
Stephen Colbert at RSA Conference 2014 – Full Audio - austinheap
http://blog.austinheap.com/stephen-colbert-rsa-conference-2014-full-audio
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haberman
Very funny and I'm impressed at the number of in-jokes, he must have really
taken some time to get acquainted with security culture. His joke about
"exchanging private keys" was hilarious.

Also here is an abbreviated video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsaXEKtLehs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsaXEKtLehs)

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seiji
Protip: have a writing staff.

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awwstn
Having a writing staff may get you part way there. Colbert is really smart and
equally thoughtful and passionate, and I think these are the qualities that
lead to his work never appearing "phoned in."

[disclosure, I guess: I once interned at The Daily Show and absolutely loved
my experience, so I'm probably biased toward Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert]

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IgorPartola
Now that we've got you here, prepare for my one question AYA (ask you
anything).

So Colbert has tried several times in the past to run as a presidential
candidate, etc. What is your take on this, knowing him? How serious are these
attempts, if he was to gain traction? In the alternate universe where all
voters were college kids that actually voted, and he won, what do you think
would actually happen?

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ilaksh
He wasn't really trying before. It was a joke. To me activities like the RSA
speaking are political activities. And they do not simply represent Colbert's
personal views. This is probably the extreme edge of the leftish faction that
still has influence and is connected to power. It is extremely critical of
existing power and yet stays within "mainstream" parameters. If that group can
see a realistic path towards political office that would provide more
influence than the TV show and is likely to succeed in Colbert's person then
he will be encouraged and quite possibly actually pursue a political office.
That's my outsiders guesstimate of this.

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drakaal
Despite the "rivalry" between me and Colbert for the title "Greatest Living
American". I have a lot of respect for Colbert. He is an entertainer but he is
a political activist. John Stewart who is more famous and better paid is a
Comedian Journalist, but Colbert is a Activist Comedian.

Colbert is the kind of critical thinker we need more of in politics.

-Brandon Wirtz (Former Greatest Living American)

[http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2007/05/11/the-greatest-
goo...](http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2007/05/11/the-greatest-googled-
american/)

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notproductive
"We have solid proof that this program has saved zero lives, that's more then
I can say for our drone program" lmao

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steffenfrost
I was disappointed to see so little support for Edward Snowden by the crowd.

Colbert's view is that Snowden is a criminal.

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dubfan
Stephen Colbert plays a character that satirizes conservative jingoistic
"patriotic" mouthpieces of the Republican party, the kind typically found on
Fox News and some talk radio stations.

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mpyne
With that said, the fact that he rips NSA doesn't mean he (or his alter ego)
supports Snowden: [http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57619771-83/colbert-
turns-h...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57619771-83/colbert-turns-his-
funny-gun-on-snowden-in-rsa-keynote/)

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mncolinlee
Ah, yes. Satire may survive dictators in totalitarian regimes intact, but it
perishes in the webpages of CNET News.

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mpyne
I assume that means you didn't actually read to the end where the Q&A was
discussed...

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mncolinlee
He was still in character as any Colbert viewer could tell by his responses.

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datr
The link to the HD version should be:
[http://www.austinheap.com/assets/rsaconf2014/Stephen%20Colbe...](http://www.austinheap.com/assets/rsaconf2014/Stephen%20Colbert%20%40%20RSA%20Conference%202014%20%28Full%20Audio%29%20%5BHD%5D.mp3)

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garric
Well, yeah... but the difference between 320kbps and 96kbps is fairly
negligible with all of that background noise.

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jakeogh
Video (phonecam, no Q&A):

P1:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7gGtVScrQo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7gGtVScrQo)

P2:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3QH4d4qNOQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3QH4d4qNOQ)

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jasonkester
You've got to credit these guys for going the extra mile to keep you from
finding out what their conference is about. Between this site and the
conference website it links to, they use the acronym "RSA" twenty six times
without ever once defining it.

Note that googling "RSA" gives a dozen contradictory definitions, from various
things that call themselves the RSA. The conference here makes the list about
halfway down, but again, without any explanation what the acronym stands for
or what it is.

And of course, wikipedia just gives a two page list of RSAs for one to choose
from:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA)

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sbierwagen
RSA is named after its founders: Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Len Adleman.

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baking
Probably more accurate to say the company was named after the RSA algorithm
that was named after its inventors.

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DonGateley
It was founded by the inventors.

