Archive for the 'Technology' Category
NSA Collects ‘Word for Word’ Every Domestic Communication, Says Former Analyst
August 3rd, 2013Via: PBS: JUDY WOODRUFF: Both Binney and Tice suspect that today, the NSA is doing more than just collecting metadata on calls made in the U.S. They both point to this CNN interview by former FBI counterterrorism agent Tim Clemente days after the Boston Marathon bombing. Clemente was asked if the government had a way […]
Major Outage on Several Webhosting Companies Owned by Endurance International Group
August 2nd, 2013There’s a huge webhosting outage this morning on domains associated with Endurance International Group companies. BlueHost is one of those companies, and both cryptogon.com and cryptogon.net have been affected. The sites are going up and down, so if you notice this, there’s no need to let me know. Just try back in a couple of […]
Volvo Gave Away the Most Important Design They Ever Patented
August 2nd, 2013Via: Priceonomics: In 1958, people rarely buckled up. While race car drivers and fighter pilots wore harnesses, the seat belts available in cars simply banded across one’s lap. In crashes, they frequently did more harm than good. The sudden pressure put on the abdomen during a crash caused internal injuries. At the time, Volvo was […]
Google Searches Result in Visit from Joint Terrorism Task Force
August 2nd, 2013Any lawyers who click through are likely to experience grand mal seizures when they read about how the suspect dealt with this bogus fishing expedition. Suspect: Invited Joint Terrorism Task Force (mainly FBI, but could actually include people from a variety of agencies) inside his house. Suspect: Consented to a search of his house. Suspect: […]
NSA Pays £100m in Secret Funding for GCHQ
August 2nd, 2013Via: Guardian: The US government has paid at least £100m to the UK spy agency GCHQ over the last three years to secure access to and influence over Britain’s intelligence gathering programmes. The top secret payments are set out in documents which make clear that the Americans expect a return on the investment, and that […]
California: Largest Solar Thermal Energy Plant in the World
August 1st, 2013Via: National Geographic: The Ivanpah Valley of the Mojave Desert in California is home to spiky yucca trees, long-nosed leopard lizards, loggerhead shrikes, and a rare species of tortoise—and soon, the largest solar thermal energy plant in the world. More than six years in the making, the Ivanpah plant is now slated to begin generating […]
XKeyscore: NSA Tool Collects ‘Nearly Everything a User Does on the Internet’
July 31st, 2013Via: Guardian: A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its “widest-reaching” system […]
‘Something Very Wrong In The UK’
July 30th, 2013Via: New Zealand Herald: A new law will require ISPs block objectionable online content by default. Although there is an option to opt-out, anyone wanting the filter removed will need to contact their ISP to ask that it be switched off. Censorship proponents argue that the filter isn’t a bad thing – keeping ones family […]
Students Hijack Luxury Yacht with GPS Spoofing
July 30th, 2013Via: SC Magazine: A team of university students have demonstrated that it is possible to subvert global positioning system navigation signals to pilot a superyacht without tripping alarms. The experiment was conducted in June this year, with the permission of the owners of a 65-metre (213ft) superyacht worth US$80 million (A$87 million), the White Rose […]
First Open Source Airplane Could Cost Just $15,000
July 30th, 2013Via: Wired: There’s an open source airplane being developed in Canada, and now its designers are looking to double down on the digital trends, turning to crowdsourced funding to finish the project. The goal of Maker Plane is to develop a small, two-seat airplane that qualifies as a light sport aircraft and is affordable, safe, […]
