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Given the war on general purpose computing , North Korea is far ahead of us technologically. We won't get this level of responsible computing for at least a few more years.

If people wanted general purpose computers, they'd buy them.

Given the war on general purpose computing , North Korea is far ahead of us technologically. We won't get this level of responsible computing for at least a few more years.

He didn't even release the whole cache. Some reporter let slip the password for the encrypted file. http://boingboing.net/2011/08/31/wikileaks-guardian-journalist-negligently-published-password-to-unredacted-cables.html

Send some dough to the EFF. Right this second. If there ever was a time we need those guys, it's now.

I'm a tightwad, and if I can buy some cheaper beer for a few weeks so I can send them a few bucks, so can you, goddamit.

This week, we found out that we've got a secret court that's acting as a "shadow Supreme Court" that's deciding the constitutionality of electronic snooping laws and then keeping their fucking rulings secret.

http://boingboing.net/2013/07/07/secret-rulings-from-americas.html

So before you curse the darkness, go light a fucking candle. Give to the EFF. I've got a paypal window open right now and am giving another twenty, which means I'll be drinking cheap beer for the rest of the month. But at least I'll know there's someone out there who's not completely focused on the reality tv show that is Edward Snowden instead of the fact that we've got a privatized police state that's grown up around us in only about a decade.

And make no mistake: it's too late to start loading your shootin' iron unless you've decided your solution is to eat it.

Mad Magazine
and before that, SNL:
http://boingboing.net/2005/09/14/gillettes-5blade-raz.html

http://boingboing.net/2010/05/04/satellite-photos-cat.html
> As the nation of Greece teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, its tax authorities
> are taking aim at Greece's notorious tax-evading rich elite. Using satellite
> photos, the tax authority examined the claim of the residents of Athens's
> wealthy suburbs and discovered that, rather than the 324 swimming
> pools claimed by the locals, there were 16,974 of them.

http://www.italymagazine.com/italy/olbia/google-earth-reveals-tax-evasion-scam-italys-finance-police
> Google Earth reveals tax evasion scam to Italy's Finance Police

http://gizmodo.com/5603054/officials-are-looking-for-your-swimming-pool-on-google-earth-right-now
> Officials Are Looking For Your Swimming Pool on Google Earth Right Now

How tolerant should an electorate be when it comes to past indiscretions?
http://boingboing.net/2013/05/25/globe-and-mail-toronto-mayor.html

because we share the worlds longest unprotected border with the Neathertals to the south who refuse to evolve.

What the hell, man. Didn't Huckabee congratulating you on your National Igloo count for something?

And it's not a "chicken and egg" problem. It's a "Microsoft Outlook and Exchange refuse to support it builtin with a publicly usable technology", so major companiess are simply not going to do it by default.

Microsoft Outlook and Exchange have supported S/MIME (Publicly-usable technology) out-of-the-box since at least Outlook 2000. So please stop trying to Microsoft-bash here.

Oh, and I have heard of "Carnivore". I've also heard of ECHELON and the Illuminati. If the government wants my address, there are a LOT easier ways of getting hold of it. The IRS, for example (as you seem to be using the US government), or the census bureau. Please adjust your tin-foil hat, or better yet, remove it completely, as it only helps the mind-control rays work.

And so another salvo was fired in the war on general purpose computing.

You purchased a license to play the encrypted DVD when you bought your DVD player. If you didn't pay the license fee, then you have no right to play the encrypted content. You see this issue come up when you purchase cheap OEM DVD drives that don't include DVD software to decrypt the disks.

Most people have broadly interpreted the DMCA to mean that you can't strip the original encryption from any copy that you make, but this is often required for you to make the copy in the first place.

One company found a way to make copies while keeping the encryption intact, and got sued for their trouble.
Their DVD jukeboxes were ultimately ruled to be legal, due to a technicality in their license agreement.

What about sonic.net? They may not be what you want, but they seem to come close:
http://boingboing.net/2012/06/25/sonic-net-stopped-saving-logs.html

Make sure the package does not have 'Atheist' writtten on it: http://boingboing.net/2013/03/26/boxes-sealed-with-atheist-tape.html

Quote: "It seems that spyware and key loggers are far more advanced and commonplace today than they were six years ago, as are anti-spyware tools. I wonder if the FBI could seek a court order requiring an anti-spyware company not to report fedware (as in, fedware would be whitelisted if detected and the customer would not be alerted)." News from 2007.

CC.

1) So what if it's older. They get huge bushels of cash from Google and the Brin foundation today. And so they dance like any hired gun. http://boingboing.net/2011/12/10/give-to-eff-today-and-your-do.html 2) Maybe the reason you don't know this is because your invite got lost: https://www.eff.org/event/eff-mixer-google 3) DRM is secure communication. The pirates are the eavesdroppers. Get a frickin clue. And Torvalds's logic is solid. Locking up my love letter so only my spouse can read it is the exact technological challenge as locking up my artistic creation so only the non-pirates can view it. http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2003042401126OSKNLL http://news.cnet.com/Torvalds-says-DRM-isnt-necessarily-bad/2100-7344_3-6034964.html Quit being a sap for leeching business models. The EFF and Google just want to manipulate you into hating DRM so the money will keep flowing to them. DRM doesn't break the Internet, it breaks Google's business model. They're not the same thing.

Ah ancient paper computers. There's one that was published in CACM back in the 50's. I remember finding it back in a university library when I was first getting into computers in the 60's. There's a link to it on boingboing: http://boingboing.net/2010/11/18/a-do-it-yourself-pap.html. have fun.

The top 1% of the US captured 121% of the wealth generated during the "recovery." The bottom 99% actually got poorer.

http://boingboing.net/2013/02/13/economic-recovery-in-the-us-ac.html

That's why, despite record stock gains, real wage growth is flat. Improvements in the unemployment rate overall are much smaller once you count the number of discouraged workers or consider the underemployed. The jobs being generated don't pay as well as the ones people lost, and they don't include the same level of benefits.

Facts. They kick ass.

http://www.boston.com/video/viral_page/?%2Fservices%2Fplayer%2Fbcpid2080955193001&bckey=AQ~~%2CAAAAAA6piHY~%2CDqRT40XOAr8XmRt9Lw9Lza1eXkXEagX8&bctid=2303076923001 from http://boingboing.net/2013/04/15/boston-marathon-bombed.html is better IMO. :(

We don't know this with the certainty that we'd like,

Yes, "we" do.

In the case of Greenland, there's fossil/isotopic evidence of very rapid sea level rise in the past (multiple meters per century),

Yes, there has been a rapid pulse in the past; that was likely due to the release of a basin of water or an ice bridge, not regular melting. There is no structure in existence on earth that can generate anything similar.

Here is a history of sea levels over the past 20000 years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Post-Glacial_Sea_Level.png

and the current measurements of melt rate show that it is accelerating. http://boingboing.net/2011/07/21/why-we-need-to-keep.html

Fitting an exponential curve and then extrapolating doubling times and making dire predictions is sheer idiocy. The only thing that link shows (again) is that Hansen is completely incompetent.

We don't know this with the certainty that we'd like, certainly not in the case of Greenland. Antarctic, more likely that will take centuries, I'm not sure it's supposed to even melt 100% in the likely futures. In the case of Greenland, there's fossil/isotopic evidence of very rapid sea level rise in the past (multiple meters per century), and the current measurements of melt rate show that it is accelerating. http://boingboing.net/2011/07/21/why-we-need-to-keep.html

I'm killing my mod point because I gave you the wrong one, accidentally.. it's late and I'm tired, but you're definitely underrated with a 5. http://boingboing.net/2013/04/08/obamas-regressive-record-mak.html I can't believe I believed in this guy (back on 2008). I'm beginning to believe that you really can't trust the system, at any level.

Yup, they've made it very clear - as do many other successful tech companies - that they consider the hiring process to be the most important thing they do.

You hire a certain type of people and it's virtually certain that some innovation will occur under your roof, because that kind of person will be bored senseless if they don't. Combine that with a company mandate to spend 20% of your time doing whatever the hell you want to and that's Google's recipe for success - like good bread - fine ingredients, given space to grow, not forced like the Chorleywood white bread process that most companies want.

Valve also grok this. Their employee manual basically says "organize yourself into groups and do whatever the hell you want" (yes, really).

Meyer's problem is she doesn't understand this. Rather than doing what Google do - make the office so damn nice that people WANT to go there - she's just mandating that people HAVE to go there. Whether she argued for the carrot and the board told her that they couldn't afford it, so she had to use the stick, or whether she just thought that Google was too soft while she was there, doesn't make a difference.

Google understands - creative people dislike being told what to do, but more importantly LOATHE being told how to do it.

This is coming from the guy that boasted on Twitter how much money he received from lobbyists that support CISPA... A truly devoted corporate **ahem** civil servant. It's no surprise that 2 out of 3 people would rather have a colonoscopy than the current congress.

http://boingboing.net/2013/03/23/congressman-boasts-on-twitter.html

First, using the 'Gee golly shucks, that's just the way the world is' argument when you are part of making the world that way is a smarmy cop-out.

Sure, it is realistic and pragmatic to deal with conditions that are not within your power to change. However, if you change the conditions and then tell anybody who protests to just be realistic, that's the way it is, as though the matter is somehow one of historical inevitability, you are a shirking little weasel.

Second, during the exchange screenshotted here he responds to the "some people's internet goes out" argument with "Electricity goes out too". Yup, no shit. However(as I hope some MS datacenter or operations people will be willing to take him into the hot aisle and beat into him with spare rack rails) Downtime is additive. If somebody says "Downtime source A exists." the correct answer is not "Oh yeah? Downtime source B also exists!". That isn't a refutation, that's just a confirmation that your uptime will potentially suffer from at least two weak links, rather than just one. Every system-critical component you add is a component that can reduce your uptime. 'Always on', just means that MS' datacenter operations and the customer's ISPs are now system-critical components.

Third, has this guy taken a look at any market penetration numbers for wireline broadband vs. cell-only users and console vs. PC gaming in less connected and/or poorer areas? Whether he likes it or not, Gaming, especially console gaming, is now cheap entertainment(per hour). It also requires minimal technical aptitude or interest, and has historically had low costs of entry and relatively low and flexible ongoing costs. Having adequate wireline broadband, by contrast, tends to require the sort of steady income and financial footing that allows you to keep on good terms with the phone or cable company each month, every month. Is he trying to alienate everyone who has some disposable income and a desire for amusement; but not enough income(or at least not enough stability) for wireline broadband, a golden retriever, and a white picket fence in the suburbs?

The way I understand it, it only records or takes a photo when you tell it to, and you can be a lot more discrete with a mobile phone camera (pretending to text) if you really want to record people without their permission.

Read the review on TheVerge [1] The author clearly describes how they went to a Starbucks and all the other recording equipment was asked to be turned off, but the cashier didn't know about the Glass, and so that portion got recorded. From my link:

At one point during my time with Glass, we all went out to navigate to a nearby Starbucks — the camera crew I’d brought with me came along. As soon as we got inside however, the employees at Starbucks asked us to stop filming. Sure, no problem. But I kept the Glass’ video recorder going, all the way through my order and getting my coffee. Yes, you can see a light in the prism when the device is recording, but I got the impression that most people had no idea what they were looking at. The cashier seemed to be on the verge of asking me what I was wearing on my face, but the question never came. He certainly never asked me to stop filming.

So just like the Macbook with it's green light when the iSight camera came on, Glass shows a green light when recording. I wonder what laptop was abused by middle school admins to take illegal photos of kids in their bedrooms? [2]. If the only indicator on Glass is a green light, it will be hacked away (or covered up) the first time someone wants to take a spy photo/video.

I would most certainly ban Google Glass on any company premises for which I was responsible for securing. I'm not sure I'd allow someone with Glass to enter my house.

[1] http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/22/4013406/i-used-google-glass-its-the-future-with-monthly-updates
[2] http://boingboing.net/2011/06/08/lower-merion-student.html

http://www.cauce.org/2010/11/kidnapping-theft-and-rape-are-not-cyber-crimes.html

http://boingboing.net/2010/10/26/good-news-of-a-kind.html

you mean like this?

Transgender teacher kills self after Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn denounces her

Fuck the Daily Mail.

The little article about Jimmy Saville appended to the bottom of the page was a particularly disgusting piece of work. The clear intention was to portray the teacher as a child abuser.

wtf is the Daily Mail doing here? It is a tabloid.

The "article" had more information about his stupid home than anything about his shady business practices or how no one noticed anything wrong with these devices.

How dare you slander tabloids by comparing the Daily Mail to them!

Why the Daily Mail is Evil
Transgender teacher kills self after Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn denounces her

Fuck the Daily Mail.

That's a myth. Monster cables are no better than cheaper products from other vendors.

If you can hear a difference, then it's probably because you have your ethernet cable connected backwards.

What do you mean, "it's heavy?" You just want the job to go fast.

NASA should just be like this guy:

http://boingboing.net/2012/02/14/man-digs-out-basement-with-rc.html

I wonder if you can do this:
Millions of people leaving extreme poverty in a short time in an historically poor country, all while you have the people who control prices and products in the opposition (which also means artificial shortages), the CIA and the US govt. actively organizing and paying to disinform and to destroy internal economy and political stability (as they did against Allende in Chile, and against many other, which is well known and documented), under an international economic crisis, with food prices increasing since (if I recall correctly) 2008, with consumption rising because of people leaving poverty (and, from there, prices), etc.
None in the poor-hating, racist and xenophobe Venezuelan upper class, none of the previous presidents did anything like that before Chavez, they are mostly foreigners who don't care about their own workers (same as in all Latin America).

Cuba didn't receive oil for "free", they gave LOTS of medics and teachers in exchange to Venezuela, and it's the same for every other country: Chavez exchanged help.

How stupid can people be to believe everything media says, knowing that the mass-media and international "news" agencies are controlled by big holding corporations, kept in their place by corporate marketing and PR? Same for Venezuela. The "freedom lovers" there were a little group of the same kind of people and corporations, that was instrumental in the coup attempt. You can't have real freedom if you don't have basic education, or even food.

Yeah, it's easy to do anything from your computer and/or mouth. Not all has been good, obviously, but Venezuela has changed for good, there is no doubt about that, and even the opposition recognizes it (and even imitates, saying Capriles is a leftist, the same thing Obama has done).

I guess this is the kind of advances and the country you like, don't you?

* http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech-technology-and-liberty/political-speech-facebook

* http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jul/06/facebook-apologises-free-speech-syria

* http://gawker.com/5885714/

* http://www.boingboing.net/2011/04/19/richard-metzger-how.html

* http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/21/facebook-nudity-violence-censorship-guidelines

I could keep pasting these all day long but I think I made my point.

Too bad the W3C is now working on DRM for the web.
Encrypted Media Extensions

It is not possible to have an open web and have DRMed content. You cannot give me the keys and the encryption scheme and to expect DRM to work.

Microsoft, Google and Netflix want to add DRM-hooks to W3C HTML5 standard
The BBC Petitions the W3C to Implement DRM for HTML5

It's just like Flash or Silverlight but with the blessing of the W3C.
Open source browsers and open source systems like Linux cannot support the Encrypted Media Extensions, without binary blobs.

Actually.... http://boingboing.net/2012/08/07/what-do-christian-fundamentali.html

Those signs actualy read Translate server error.

Anyway, this is off topic, but still so funny...

When I read the Slate article, my thought was that he simply landed at the wrong university. He would have fit in well over at Berkeley when I was a student there in the late 90s & early 00s, and the focus of our classes matched what it sounds like he craved. That said, I ddin't feel like the Slate article was necessarily terribly accurate; among many other discrepancies, I've run across too many articles now (like Cory Doctorow's) that say he was well-liked, had quite a few friends that he collaborated with, and that his big problem was more that he had trouble dealing with the disappointment when his friends/mentors didn't live up to his expectations.

You could live in a oppresive regime without being the target... for a time. Being free mean being able to do the good things, the bad, and the gray ones, without looking over your shoulder because what you did could be seen in another way by someone else. Internet is becoming a mined field, where a private joke could mean being deported, where warning people that have insecure sites could put you in jail, where sharing your daughter fotos with your family could have very bad consequences, or giving less fortunate others with censored internet access could be punished, or even expressing your opinion could mean being targetted by the justice using any excuse to sue you for thousands or put you in jail for years.

But maybe more important, specially related to the "keep in mind", is recognizing what are us, specially facing any communication media. Imitation, sharing, and showing what are us or what we like is part of our nature. Is the way we got here, without it we would be still in caves wondering what happened to the only person that managed to fire a torch. We got here because people stood over the shoulders of giants. Now we get a media that enables us to do it even better than before, and specifically that is not free, not just music, or movies, but ideas. And worse, they forbid you to have ideas, if are remotely similar in a small part to a section of an idea that "own" a corporation. The problem is bigger than just internet, but is the main battlefield today.

Nothing in the Daily Mail should be treated as a general statement of anything. They're special

Using SSL for searches will prevent tragedies such as this.

(Not the wife and mistress teaming up which can sometimes lead to tragedy. I'm talking about the IT department discovering searches for making poison.)

--
Joe

There were at least two serious petitions that were blown off - legalization of marijuana and elimination of TSA.

Kudos to the White House for changing the URLs so that Google searches return bad links, and no search on the petition page.

Oddly, searching for "Neill Franklin" the author of a petition, returns no results. His petition is discussed here

Searching the White House petition page for "TSA" also returns zero results, despite it having been open for voting.

I find it astonishing that anyone with an IQ over 120 supports this administration.

SPONSOR CONTENT

Hey that's what Barack Obama looks like when he talks about gun control.

... while surrounded by his own gun-toting guards, to make himself feel safe, of course.

Dread Cthulhu leads his cult to a banner year. Its amazing how good the sponsorship opportunities have been.

SPONSOR CONTENT

This was recently mocked by both the Onion and Boing Boing. I think this is one of the first times that I'm less afraid of Cthulhu than the alternative. Actually, Cthulhu looks pretty damn reasonable when he wears a suit and a tie.

This was written by someone who knew Mr. Swartz. http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html

Leaded gas, known to mess with development, was banned in 1978. Roughly 20 years later, about the time it takes for a new born to fully mature, violent crime begins to suddenly drop.

No, it's the lack of pirates. That's why crime is down and global warming is up.

Also http://boingboing.net/2013/01/01/correlation-between-autism-dia.html

Sure, there's fan art reminiscent of Soviet marketing materials. Creative Commons has the same thing.

Smells a bit fishy to me: http://boingboing.net/2012/10/02/what-a-dead-fish-can-teach-you.html

LEGO are big-time shooting themselves in the foot by this behavior. Some plastic-injection company in China should just start making 5-gallon buckets of LEGO-compatible standard bricks for rock-bottom prices. That would make a much better present, imho, than a Lord of the Rings LEGO set, and it would probably be about the same price.

LEGO's last patent expired in 1989, and apparently, European judges said that they can't do anything against knockoffs.