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> There is voting, of course, but to become an informed voter all one needs to do is read a short guide about the candidates and issues before the election.

I have often wondered how people can make uninformed decisions easily. Now I know.

Only reading a short guide, is akin to reading a Wikipedia article for a monumentally important decision, and not bothering to check the edit history, let alone the references.


Rather than make a snide remark, it's more useful to "steel man" this argument: Consider the X hours you spend over the course of a year reading the news, which for most people you would consider "informed American" is in the triple digits. (That's less than 20 minutes a day.) Now, rather than reading any news that year, imagine that before the election you sat down for X hours and read a some books and long-format essays about the candidates. While reading you are free to look up old news articles when pertinent. Who is the better informed voter? What if you spend only X/10 hours?


I have not heard the term (to) "steel man" (rather than (to) "straw man") before, interesting.

Admittedly, I was writing emotionally, as the sarcastic "Now I know" might suggest. However, I would argue that reading "a short guide" seems vastly different from what you suggest.

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My emotional reaction was in response to how "a short guide" seems to suggest a very biased source; for instance a pamphlet that might be given out by a political party/group. Perhaps this was a flaw in phrasing, but that does not seem likely to me from the text.


That would be infinitely better than the paid infommercials most people current claim as their "research".


I am puzzled; to which "that" are you referring?


This seems similar to the logic behind TOR entry guards: https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#EntryGuards


I would think their C&C server sets up a random Bitcoin wallet, and waits for a deposit, then allows the private key to be retrieved the next time CryptoLocker phones home.


What sort of IT infrastructure do they usually have? - My gut reaction was that they wouldn't have a need for a server in the first place, but I guess that depends on how small it is. A simple file-share though, would be rather vulnerable to this.


Has anyone attempted to run this using Wine?

As long as you keep all drives (/ or ~/) unmounted, I assume it would be `safe' to test it.

Might be a simpler environment to analyze CryptoLocker in, as apposed to a full Windows install.


I'd try it in a virtual machine just in case.


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