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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Breaking news: Dutch parliament against signing ACTA
This was just announced by Dutch news network NOS: apparently the Dutch national Parliament has accepted a motion not to sign ACTA, due to concerns about human rights. A majority in Parliament consisting of D66, Groenlinks, PvdA, SP and PVV stated that the ACTA agreement might conflict with the European declaration on the Rights of…
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Lies, damned lies and ACTA
In a response to the day of international protests against ACTA, Dutch NOS news asked the Dutch negotiator on ACTA, Minister Maxime Verhagen, for a response. In his response Minister Verhagen mentions that he doesn’t understand the commotion and that ACTA is actually good, since it enables us to take a child pornography sites offline,…
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ACTA protest day, February 11, 2012
Post edited 2012-02-12: more videos added and the reaction of Minister Verhagen has been given a post of its own, so it has been removed here. Bonus points if you can spot yours truly in any of the videos below. I was at the protest in Amsterdam today and boy, was it ever cold! Still,…
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Germany won’t sign ACTA…for now
Today, news media report that Germany is postponing the signing, not to mention the ratification of ACTA. This is good news. As more countries are wavering in their support for ACTA, the future of this agreement becomes less and less secure. That is something to be happy about, but it is no time to relax…
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Convergence, an alternative to Certificate Authorities
In the aftermath of the Diginotar hack, I wrote an article that mentioned we needed a silver bullet to solve the problems with the current state of SSL and certificate authorities. Of course the Internet wouldn’t be the Internet if such a silver bullet didn’t emerge sooner or later. Famous hacker Moxie Marlinspike has announced…
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Why should I care about ACTA?
I am getting quite a bit of feedback in my mailbox about all my campaigning and posts against ACTA. Much of it has been in support and I thank you for that. There has been no negative feedback, for which I am very grateful. However, I also receive messages along the lines of “I don’t…
Recent comments
Sorry to hear about your misfortune, Daniel. That’s a rough way to learn the truth about religious beliefs. I hope…
Daniel, Well spoken. I kind of did the same earlier in my life. Result: screw you for your faith and…
Wasn’t allowed to type so long, so let me continue. imagine what will people in the future think of us…
Used to be a fanatic zealot of this jewish/racist god, sang lots of euphoria songs that hype up senses and…
“What can be asserted without evidence may be dismissed without evidence.”
Christopher Hitchens
Author and journalist
People who believe in a god, any god, are not atheists. They are theists. I explain things in more detail…