like, it’s not just Putin, or the government, it’s just cultural
If there is an opportunity to embarrass someone from your position of power or discretion, it will be taken
People try to be aligned with Russian interests to avoid it, but there is no exemption
There is a video somewhere of a Finnish university professor from around the time the war started (maybe a bit before), explaining the Russian attitude to sportsmanship, or whatever you want to call it.
Basically he suggested cheating is not considered unethical in Russia. If you are not using all means available to reach your goal you are leaving something on the table and are weak. This applies to all levels of society.
I would be cautious of such generalisations normally. But the industrial scale cheating at the winter Olympics says a lot.
still buy the cameras, still buy the natural gas
just dont go on the public record saying its not backdoored knowing the supply chain
But maybe rapidly switching residential solar on and off in a coordinated way can also do funny things to grid equipment
same issue with large loads like boilers, this stuff should never be connected to the internet, but it is
if you can control enough load on the grid you can do real damage
Hopefully mutually assured annoyance keeps everyone at bay.
In the end it's all about trust. Right now I don't see why China would like to burn down their market.