Untimely meditations
One man's thoughts, observations and rants
Welcome to the personal blog of Joop Beris. I blog about a wide variety of topics, ranging from atheism to information security and lots in between. I welcome feedback on my articles but there are some guidelines. Feel free to share articles you like by using the sharing buttons but please give me credit if you want to share something. Also, check out my privacy policy and other legalese.
Please note that the things I write here do not represent the views of anyone else but me. I do not represent an organization or a business and I have nothing to sell. My views do not necessarily coincide with or represent those of my employer. Just throwing that in there for legal reasons.
Below you’ll find the most recent things I’ve written. Feel free to check them out, leave a comment and share them with others who might be interested.
Latest posts
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CleanIT opens doors
Last month, I blogged about the Clean IT Project. The aim of this project is to examine the question “if we can reduce the impact of the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes, without affecting our online freedom”, however a look at a leaked document revealed that the project got somewhat derailed. The leaked…
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EFF takes up call of Bits of Freedom
I linked to an article by Bits of Freedom last week, calling for international opposition against the latest plan by minister Ivo Opstelten. The plan can be summed up in brief as “Dutch police should be allowed to hack local and foreign computers and destroy data on them”. A very dangerous proposition with lots legal…
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Dutch police to get access to DNA stored in medical facilities?
For an outgoing cabinet, our current ministers are certainly busy. Busy looking for ways to endanger our privacy, it seems. Just days after two letters from Ivo Opstelten reached the news, Dutch investigative reports for the TV program KRO Reporter have discovered documents that suggest that outgoing minister for Health, Welfare and Sports, Edith Schippers…
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“We must be free to insult each other”
If you’ve taken the time to read the page describing what this blog is all about, you will have seen that I describe myself as a free speech radical. I believe that free speech is absolutely necessary if a democracy is to function at all. I therefore believe that any form of censorship is objectionable,…
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Bits of Freedom calls for international opposition against Dutch proposal
Dutch digital rights defenders Bits of Freedom are calling for international opposition against the latest proposal from Ivo Opstelten, wanting to grant police the right to hack into suspects computers, even across borders. In an article on their blog, they outline the cybersecurity risks related to this proposal. I’m also hoping for a lot of…
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Data snooping only catches ‘incompetent criminals, accidental anarchists’
British Information Commissioner Christopher Graham told a committee of MPs and peers last Tuesday that the draft Communications Data Bill as it stands would only put a stop to “the incompetent criminal and the accidental anarchist”. This proposed bill would give British law enforcement and secret service more access to telecoms data.
Recent comments
Surely you have outstanding points. To add on your 10 reasons, I would say, for a very long time keeping…
This. This is one of the best comment i’ve seen. If god does not exist, then theoretically all BS surrounding…
Your not atheist, your agnostic
This is a pretty old article but it is still the most popular on the site. It has received nearly…
“What can be asserted without evidence may be dismissed without evidence.”
Christopher Hitchens
Author and journalist
Hello Beris, I think you need to clarify this, the true meaning of an Atheist is someone who absolutely doesn’t…