6 ms·

The KGB used to require all typewriters to be registered, so they could identify the authors of anything they found objectionable. Being able to track who prod

The KGB used to require all typewriters to be registered, so they could identify the authors of anything they found objectionable. Being able to track who produced an image that's doing the rounds spreading "propaganda" seems like it adds a lot of value (from an authoritarian point of view, at least).

fs111 5y ago
printers do that too with yellow dots
Someone1234 5y ago
The US still does this today via the MIC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Identification_Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Identification_Code That's why your color printer cannot print in B&W when you're out of color ink (or at least one reason).
- lights0123 5y ago
  > which certain color laser printers and copiers Inkjet printers are far more likely to not let you print without color ink, because they need to add the color inks to produce a darker black. Laser printers are far more likely to let you print without color toner (and as such, I've never worked with a laser printer that requires non-empty color toner cartridges), because they don't need to add additional colors for black.
whimsicalism 5y ago
LOL yeah the US does the exact same thing. I would pay to read a newspaper that (somewhat satirically) reported on the US the way we report on our adversaries. Complete with referring to police as "security forces", including wild speculations about the backstabbing behind-the-scenes of their top politics, etc.
- jszymborski 5y ago
  The issue I take with this point is that: 1) There's plenty of criticism of the West from within its many nations borders 2) There's far more from outside its borders 3) Criticism of crushingly oppressive dictatorships is strictly forbidden from within With that context, Western criticism of oppressive dictatorships serves a vital purpose, and so does fair criticism of the West.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  The Washington Post does this occasionally. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/29/how-western-media-would-cover-minneapolis-if-it-happened-another-country/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/29/how-weste... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/08/16/what-if-western-media-covered-americas-white-tribalism-the-same-way-it-covers-other-nations/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/... "'Culturally, Americans are a curious lot,' said Andrew Darcy Morthington, an United Kingdom-based commentator who once embarked on a two-year mission trip to teach rural American children and therefore qualifies as an expert on U.S. affairs."
  - elzbardico 5y ago
    The wapo did it till last January
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  Well, just try some russian or chinese newspapers. I do it at times. There surely is wild propaganda mixed in, but also some very clear analysis of a certain cituation. More so, if for example russia is reporting on US-China crisis. Or vice versa.
  - shlurpy 5y ago
    You have to take into account bias even then. Negative bias and propaganda can be just as strong. But yeah, I personally read German news or AL Jazeera or whatever.
- zepto 5y ago
  > Complete with referring to police as "security forces", The western press goes in to far more detail about how oppressive, brutal and unaccountable American police are than any other country. There is pretty much an unending stream of criticism of the police. > including wild speculations about the backstabbing behind-the-scenes of their top politics, etc. If you have never seen such speculation about American politicians, I assume you have never looked at a newspaper.
  - monocasa 5y ago
    Eh, it's not quite the same. There was some foreign paper that described the George Floyd protests as 'tensions continue to rise over the death of an ethnic minority in a agrarian province at the hands of state security forces' that made me chortle when I read it.
    - zepto 5y ago
      It’s not quite the same - it’s far more critical.
      - monocasa 5y ago
        I disagree.
        zepto 5y ago
        ‘tensions continue to rise over the death of an ethnic minority in a agrarian province at the hands of state security forces’ Is absolutely nothing compared to the mountains of analysis of how racist and brutal the US police are, likening them to slave patrols, citing statistics about how often unarmed black people are killed, criticizing the Supreme Court for qualified immunity, explaining the overpolicing of trivial crimes in poor neighborhood and underpolicing of serious crimes that harm this same neighborhoods, the school to prison pipeline etc. etc. You’d be forgiven for thinking we live in an open society with a free press where people are unafraid to criticize the government and police.
- vkou 5y ago
  > I would pay to read a newspaper that (somewhat satirically) reported on the US the way we report on our adversaries If you really want this, just start reading foreign news.
  - whimsicalism 5y ago
    I read quite a bit of news, but unfortunately only speak english. It is not quite the same - newspapers put out in english by foreign adversaries are usually targeting foreign audiences, so they are not written in quite the same fashion as how American outlets describe regimes in other countries. The closest I've found is SCMP English in Beijing, which (at least for print) is apparently different (and more slanted) than the English version found in the US.
- pessimizer 5y ago
  "Regime" and "oligarchs" are my big annoyances. If you used words and phrases like these for domestic stories consistently, they'd lose all of their propaganda value. Hell, "propaganda" is the archetypal example. All communications with the primary purpose of advocacy were referred to as propaganda until the propaganda industry came up with the term "Public Relations." It's a bit like the Anglo-Saxon/Latin split in English, where the Anglo-Saxon word means the cheap, commonplace version of whatever the Norman word is. English for the last century or so has had a sort of "communist register" that you're required to use about things that are officially disapproved of.
oleg_antonyan 5y ago
Nowadays they're trying to enforce social media and messengers to require your phone number (most of them do this already anyway), and to get SIM-card you need your ID document. This way they can track down who posted a link to "Putin's palace", for example. And thanks to enforced data localization they may not even need help from social platform itself - they pwn hard drives. The difference between this and Apple's data collection, for example, is that Apple cannot use this information to imprison or kill you. At least until they deploy automatic scanner for cp in your photos.
tenebrisalietum 5y ago
How could a specific typewriter be tracked from a typed document?
- PeterisP 5y ago
  The letter 'blanks' which hit the ribbon in a typewriter are imperfect, as all physical objects, so having a sample and a registered owner can be used tell that this document was written on this particular typewriter because e.g. all their letters 'F' have a tiny scratch in just the right place. It's similar to e.g. identifying specific guns by the markings left by imperfections of the barrel, you'd also take sample shots which can then be matched to the specific gun.
- simpleguitar 5y ago
  He's talking about old mechanical style typewriters. Due to mechanical tolerances of the time, the letter shape and the alignment of the type bar would be slightly imperfect, and unique to that typewriter, acting as a fingerprint. It's the reason why ransom notes from old movies are made of letters cut out from different magazines and newspapers. No handwriting, and no typewriter. Did you know that US Secret service has samples of ink from various ball point pens? (https://www.12news.com/article/news/nation-world/look-inside-secret-services-library-of-15000-ink-samples/507-c93335c8-9d10-43a5-848d-f51ee227acd0 https://www.12news.com/article/news/nation-world/look-inside...)
- lostcolony 5y ago
  So looking at a document, you'd not be able to know what typewriter it was written from, no. However, looking at a document, you may be able to tell the make and model of the typewriter, due to different typefaces and known mechanical differences across the make/model. That, coupled with a location or list of suspects, would allow you to examine specific typewriters. You may be able to determine a letter was written from a -given- typewriter, as machining differences in the keys, and differences in wear and tear over time can lead to minute differences in how the ink adheres. If you also have a letter written by a specific suspect, the variation in typing (how hard they hit the keys, common typing mistakes, etc) can lead to greater certainty of the author.

fs111 5y ago

printers do that too with yellow dots

Someone1234 5y ago

The US still does this today via the MIC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Identification_Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Identification_Code That's why your color printer cannot print in B&W when you're out of color ink (or at least one reason).

lights0123 5y ago
> which certain color laser printers and copiers Inkjet printers are far more likely to not let you print without color ink, because they need to add the color inks to produce a darker black. Laser printers are far more likely to let you print without color toner (and as such, I've never worked with a laser printer that requires non-empty color toner cartridges), because they don't need to add additional colors for black.

whimsicalism 5y ago

LOL yeah the US does the exact same thing. I would pay to read a newspaper that (somewhat satirically) reported on the US the way we report on our adversaries. Complete with referring to police as "security forces", including wild speculations about the backstabbing behind-the-scenes of their top politics, etc.

jszymborski 5y ago
The issue I take with this point is that: 1) There's plenty of criticism of the West from within its many nations borders 2) There's far more from outside its borders 3) Criticism of crushingly oppressive dictatorships is strictly forbidden from within With that context, Western criticism of oppressive dictatorships serves a vital purpose, and so does fair criticism of the West.
ceejayoz 5y ago
The Washington Post does this occasionally. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/29/how-western-media-would-cover-minneapolis-if-it-happened-another-country/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/29/how-weste... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/08/16/what-if-western-media-covered-americas-white-tribalism-the-same-way-it-covers-other-nations/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/... "'Culturally, Americans are a curious lot,' said Andrew Darcy Morthington, an United Kingdom-based commentator who once embarked on a two-year mission trip to teach rural American children and therefore qualifies as an expert on U.S. affairs."
- elzbardico 5y ago
  The wapo did it till last January
hutzlibu 5y ago
Well, just try some russian or chinese newspapers. I do it at times. There surely is wild propaganda mixed in, but also some very clear analysis of a certain cituation. More so, if for example russia is reporting on US-China crisis. Or vice versa.
- shlurpy 5y ago
  You have to take into account bias even then. Negative bias and propaganda can be just as strong. But yeah, I personally read German news or AL Jazeera or whatever.
zepto 5y ago
> Complete with referring to police as "security forces", The western press goes in to far more detail about how oppressive, brutal and unaccountable American police are than any other country. There is pretty much an unending stream of criticism of the police. > including wild speculations about the backstabbing behind-the-scenes of their top politics, etc. If you have never seen such speculation about American politicians, I assume you have never looked at a newspaper.
- monocasa 5y ago
  Eh, it's not quite the same. There was some foreign paper that described the George Floyd protests as 'tensions continue to rise over the death of an ethnic minority in a agrarian province at the hands of state security forces' that made me chortle when I read it.
  - zepto 5y ago
    It’s not quite the same - it’s far more critical.
    - monocasa 5y ago
      I disagree.
      - zepto 5y ago
        ‘tensions continue to rise over the death of an ethnic minority in a agrarian province at the hands of state security forces’ Is absolutely nothing compared to the mountains of analysis of how racist and brutal the US police are, likening them to slave patrols, citing statistics about how often unarmed black people are killed, criticizing the Supreme Court for qualified immunity, explaining the overpolicing of trivial crimes in poor neighborhood and underpolicing of serious crimes that harm this same neighborhoods, the school to prison pipeline etc. etc. You’d be forgiven for thinking we live in an open society with a free press where people are unafraid to criticize the government and police.
vkou 5y ago
> I would pay to read a newspaper that (somewhat satirically) reported on the US the way we report on our adversaries If you really want this, just start reading foreign news.
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  I read quite a bit of news, but unfortunately only speak english. It is not quite the same - newspapers put out in english by foreign adversaries are usually targeting foreign audiences, so they are not written in quite the same fashion as how American outlets describe regimes in other countries. The closest I've found is SCMP English in Beijing, which (at least for print) is apparently different (and more slanted) than the English version found in the US.
pessimizer 5y ago
"Regime" and "oligarchs" are my big annoyances. If you used words and phrases like these for domestic stories consistently, they'd lose all of their propaganda value. Hell, "propaganda" is the archetypal example. All communications with the primary purpose of advocacy were referred to as propaganda until the propaganda industry came up with the term "Public Relations." It's a bit like the Anglo-Saxon/Latin split in English, where the Anglo-Saxon word means the cheap, commonplace version of whatever the Norman word is. English for the last century or so has had a sort of "communist register" that you're required to use about things that are officially disapproved of.

oleg_antonyan 5y ago

Nowadays they're trying to enforce social media and messengers to require your phone number (most of them do this already anyway), and to get SIM-card you need your ID document. This way they can track down who posted a link to "Putin's palace", for example. And thanks to enforced data localization they may not even need help from social platform itself - they pwn hard drives. The difference between this and Apple's data collection, for example, is that Apple cannot use this information to imprison or kill you. At least until they deploy automatic scanner for cp in your photos.

tenebrisalietum 5y ago

How could a specific typewriter be tracked from a typed document?

PeterisP 5y ago
The letter 'blanks' which hit the ribbon in a typewriter are imperfect, as all physical objects, so having a sample and a registered owner can be used tell that this document was written on this particular typewriter because e.g. all their letters 'F' have a tiny scratch in just the right place. It's similar to e.g. identifying specific guns by the markings left by imperfections of the barrel, you'd also take sample shots which can then be matched to the specific gun.
simpleguitar 5y ago
He's talking about old mechanical style typewriters. Due to mechanical tolerances of the time, the letter shape and the alignment of the type bar would be slightly imperfect, and unique to that typewriter, acting as a fingerprint. It's the reason why ransom notes from old movies are made of letters cut out from different magazines and newspapers. No handwriting, and no typewriter. Did you know that US Secret service has samples of ink from various ball point pens? (https://www.12news.com/article/news/nation-world/look-inside-secret-services-library-of-15000-ink-samples/507-c93335c8-9d10-43a5-848d-f51ee227acd0 https://www.12news.com/article/news/nation-world/look-inside...)
lostcolony 5y ago
So looking at a document, you'd not be able to know what typewriter it was written from, no. However, looking at a document, you may be able to tell the make and model of the typewriter, due to different typefaces and known mechanical differences across the make/model. That, coupled with a location or list of suspects, would allow you to examine specific typewriters. You may be able to determine a letter was written from a -given- typewriter, as machining differences in the keys, and differences in wear and tear over time can lead to minute differences in how the ink adheres. If you also have a letter written by a specific suspect, the variation in typing (how hard they hit the keys, common typing mistakes, etc) can lead to greater certainty of the author.