Archive for August, 2010
Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware
August 24th, 2010Via: Electronic Frontier Foundation: It looks like Apple, Inc., is exploring a new business opportunity: spyware and what we’re calling “traitorware.” While users were celebrating the new jailbreaking and unlocking exemptions, Apple was quietly preparing to apply for a patent on technology that, among other things, would allow Apple to identify and punish users who […]
Home Sales Plunge 27 Percent to Lowest in 15 Years; Largest Monthly Drop on Record
August 24th, 2010HAHA. The recovery is obviously accelerating! *splat* Via: AP: Sales of previously occupied homes fell to the lowest level in 15 years last month as the economy weakened. The National Association of Realtors says July’s sales fell by more than 27 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million. It was the largest […]
Malware Implicated in Fatal Spanair Plane Crash
August 24th, 2010Update: Maybe Not Via: ZDnet: The actual cause is far more prosaic: the pilots missed a crucial item on their checklist and took off with the flaps in the wrong position: The investigation has determined that the takeoff was attempted while in an inappropriate and unapproved configuration, since the flaps and slats were fully retracted. […]
India: Police Arrest Researcher Who Showed E-Voting Machines Are Not Secure
August 24th, 2010Via: Freedom to Tinker: About four months ago, Ed Felten blogged about a research paper in which Hari Prasad, Rop Gonggrijp, and I detailed serious security flaws in India’s electronic voting machines. Indian election authorities have repeatedly claimed that the machines are “tamperproof,” but we demonstrated important vulnerabilities by studying a machine provided by an […]
A Retired FBI Agent Tells Ohio Reporter Lee Harvey Oswald Did Not Kill JFK
August 23rd, 2010Via: ClipSyndicate:
Republican Candidate for New York Governor: Turn Prisons Into “Dormitories” for Welfare Recipients
August 23rd, 2010Via: AP: Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino said he would transform some New York prisons into dormitories for welfare recipients, where they could work in state-sponsored jobs, get employment training and take lessons in “personal hygiene.” Paladino, a wealthy Buffalo real estate developer popular with many tea party activists, isn’t saying the state should […]
Japanese Firm Builds Small Machine that Converts Plastic Back Into Oil
August 23rd, 2010If there’s electricity around… I know! How about converting U.S. aircraft carriers into massive trash barges to clean up the Pacific Trash Vortex. Those aircraft carriers run on nuclear power so there should be plenty of juice on board for turning that stuff back into oil. Just a bit more comedy on Cryptogon this morning… […]
Philadelphia Requires Bloggers to Pay $300 for Business License (Not The Onion)
August 23rd, 2010Via: NBC: Taking a step closer to an eerie Orwellian state where creativity is crushed in the name of “the greater good,” the city of Philadelphia is demanding that bloggers pay $300 for the privilege of writing on the Internet. This $300 “business privilege license” is for all local bloggers – even the ones that […]
Tony Robbins Issues Financial Collapse Warning
August 23rd, 2010Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Update: My Commentary Is Off Topic I don’t know what came over me with the commentary below about my absurd attempt to make it as a real estate agent. Robbins’ voice is powerfully associated with my grim End Day experience in […]
Commander’s Guide to Money as a Weapons System
August 23rd, 2010In short, get the target population hooked on money by associating the basics of human existence (which we have destroyed) with money. Sound familiar? Via: U.S. Army Combined Arms Center – Center for Army Lessons Learned / Hosted at Cryptome: Warfighters at brigade, battalion, and company level in a counterinsurgency (COIN) environment employ money as […]
