Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate Internets
September 25th, 2011This is great, but don’t forget the context: U.S. Has Secret Tools to Force Internet on Dictators U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors The Sock Puppet Industrial Complex: U.S. Trains ‘Activists’ to Evade Security Forces Think outside the box, by all means. Just don’t be surprised when you find another box. Via: Chronicle of Higher […]
Google Shuts Down ActivistPost.com
September 24th, 2011Via: Before It’s News: At mid-day on Friday, September 23, 2011, the popular alternative news blog, ActivistPost.com, was taken offline. Activist Post receives over one million views per month and has been hosted by Google’s Blogger since its founding in June 2010. “We remain puzzled as to why Activist Post was erased completely by Google,” […]
Researchers Develop fMRI-Based Model to Reconstruct Moving Images that People Are Seeing
September 23rd, 2011Many articles that I’ve read about this don’t mention the little detail that this is based on data obtained through the use of fMRI. This MIT Technology Review piece deals with that right up front. In case you don’t know, fMRI is not a technology that we’re going to be walking around with anytime soon. […]
‘Stingray’ Mobile Phone Tracking System
September 23rd, 2011Via: Wall Street Journal (TinyPaste): For more than a year, federal authorities pursued a man they called simply “the Hacker.” Only after using a little known cellphone-tracking device—a stingray—were they able to zero in on a California home and make the arrest. Stingrays are designed to locate a mobile phone even when it’s not being […]
Federal Appeals Court Allows ACLU Challenge to Warrantless Wiretapping Law to Proceed
September 22nd, 2011Via: ACLU: In September 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied the government’s request that all of the court’s judges rehear a lawsuit filed by the ACLU challenging the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), a law that gives the executive branch virtually unchecked power to collect Americans’ international emails and telephone calls. […]
Atlanta Increases Surveillance of City
September 22nd, 2011I almost didn’t bother to read this one. I mean, there’s going to be more surveillance—thanks, Captain Obvious. But even I was taken aback by this one. Private CCTV cameras are feeding the “Video Integration Center.” Via: AJC: Plans to put Atlanta’s public spaces under camera surveillance will move forward this week with the opening […]
U.S. Kindle Users Can Now Borrow E-Books from Local Libraries
September 22nd, 2011DISCLOSURE: Cryptogon is an Amazon affiliate. This whole Kindle thing moved so fast that I didn’t really have a chance to form my nonspecific sense of doom about it into much besides, Amazon is Tracking the Most-Highlighted Kindle Passages. And now, people will be signing into their Amazon accounts to borrow ebooks from public libraries. […]
Video Games Intruding on Reality: ‘Game Transfer Phenomena’ [???]
September 22nd, 2011Wow, if there was one for the top of your Not The Onion stack, this is it. Via: New Zealand Herald / AP: Some video-game players are so immersed in their virtual environment that when they stop playing, they transfer their experiences into the real world. A study found evidence of game transfer phenomena, which […]
Next Generation Hardware Specification Could Prevent Computers from Booting Linux
September 21st, 2011Update: Microsoft Responds Via: Microsoft: Who is in control? At the end of the day, the customer is in control of their PC. Microsoft’s philosophy is to provide customers with the best experience first, and allow them to make decisions themselves. We work with our OEM ecosystem to provide customers with this flexibility. The security […]
SSL Broken
September 21st, 2011SSL… that’s ok for buying a book online, but no tinfoiler in his right mind would bet his life on SSL. —Cryptogon, 2007 Turns out, the part about it being ok for buying a book online was too optimistic. Haha. Via: Register: Researchers have discovered a serious weakness in virtually all websites protected by the […]
