[PLUG-TALK] ... a software conference

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Sat, 7 Feb 2015, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> FYI, names omitted to protect the innocent.  Dance like it's 1975!

On Sun, Feb 08, 2015 at 05:50:56AM -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
> Keith, this was on the 

On Sun, Feb 08, 2015 at 11:35:51AM -0800, Michael Rasmussen wrote:
> Rich, which part of "names omitted to protect the innocent"
> did your perpetual reflex to respond fail to grasp?

Rich does respond, doesn't he?  But what I repeated (without
attribution, from a private list) was also repeated with
attribution on a public mail list.  So I suppose it is out
of the bag anyway.  

My concern is that those words, plus my words, plus a security
bureau's data mining might get combined and turned into trouble
for the individuals organizing the conference or individuals
affiliated with the [.*] organization.  The major fault is mine.

A friend in California went to jail after a prosecuting attorney
combined various quotes of many different people and sources and
synthesized a composite statement that was attributed to my friend
and used in court to "prove" he made a terrorist threat.  If that
can happen in the United States, much worse can happen elsewhere. 

Rich blabbered, but so did I.  I apologize for my unnecessary
message.  I was thinking about the risks of attending particular
overseas conferences, not of the risks faced by conference
organizers in countries more sensitive to their international
reputation than to the behavior the reputation is based on.
Which, sadly, is all countries, too much of the time.

BTW, the organizers had no idea the "entertainment" they hired
would be what they got, though posting pictures of it afterwards
was unwise.  I've seen worse, but those fiascos were kept off the
net.  So far.  General rule of thumb:  don't hire "entertainers."
Many "professionals" are amateurs who can't get a better job,
and we have no particular talent for identifying the idiots.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com