Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
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Useful Notes - Television Tropes & Idioms
Everybody knows TVTropes is the best and most time-killing-est way to learn about the clichés and archetypes that permeate modern media. But dear reader, there is so much more. Enter Useful Notes. Originally created as a place for tropers to pool factual information as a writing aid, the subsite has quietly grown into a small wiki of its own -- a compendium of crowdsourced wisdom on a staggering array of topics, all written in the site's signature brand of lighthearted snark. Though it reads like an irreverent and informal Wikipedia, its articles act as genuinely useful primers to complex and obscure topics alike, all in service of the project's five goals: "To debunk common media stereotypes; to help you understand some media better; to educate, inform and sometimes entertain; to promote peace and understanding (maybe); and... to facilitate world domination." Sounds about right. Click inside for bountiful highlights... if you dare. [more inside]posted by Rhaomi at 11:00 AM - 30 comments
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Twitter, Facebook, and social activism : The New Yorker
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| The Wrong Way To Weaponize Social Media| from the you-like-this-and-so-does-everyone-else dept.| posted by timothy on Saturday December 25, @18:01 (Censorship)| https://politics.slashdot.org/story/10/12/25/2224218/The-Wrong-Way-To-Weaponize-Social-Media?from=newsletter+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BorgiaPope writes "NYU's Clay Shirky, in the new issue of ForeignAffairs, calls the U.S. government's approach to social media 'dangerous'and 'almost certainly wrong,' as in its favoring Haystack over Freegate.[0]The Political Power of Social Media claims that the freedom of onlineassembly — via texting, photo sharing, Facebook, Twitter, humble email —is more important even than access to information via an uncensoredInternet. Countering [1]Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker, Shirky looksat recent uprisings in the Philippines, Moldova, and Spain to make hispoint that, instead of emphasizing anti-censorship tools, the US shouldbe fighting Egypt's recent mandatory licensing of group-orientedtext-messaging services." Only part of Shirky's piece is available fornon-subscribers, but Gladwell's New Yorker piece is all online.
Discuss this story at: https://politics.slashdot.org/story/10/12/25/2224218/The-Wrong-Way-To-Weaponize-Social-Media?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links: 0. http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67038/clay-shirky/the-political-power-of-social-media 1. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell -
UK Banks Attempt To Censor Academic Publication - Slashdot
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| UK Banks Attempt To Censor Academic Publication| from the here-are-some-rugs-for-your-eyes dept.| posted by timothy on Saturday December 25, @10:55 (Censorship)| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/25/142234/UK-Banks-Attempt-To-Censor-Academic-Publication?from=newsletter+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "Representatives of the UK banking industryhave sent a [0]take-down notice (PDF link) to Cambridge University,demanding that they censor a [1]student's webpage as well as [2]hismasters thesis (PDF) . The banks' objection is that the informationcontained in the report might be used to exploit a vulnerability in theChip and PIN system, used throughout Europe and Canada for credit anddebit card payments. The system was [3] revealed to be fundamentallyflawed earlier this year, as it allowed criminals to use a stolen cardwith any PIN. Cambridge University has resisted the demands and has[4]sent a response to the bankers explaining why they will keep the pageonline."
Discuss this story at: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/25/142234/UK-Banks-Attempt-To-Censor-Academic-Publication?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links: 0. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/20101221110342233.pdf 1. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~osc22/scd/ 2. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~osc22/docs/mphil_acs_osc22.pdf 3. http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2010/02/11/chip-and-pin-is-broken/ 4. http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2010/12/25/a-merry-christmas-to-all-bankers/
Friday, December 24, 2010
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Bruce Sterling on the world of post-Wikileaks diplomacy. posted by Artw at 5:12 PM - 132 comments
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Apple Explains Why It Deleted The WikiLeaks App
Apple: Wikileaks app deleted because "it violated developer guidelines. An app must comply with all local laws. It may not put an individual or target group in harms way." Apple declined to comment on what that actually means. (businessinsider.com)submitted 21 hours ago by hiredgoon366 commentssharesavehidereport
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
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Music Blogs Caught Up in Labels’ Online Piracy Fight - NYTimes.com
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| DHS Seized Domains Based On Bad Evidence| from the legal-systems-and-intertubes-don't-mesh dept.| posted by Soulskill on Monday December 20, @17:02 (Censorship)| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/20/2139201/DHS-Seized-Domains-Based-On-Bad-Evidence?from=newsletter+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "Back over Thanksgiving, the Department ofHomeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit (ICE) made alot of news by [0]seizing over 80 domain names. While many of theseinvolved sites that sold counterfeit products, five of the domainsinvolved copyright issues. Four of them [1]involved hiphop-related blogs— including ones that hiphop stars like Kanye West and others used topromote their own works, and the last one was a meta search engine thatsimply aggregated other search engines. Weeks went by without the ownersof those sites even [2]being told why their domains were seized, but theaffidavit for the seizure of those five sites has recently come out, and[3]it's full of all sorts of problems. Not only was it put together by arecent college graduate, who claimed that merely linking to news and blogposts about file sharing constituted evidence of copyright infringement,it listed as evidence of infringement [4]songs that labels specificallysent these blogs to promote. Also, what becomes clear is that the MPAAwas instrumental in 'guiding' ICE's rookie agent in going after thesesites, as that appeared to be the only outside expertise relied on indetermining if these sites should be seized."
Discuss this story at: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/20/2139201/DHS-Seized-Domains-Based-On-Bad-Evidence?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links: 0. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/11/27/1910232/DHS-Seizes-75-Domain-Names 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/business/media/14music.html 2. http://rapfix.m -
FBI Defends Disruptive Raids on Texas Data Centers | Threat Level | Wired.com
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| FBI Defend Raids On Texas Datacenter| from the we're-from-the-govt-and-we're-here-to-help dept.| posted by timothy on Monday December 20, @00:50 (Crime)| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/20/015259/FBI-Defend-Raids-On-Texas-Datacenter?from=newsletter+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aryden writes "Wired Reports: 'The FBI on Tuesday [0]defended its raidson at least two data centers in Texas, in which agents carted outequipment and disrupted service to hundreds of businesses. The raids werepart of an investigation prompted by complaints from AT&T and Verizonabout unpaid bills allegedly owed by some data center customers,according to court records. One data center owner charges that thetelecoms are using the FBI to collect debts that should be resolved incivil court. But on Tuesday, an FBI spokesman disputed that charge.'"
Discuss this story at: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/20/015259/FBI-Defend-Raids-On-Texas-Datacenter?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links: 0. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/04/data-centers-ra/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+wired%252Findex+%2528Wired%253A+Index+3+%2528Top+Stories+2%2529%2529&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
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Right Wing astroturfing A non-scientific analysis of the patterns in forum board discussions on a variety of topics. The gist: discussions of issues in which there's money at stake (like climate change, public health and corporate tax avoidance) are often characterised by amazing levels of abuse and disruption by rightwing libertarians who are pro-corporate, anti-tax, anti-regulation. Discussions of issues in which there's little money at stake tend to be a lot more civilised than debates about issues where companies stand to lose or gain billions. posted by novenator at 12:14 AM - 40 comments
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The ‘Midnight-Message’ of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - NYTimes.com
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12 Seriously Stressful Jobs | Work/Life Balance | Career | Mainstreet
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
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The Humble Indie Bundle #2 (pay what you want for five awesome indie games)
Dayofswords writes "The [0]first Humble Bundle was [1]a monster success,with over 100,000 people donating over $1 million in total to support theElectronic Frontier Foundation, Child's Play, and of course thedevelopers behind the games. The [2]second bundle is now live ([3]bundlesite), containing five great games: Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium,Osmos, and Revenge of the Titans. Each game is DRM-free, the games workon Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and you pay what you want and decidewhere your money goes."
Discuss this story at: https://games.slashdot.org/story/10/12/15/0130257/Humble-Bundle-2-Is-Live?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links: 0. http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/05/04/1942206/The-Humble-Indie-Bundle 1. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/guides/2010/05/with-1-million-raised-humble-bundle-games-go-open-source.ars 2. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/12/humble-bundle-2-is-live-5-great-games-no-drm-pay-what-you-want.ars 3. http://www.humblebundle.com/ -
'Allegations regarding OpenBSD IPSEC' - MARC
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| FBI Alleged To Have Backdoored OpenBSD's IPSEC Stack| from the all-your-vpn dept.| posted by kdawson on Tuesday December 14, @19:36 (Encryption)| https://bsd.slashdot.org/story/10/12/15/004235/FBI-Alleged-To-Have-Backdoored-OpenBSDs-IPSEC-Stack?from=newsletter+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aggrajag and Mortimer.CA, among others, wrote to inform us that Theo deRaadt has made public an email sent to him by Gregory Perry, who workedon the OpenBSD crypto framework a decade ago. The claim is that the[0]FBI paid contractors to insert backdoors into OpenBSD's IPSEC stack.Mr. Perry is coming forward now that his NDA with the FBI has expired.The code was originally added ten years ago, and over that time haschanged quite a bit, "so it is unclear what the true impact of theseallegations are" says Mr. de Raadt. He added: "Since we had the firstIPSEC stack available for free, large parts of the code are now found inmany other projects/products." (Freeswan and Openswan are [1]not based onthis code.)
Discuss this story at: https://bsd.slashdot.org/story/10/12/15/004235/FBI-Alleged-To-Have-Backdoored-OpenBSDs-IPSEC-Stack?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links: 0. http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-tech&m=129236621626462&w=2 1. http://twitter.com/letoams/status/14830806371401728 -
Queens Kitchen Is Base for Cooks Starting Businesses - NYTimes.com
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
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EXCLUSIVE - Qantas QF32 flight from the cockpit | Aerospace Insight | The Royal Aeronautical Society
Two hours just to sort through the error messages. What happened to that Airbus A380 (Qantas flight QF32) whose engine caught fire in mid-air between Singapore and Sydney in November 2010? One of the five crewmembers on the flight deck recounts the story, which centres on airplane computer systems as much as on keeping tons of metal in the air. [more inside]posted by joeclark at 11:23 AM - 34 comments
Monday, December 13, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
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Motorhome Diaries Crew Recover Deleted Video of Police Encounter | The Agitator
Cops arrest man for "disorderly conduct" for not turning off videocamera, then somehow the footage is erased while in police custody,deleted footage is then recovered with software showing that the cop lies on the stand & in reports as to what actually happened. (video inside) (theagitator.com)submitted 15 hours ago by dirtymoney57 commentssharesavehidereport
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How WikiLeaks altered the way we see the world in just a week | Media | The Guardian