The Command Line

feeds | grep links > Ada Lovelace Day and Geek Pride Day Coming Soon, Ethernet Turns 40, NYTimes Presses Specious Copyright Complaint, and More

Thomas Gideon — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:30:48 +0000

How We Imagined the Internet Before the Internet Even Existed, Paleofuture
Why the ‘Star Trek Computer’ Will Be Open Source and Apache Licensed, Slashdot
NYT dumps a copyright snowfall on startup referencing its work, Ars Technica
Google Code disables direct file downloads, The H Developer
Harvard creates beautiful, self-assembled nanoflowers to better understand nature, ExtremeTech
Are you ready for Ada Lovelace Day 2013?, Finding Ada
Ethernet turns 40 years old today, The Inquirer via Slashdot
Geek Pride Day Is May 25: Here’s How To Celebrate, ReadWrite

feeds | grep links > Ant Inspired Robots, New 40Gbps Wireless Record, Dennis Ritchie’s First C Compiler, and More

Thomas Gideon — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:39:41 +0000

Ant studies to aid design of search and rescue robots, BBC News
New wireless network world record: 40Gbps over 1km, using EHF 240GHz, ExtremeTech
Dev writes comments as limericks and other coding secrets, The Register
Dennis Ritchie’s first C compiler on github, github.com via Groklaw NewsPicks
Xbox One pre-owned games may require fee payment
BBC News was the first I saw in my feeds to talk about this particular wrinkle of the just unveiled Xbox One. If ever you want an example of what Cory Doctorow refers to as the UTI business model, here you go. What makes me insane is that the ability to play older games could just as easily be seen as giving the customer more value for the same price and hence even more reason to buy than just the upcoming crop of games intended for the new console.
Disney’s Aireal: A tactile feedback device to enhance the gaming experience, ExtremeTech

feeds | grep links > Google Talk Drops XMPP, Illegal Numbers, Reporters Threatened with CFAA, and More

Thomas Gideon — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:08:23 +0000

7 open source projects to cut your teeth on (and the ones to avoid), www.itworld.com via Slashdot
Google’s chat client drops Jabber compatibility
Fab at The H’s Open channel was one of several to mention this at the start of the week. I am sure I have seen some mention of Google’s nominal reasons for this, undoubtedly the same or a similar refrain as when they moved away from joint development on WebKit. It is their prerogative, of course, to do whatever the hell they want, but we can also see it as tragic. In the cases where these changes reduce interoperability, I think there is a legitimate concern for the rest of the space, a la Reader. How long before Google ditches SMTP in Gmail? And our rabid adoption of it makes that almost as much of a non-event as their dropping of XMPP?
Illegal numbers: Can you break the law with math?
ExtremeTech poses an interesting question and some further thoughts for unpacking what used to be given adequate weight in patent law, the nature of facts and obviousness. Sadly, I think this consideration overlooks that the worst patent trolling has little to do with fair interpretation of the law. Worse I fear that there is now just too much at stake for seeking out and institutionalizing some of the meta-principles the post discusses to ever happen as it doesn’t align with any of the moneyed interests in the current patent debate.
They WANT to EAT YOUR COMPUTER: welcome your ANT overlords, The Register
Reporters threatened with CFAA, labeled hackers for finding security hole, Privacy and Security Fanatic at NetworkWorld
Computer use irrelevant to education outcomes, says US study, The Register

No Podcast for the Week of 2013-05-20

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:47:18 +0000

My weekend production plans fell through and I lacked a plan “b” so there won’t be a new podcast this week. However, I am taking the week off from work to relax and spend some time on personal projects so hope to make it up by actually having a show ready to go next week, post-Balticon, likely a news cast. I am optimistic I’ll get at least one good panel recording at Balticon, if not more, to help give me a bit of a running start on June.

Following Up for the Week Ending 2013-05-19

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:34:58 +0000

3D printed guns and the law: will judges be able to think clearly about digital files when guns are involved?, Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com
VP9 nears completion at WebM, The H Open
MPAA Freaks Out: Insists That Having To Consider Fair Use Before Filing A DMCA Takedown Would Be Crazy at Techdirt,
Supreme Court Rules For Monsanto In Patent Case, www.huffingtonpost.com via Slashdot
Google’s programming language, Go, gets a big speed boost, Ars Technica
Dow Lohnes Patent Alert: En banc Federal Circuit indecisive on patent eligibility of computer-implemented inventions (CLS v. Alice), The Essential Patent Blog via Groklaw NewsPicks
Once Again Top Downloaders Are Top Spenders, According To UK Gov’t Study, Techdirt
Do Not Track: Are Weak Protections Worse Than None At All?, Electronic Frontier Foundation
NeuroGaming Conference Profiles the Rise of Brain-Computer Interfaces, Slashdot
Sen. Warner fires warning shot at broadcasters over Aereo dispute, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
CISPA Sponsor Mike Rogers May Go On To Lead The FBI, Techdirt
Disappointing Unsealing Decision in Aaron Swartz Case, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Peter Sunde, Of The Pirate Bay & Flattr To Run For EU Parliament at Techdirt, Interesting Move
Copyright Holders Will Define Details Of UK’s Orphan Works Bill, But Not The Public, Techdirt
Is It Wrong to Use Data From the World’s First ‘Nice’ Botnet?, Wired Enterprise at Wired.com
“Six Strikes” Anti-Piracy Outfit Loses Company Status, Faces Penalties, TorrentFreak
Aereo’s on a Roll, MIT Technology Review
Syria Severed from Internet Again, threatpost
OVERNIGHT TECH: AT&T CEO’s comments prompt net-neutrality fears, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
Hacking Politics: name-your-price ebook on the history of the SOPA fight, Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com
Google and NASA Launch Quantum Computing AI Lab, MIT Technology Review
Cops Should Get Warrants to Read Your E-Mail, Attorney General Says, Threat Level at Wired.com
New tool lets you create 3D-printed models with a literal wave of your hand, ExtremeTech
Opening a New Front Against Secret IP Treaties at Electronic Frontier Foundation, We Beat Them to Lima
IsoHunt Will Take DMCA Safe Harbor Fight to the Supreme Court, TorrentFreak
A Framework For Copyright Reform, Techdirt
MetroPCS drops challenge to net neutrality rules, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
House bill requires court order for phone record seizures, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
We Demand a Fair Deal for the Internet at Electronic Frontier Foundation, New International Coalition to TPP Negotiators

Quick Security Alerts for the Week Ending 2013-05-19

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:31:43 +0000

Attackers Target Older Java Bugs, threatpost
It’s official: Password strength meters aren’t security theater, Ars Technica
Deutsche Telekom launches online code vulnerability scanner, The H Developer
Microsoft Reads Your Skype Chat Messages, Slashdot
US’s ‘Cyberwar’ Strategy: Making The Public Less Secure In The Name Of ‘Security’, Techdirt
Microsoft, Adobe Push Critical Security Updates, Krebs on Security
Microsoft Patches Department of Labor, Pwn2Own IE Vulnerabilities, threatpost
Mozilla’s Firefox update fixes three critical holes, The H Open
Critical Linux vulnerability imperils users, even after “silent” fix, Ars Technica
Exploit Sales: the New Disclosure Debate, Slashdot
Exploit for local Linux kernel bug in circulation – Update, The H Open
Fraunhofer FOKUS institute releases Fuzzino fuzzing library, The H Open
Mac malware found with valid developer ID at freedom conference, The Register
Denial-of-Service attacker tells Brian Krebs he’s working for the FBI, Boing Boing
ownCloud fixes critical security vulnerabilities, The H Open
Trying to kill undead Pushdo zombies? Hard luck, Trojan is EVOLVING, The Register
Mozilla Delays Default Third-Party Cookie Blocking In Firefox, Slashdot
Skype’s ominous link checking: facts and speculation, The H Security
Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft, Ars Technica
Saudi Web Sites Under Attack After Surveillance Accusations, NYTimes.com
“SpecialisRevelio!” Macs use Harry Potter spell to unlock secret “backdoor”, Ars Technica

Balticon 47 Schedule – Update (again)

Thomas Gideon — Sat, 18 May 2013 19:04:11 +0000

Update: When I first posted this, the LLF live show was listed as ten PM on Saturday. It is in fact two hours later, at midnight Saturday.

Update 2: Listening to the new media track coordinator, it sounds like I have been added to the audio tips and tricks panel on Saturday night.

After an initial delay, I finally received my invite as a participant at Balticon 47, coming up in a week. (Mad thanks to Patrick Scaffido for getting this sorted so quickly despite a late start and short notice.) I know the podcast has been a bit sparse of late (and likely to remain so this coming week) but this will be a good chance to stock pile some panel recordings for sharing over the coming weeks.

This will be my seventh Balticon as a participant. I first attended 41 which I believe was the second year the convention included a new media track with podcasters, webcomic artists, and other peer media producers and creators. Despite the usual chaos that goes with a volunteer run convention of this size, it is a highlight of the year for me and the only science fiction convention I still regularly attend after all these years (not in small part because it is near by and hence much more affordable.)

I am very much looking forward to the convention, not in the least because I decided to take this coming week off from work to relax and prepare. Even though not all the friends I had hoped to see will be able to make it, many people I only see at gatherings like these will be there. I am very excited to spend a long weekend hanging out with some of the smartest and most interesting people I know, many of whom I will be fortunate enough to get to do some of that on mic. I will be sharing those recordings with all of you and with the listeners of my other podcast, the Libation Liberation Front, that I do with my good friend John Taylor Williams.

Anyway, here is my schedule for Balticon 47 (to the best of my knowledge, ping me once I get there for updates):

Saturday, May 25
09:00 Producing Your Podcast
18:00 Peer Media, Copyright and You
23:00 Audio Production Tips and Tricks
00:00 Libation Liberation Front live show!

Sunday, May 26th
12:00 Disasterpiece Theatre
13:00 Talk to Me: How To Conduct Podcast Interviews

There is a reprise of my usual discussion of copyright, a first for me in the form of one of my podcasts recorded live (John and I are conspiring on ideas for making that teh awesome), and a guest appearance on a live recording of a ridculously fun and funny show, Alex White’s and Stephen Granade’s Disasterpiece Theatre.

Lots to look forward to–hope to see you there!

feeds | grep links > Experts Push Back on Calea 2, Past and Future of Open Source, Historical Intro to Machine Code, and More

Thomas Gideon — Sat, 18 May 2013 18:38:02 +0000

Survey on the Future of Open Source, and Lessons from the Past, O’Reilly Programming via Slashdot
1983′s wonderful “Introduction to Machine Code for Beginners”, Boing Boing
Computer scientists to FBI: don’t require all our devices to have backdoors for spies, Boing Boing
Risks of wiretap modifications to endpoints, CALEA II
Smartphones Have Bridged The Digital Divide, I am a little concerned at the lead for this ReadWrite piece. While device ownership, based on the study cited, may be more equitable than old devices, in particular personal computers, I fear this fails to take into account the network to which smartphones are attached. At least in the US, fixed broadband is still more cost effective and overall a better experience for any number of media literacy related pursuits. Condoning the perception that these networks are just as valuable in terms of social and economic benefits as fixed networks strikes me as incredibly risky, not the least because the regulatory regimes are also far less developed than fixed broadband access networks.
Patenting Open Source Software, Slashdot
FCC scraps 126 telecom regulations, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
MIT Master’s Thesis on Denial of Service attacks as a form of political activism, Boing Boing

feeds | grep links > Rock and Roll and Lego at Bletchley Park, Women Behind Pakistan’s First Hackathon, Tor-based Info Leak Site, and More

Thomas Gideon — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:34:52 +0000

Hex & plugs & ROM & roll: Computer music stars rock Bletchley, The Register
Meet the Woman Behind Pakistan’s First Hackathon, Threat Level at Wired.com
Australian Government Initiates Covert Internet Censorship, Slashdot
New Yorker opens Strongbox – a Tor-based anonymous drop site, The H Open at News and Features
Bletchley Park, In Lego, MAKE
Biological chips go analog to boost efficiency, The Register
Interactive Raycaster For the Commodore 64 Under 256 Bytes, Slashdot

feeds | grep links > Screen Induced Brain Rot, How to Take a Break from Technology, A Couple of Concerning Surveillance Over-reaches, and More

Thomas Gideon — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:30:48 +0000

How to Take a Break From Your Technology, NYTimes.com
Paper Man (1971): early movie about hackers (complete on YouTube), Boing Boing
Obama Administration Secretly Obtains Phone Records of AP Journalists, Threat Level at Wired.com
A Saudi Arabia Telecom’s Surveillance Pitch, Moxie Marlinspike via Slashdot
Screen use is bad for brain development, scientist claims, BBC News
New App Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart, Forbes via Groklaw NewsPicks

No Podcast for the Week of 2013-05-13

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:41:13 +0000

Work continues to be somewhat insane but at least for a better reason as I am trying to getting things in shape to hold tight for a week as I take off for a much need break the week before Balticon. Combine that with spending some much needed time with the family this weekend, including a much appreciated late lunch for Mother’s Day at one of the few places we all consider a favorite and, well, another week has gotten away from me.

I have an interview lined up for next week, though, a return guest from a little over five years ago. I have much preparation to do and think it would be fun to leave the name as a surprise. I also managed to get added as a program participant at the last minute for Balticon so hopefull will be able to record a panel or two for future shows, as well.

feeds | grep links > Teasing Apart the Law and Computers, Another Linux Triumphant Story, National Day of Civic Hacking, and More

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:36:25 +0000

Design is a poor guide to authorization
At Freedom to Tinker, Professor Ed Felten digs into some of the problems with current and proposed legislation around authorized, and by implication, unauthorized uses of computer systems. He works through both a post from legal scholar James Grimmelman that lays the groundwork by exploring the ambiguity of the legal conception of “circumvention”. Felten goes further seeing what, if anything, can be deduced from the intent of a system’s maker as inferred from its design. Lacking a better approach, both his and Grimmelman’s work at least should give pause to anyone rushing to push regulation in a space where a legal expert and a computer science professor cannot yet divine any bright lines.
Fibre system capacity doubled in university study, The Register
Anonymous MSFT developer admits Linux is faster than Windows
Stephen J. Vuaghn-Nichols at ZDNet shares reasoning attributed to some anonymous Windows kernel developer. The fact that it was originally sourced to Hacker News makes it suspect in my book, given that site’s execrable signal-to-noise ration. However, the hypothesis is intriguing if at all true, in that the reasons stated are not technical but have more to do with the differences in motivation, in particular the intrinsic urge to better Linux for social reasons rather than to do so for a commercial OS for compensation. Still strikes me as a little too pat to credit but at least is a novel take on the old Ford-Chevy arguments between OSes.
Hackers prepare for first “national holiday” in their honor, Boing Boing
Raspberry Pi add-on will help you build Lego Mindstorm robots, Ars Technica

Following Up for the Week Ending 2013-05-12

Thomas Gideon — Sun, 12 May 2013 19:18:45 +0000

Busting World’s Biggest Movie Pirates Made Piracy Worse, TorrentFreak
The Fight Over DRM In HTML5 Should Represent The Last Stand For DRM, Techdirt
Broad Coalition Of Public And Private Interests Call For Objective Data & Research Concerning Copyright Reform, Techdirt
Aereo Brings New Lawsuit Against CBS Over Expansion Plans, www.hollywoodreporter.com
The Maps In Your Apps Are About To Get A Lot Better at ReadWrite, OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap Launches a New Easy To Use HTML5 Editor, Slashdot
US DOJ Say They Don’t Need Warrants For E-Mail, Chats, Slashdot
A Quantum Computer Aces Its Test, NYTimes.com
US Secret Surveillance Court Approves All Domestic Spying Requests For A Second Year In A Row, Techdirt
“Fair use” takes center stage at Google Books appeal, paidContent via Groklaw NewsPicks
New Zealand to bar software patents, again, The Register
FBI Still Doesn’t Think It Needs A Warrant To Read Your Email, Despite Court Ruling To The Contrary, Techdirt
Members of Congress finally introduce serious DMCA reform, Ars Technica
Death Knell For Righthaven In 9th Circuit Decision, Slashdot
Judge Allows FBI To Use Evidence Collected Via Stingray Fake Cell Towers, Techdirt
3D printed gun plans pulled after US State Department objects, The Register
Scratch 2.0: programming for kids, now in the browser, Boing Boing
World Web Consortium warms HTML bed for forced DRM snuggle, The Register
Mozilla Handing Out Free Firefox OS Developer Phones To Bolster App Marketplace, Slashdot

Quick Security Alerts for the Week Ending 2013-05-12

Thomas Gideon — Sun, 12 May 2013 19:18:05 +0000

Honeywords, Schneier on Security
IE 8 Zero Day Found as DoL Watering Hole Attack Spreads to Nine Other Sites, threatpost
D-Link update closes voyeur’s ASCII peephole, The H Security
Anti-Virus Software for Android Fooled by Common Techniques, Researchers Say, SecurityWeek.Com via Slashdot
NGINX patches major security flaw, The H Security
Attack hitting Apache sites goes mainstream, hacks nginx, Lighttpd, too, Ars Technica
Hacked DNS Servers Used in Linux/Cdorked Malware Campaign, threatpost
Internet Registrar Name.com Discovers Security Breach, thenextweb.com via Slashdot
A Stopgap Fix for the IE8 Zero-Day Flaw, Krebs on Security
With critical 0-day exploits circulating, Microsoft and Adobe report fixes, Ars Technica
What is Personal Data and How Much Personal Data Exists?, MIT Technology Review
Microsoft Fix It Available for IE 8 Zero Day Used Against Labor Website, threatpost
New privacy bill requires apps to disclose how they share personal data, Ars Technica
CSRF hole in OpenVPN Access Server, The H Security
Google Has Aggressive Plans for Strong Authentication, threatpost
OBLITERATE passwords from THE PLANET at The Register, PayPal security boss
Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform, Threat Level at Wired.com
Apple can decrypt iPhones for cops; Google can remotely “reset password” for Android devices, Boing Boing

feeds | grep links > 3D Printed Gun Test Fired, Syrian Offline Briefly, New Approaches and Limits to AI, and More

Thomas Gideon — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:13:31 +0000

Apologies for the larger than usual links post but this catches me up in my daily sieving of the Internet from Monday up through yesterday.

Government Lab Reveals It Has Operated Quantum Internet For Over Two Years, MIT Technology Review
The Liberator: The first downloadable 3D-printed gun gets test fired, ExtremeTech
How To Thrive In The Tech Industry For Decades, ReadWrite
BitTorrent Bundle Puts a Music Store Inside Torrents, Slashdot
Using YouTube For File Storage, Slashdot
Syria Falls Off the Internet Again, Slashdot
Update: Syria drops offline for a day, Ars Technica
Where Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence Meet at Slashdot, The New AI
Why a grand, unified theory of artificial intelligence may be a pipe dream, Boing Boing
Teen girl blocks Twitter plot spoilers to win hackathon, BBC News
How to Build a Device that Improves Our Neural Abilities, MIT Technology Review
Now You Can Fork U.S. Government Policy … On GitHub, Wired Enterprise at Wired.com

TCLP 2013-05-06 News

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 07 May 2013 03:06:17 +0000

This is a news cast, an episode of The Command Line Podcast.

In the intro, I note that Balticon is coming up again soon and discuss a project in which I’ve been invited to participate.

This week’s security alerts are Twitter now has two factor authentication and understanding the empirical evidence around security and programming best practices.

In this week’s news, an AI that solves Super Mario, an opinion about ending standardization of HTML, neuro-mimetic processors finally give traditional super computers some real competition, and re-creating the first web page on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of opening the web.

Following up this week, CISPA dies in the Senate and amazing 3D browser game now available for play.

View the detailed show notes online. You can also grab the flac encoded audio from the Internet Archive.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Following Up for the Week Ending 2013-05-05

Thomas Gideon — Sun, 05 May 2013 22:51:12 +0000

Pirate Party wins seats in Icelandic election, The Register
Don’t Let Patents Kill 3D Printing, Techdirt
What’s big, corrupt, terrifying and worse than ACTA? TPP. Here we go again!, Boing Boing
What New-Style Trade Agreements Are Really About (Hint, It’s Not Trade) at Techdirt
Swedish Authorities Target Pirate Bay Again, Police Question Founder in Prison, TorrentFreak
ICE Starts Raiding Mobile Phone Repair Shops To Stop Repairs With Aftermarket Parts, Techdirt
EFF challenges bogus 3D printing patents, Boing Boing
Older Is Wiser at Study Shows Software Developers’ Skills Improve Over Time, NC State News via Slashdot
Viacom appeals from judgment dismissing YouTube case, Recording Industry vs The People
IL Follows Suit: Employers Right To Ask For Social Media Passwords Codified Into Law, Techdirt
Readers Respond – Your Brain on Computers, NYTimes.com
Attempt To Trigger Six Strikes Comes Up Empty, Techdirt
Name-your-price SOPA history, Boing Boing
Chuck Schumer To Introduce Patent Reform Bill To Make It Cheaper To Fight Back Against Patent Trolls, Techdirt
No Good Can Come Of Any Cybersecurity Bill Without A Clear Definition Of The Problem, Techdirt
How Key Decisions In Copyright Cases Can Impact The Pace Of Technological Innovation, Techdirt
Mainstream Press Waking Up To DOJ’s Massive Overreaction To Minor Computer Hacks, Techdirt
Sen. Bernie Sanders ‘troubled’ by FCC pick’s lobbying past, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
Secretive Spy Court Approved Nearly 2,000 Surveillance Requests in 2012, Threat Level at Wired.com
RMS Urges W3C To Reject On Principle DRM In HTML5, Slashdot
Tor Books UK Says Ditching DRM Showed No Increase In Piracy, Techdirt
CISPA is not dead! It’s coming back – get ready!, Boing Boing
Mozilla Launches Firefox OS 3.0 Simulator, Slashdot
Norwegian Parliament Approves Extreme Version Of SOPA; Ignores All Sorts Of Rights If Someone Yells Copyright, Techdirt
The Final Round of Negotiations Over a Consumer Privacy Mechanism, NYTimes.com

Quick Security Alerts for the Week Ending 2013-05-05

Thomas Gideon — Sun, 05 May 2013 22:36:45 +0000

Mozilla Persona for the non-web, Mozilla Hacks
Compromised Apache binaries load malicious code, The H Security
Viber releases update for screen lock flaw – but not on Google Play, The H Security
Sophisticated Apache backdoor in the wild, www.net-security.org via Slashdot
Why your password can’t have symbols—or be longer than 16 characters, Ars Technica
Why Security Holes In Critical Infrastructure Are So Darn Hard To Fix, ReadWrite
Good Morning, Captain: open IP ports let anyone track ships on Internet, Ars Technica
LivingSocial Ups Its Password Encryption Following Massive Breach, threatpost
5 Ways To Protect Your Public Internet Use, ReadWrite
Google Glass Cracked, threatpost
EFF Surveys Major Tech Companies’ Privacy and Transparency Policies, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Mozilla Takes Aim at Spyware That Masquerades as Firefox, Wired Enterprise at Wired.com
Cameras leak credentials, live video, The Register
How To Protect Against Laptop Webcam Hacking, Electronic Frontier Foundation
More Malware Showing Up on Fake SourceForge Web Sites, threatpost
Rooting exploit could turn Google Glass into secret surveillance tool, Ars Technica
We rooted Wii U encryption and file system, says hacker group, Ars Technica
US Labor Dept website serving malware to innocent visitors, The Register
Thieves Break Into a Personal ‘Data Vault’ Company, NYTimes.com
Nearly Nine in Ten Websites Contain One Serious Vulnerability, threatpost
Adobe to Patch Reader Information Leak Bug, threatpost
What’s a known source of malware doing in an iOS app? Ars investigates, Ars Technica
Certificate bug in open source IPsec VPN, The H Open
Internet Explorer zero-day exploit targets nuclear weapons researchers (Updated), Ars Technica
Care needed when combining Exim and Dovecot, The H Open

feeds | grep links > Ten Defunct Tech Skills, Terrifying Biomimetic Robots, Upcoming Young Women Programmers, and More

Thomas Gideon — Fri, 03 May 2013 20:12:07 +0000

10 Technology Skills That Will No Longer Help You Get A Job, ReadWrite
WebRTC, Online Code Editor Team Up for Real-Time Coding, Webmonkey at Wired.com
Researchers create transistors out of nanowire forests, for ‘ultimate scaling’ beyond 10nm, ExtremeTech
The Coolest and Most Terrifying Biomimetic Robots, Wired Science at Wired.com
BotObjects Announces First Full-Color Desktop 3D Printer, Slashdot
Researchers create RFID-enabled paper, bringing us ever closer to traceable cash, ExtremeTech
IBM Researchers Open Source Homomorphic Crypto Library, Slashdot
This Is What The Next Generation Of Programmers Looks Like, ReadWrite

feeds | grep links > FBI Pressure on Lawful Intercept Compliance, Teaching TCP/IP Headers with Legos, Problematic FCC Chair Nominee Likely, and More

Thomas Gideon — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:49:19 +0000

Fat-Cat Carriers Unworried By Chat Apps Passing SMS Texting, ReadWrite
Proposal would fine tech companies for not obeying FBI’s wiretap demands, Boing Boing
This Friday is International Day Against DRM, Defective by Design
What Will Terms-Of-Service Agreements Look Like In The Age of Brain-Computer Interfaces?, MIT Technology Review
Teaching TCP/IP headers with legos, Boing Boing
New FCC chairman is “former lobbyist for cable and wireless industries”, Ars Technica
Four Coding Schools Just For Girls at ReadWrite, No Boys Allowed

No Podcast for the Week of 2013-04-29

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:48:17 +0000

Another week has gotten away from me. I am sure I have made the joke/observation about certain days at my day job rushing past me, making a deafening whooshing or even a concerning tearing sound (probably the fabric of spacetime in the face of double and triple booking of my agenda.) As tired as that may be, its truth remains. The last few days have been filled with that spacetime cacophony but hopefully things will quiet down going into this weekend enough for me to get sufficient material prepared for a new show next week.

Following Up for the Week Ending 2013-04-28

Thomas Gideon — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:17:10 +0000

Anonymous begins their Web blackout to protest CISPA, TweakTown
Hacking Trial Devoid of Hacking Awaits Jury Verdict, Threat Level at Wired.com
Congress Sells Your Privacy For A Cool $84 Million: Somewhere Everywhere, Big Brother Is Smiling, Techdirt
But Says €145k Is Too Small at Slashdot, Germany Fines Google Over Street View
First Firefox OS developer phones to launch on Tuesday, The Register
Java still vulnerable despite recent patches, The Register
Monty changes roles, goes big with MariaDB—and gains Wikipedia as a user, Ars Technica
SkySQL and MariaDB join forces at ZDNet, Look out, Oracle
Bureau Of Economic Analysis Shows Why Copyright Terms Should Be Greatly Diminished, Techdirt
Here’s a Good Reason to Encrypt Your Data, Threat Level at Wired.com
Aaron Swartz Film Kickstarted by Director of Anonymous Documentary, Underwire at Wired.com
What’s Actually Wrong With DRM In HTML5?, Slashdot
Bob Goodlatte Calls For Copyright Reform, Leaves Specifics To The Imagination, Techdirt
Not Learning From ACTA: IPR Protection And Enforcement Seen As ‘Less Difficult Issue’ For TAFTA/TTIP, Techdirt
Updating an E-Mail Law From the Last Century, NYTimes.com
Senate committee votes to end warrantless e-mail searches (Updated), Ars Technica
DMCA Safe Harbor May Not Apply To Old Copyrighted Works, Slashdot
Senate Judiciary Committee Votes That Accessing Your Email Should Require A Warrant, Techdirt
Beware The House ‘Review’ Of U.S. Copyright Law — It’s A Trap, ReadWrite
Controversial CISPA “cyber-security” bill is DOA in the Senate, Ars Technica
Snooper’s Charter is dead! (for now), Boing Boing
MPAA Executive Tampered With IFPI Evidence in Internet Piracy Case, TorrentFreak

Quick Security Alerts for the Week Ending 2013-04-28

Thomas Gideon — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:15:58 +0000

Securing the Internet of Things: or how light bulbs can spy on you, The Register
More “BadNews” for Android: New malicious apps found in Google Play, Ars Technica
ISPs In ‘Conspiracy Of Silence’ With Government On Snooper’s Charter, www.techweekeurope.co.uk via Slashdot
New Java security hole affects desktops and servers, The H Security
Google Joins PayPal-Backed Effort to Kill the Password the FIDO Alliance, MIT Technology Review
How to Protect Your Twitter Account, www.geeksugar.com
Microsoft patches the patch, The H Security
VirusTotal now analyses network traffic, The H Security
WordPress cache plugins enabled remote PHP execution, The H Open
Exploding the urban myths about how to stay safe online, BBC News
Critical app flaw bypasses screen lock on up to 100 million Android phones, Ars Technica
Updates Fix PHP-Injection Flaw in Popular WordPress Plugins, threatpost
Smartphones easily used to skim credit card data, CBC News via Groklaw NewsPicks
Julian Assange plans to develop new crypto system, The H Security
LivingSocial admits major hacking attack on customer database, The Register

feeds | grep links > BiTorrent Powered Dropbox Alternative, Enzyme-Based Memory, Renewed US Push for Mass Surveillance, and More

Thomas Gideon — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:40:37 +0000

BitTorrent Sync creates private, peer-to-peer Dropbox, no cloud required, Ars Technica
First Enzyme-Based Memory Created in the Lab, MIT Technology Review
Your Body Does Not Want to Be an Interface, MIT Technology Review
Nano Optical Antennas Could Be Revolutionary, MIT Technology Review
Researchers Develop a Cheap Way to Turn Any LCD into an Interactive Display, MIT Technology Review
U.S. gives big, secret push to Internet surveillance, Politics and Law at CNET News

feeds | grep links > New Version of Grep-like Tool for Source, GPU Powered Database, Calling for a Ban on Killer Robots, and More

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:22:04 +0000

The Eternal Mainframe, Slashdot
Ack 2.0 enhances the “grep for source code”, The H Open at News and Features
Harvard/MIT Student Creates GPU Database, Hacker-Style, Slashdot
Campaigners call for international ban on ‘killer robots’, BBC News
Churnalism: Discover When News Copies from Other Sources, Sunlight Foundation Blog

TCLP 2013-04-22 Rant: The Unexamined Risk of HTML EME

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 01:16:58 +0000

This is a feature cast, an episode of The Command Line Podcast.

The hacker word of the week this week is fritterware.

The feature this week is a rant digging into the risks of a proposal to the W3C for inclusion in the HTML standard, EME, which would bring DRM and all its problems to the core technology underpinning the web.

View the detailed show notes online. You can grab the flac encoded audio from the Internet Archive.

Following Up for the Week Ending 2013-04-21

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:30:05 +0000

The Copyright Monopoly Was Always Intended To Prevent Freedom Of Expression, TorrentFreak
As Bitcoin Soars in Value, Alternative Cryptocurrencies, Such as Litecoin and PPCoin, Also Climb, MIT Technology Review
Internet Activists Win First-Round Victory In Fight Over Anti-Hacking Law, Huffington Post
Netflix coming to HTML5 just as soon as the DRM ducks are in a row, Ars Technica
Adobe says it will contribute to Google’s Blink, The H Open
IRS denies searching emails without warrant, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
Pirate Bay Co-Founder Indicted For Hacking, Fraud, Slashdot
3D-printed canal home takes shape in Amsterdam, BBC News
Intel Releases New OpenCL Implementation for GNU/Linux, Slashdot
CISPA sponsors mull privacy change, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
With Aereo appeal, broadcasters threaten the foundation of locker services, Ars Technica
The Only Thing the Broadcasting Treaty Is Good For Is Crushing Innovation, Electronic Frontier Foundation
WebRTC Update: Our first implementation will be in release soon. Welcome to the Party! But Please Watch Your Head., Mozilla Hacks
Digital Public Library of America Launches, Creative Commons
Authors Guild Shuts Itself Off From Public Criticism, As People Realize It Represents Publishers, Not Authors, Techdirt
Latest CISPA ‘Privacy’ Amendment Is More Of The Same: Minor Changes Dressed Up As Real Solutions, Techdirt
YouTube wins case against Viacom (again), Google Public Policy Blog
First silicon-based, long-lasting nuclear spin qubit created by quantum researchers, ExtremeTech

Quick Security Alerts for the Week Ending 2013-04-21

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:28:02 +0000

Facebook’s Android App Can Now Retrieve Data About What Apps You Use, Slashdot
The bug that caught PayPal with its pants down at The Register, The Register
Google Fixes Three High-Risk Flaws in Chrome OS, threatpost
Linode Hacked, Credit Cards and Passwords Leaked, Slashdot
New security protection, fixes for 39 exploitable bugs coming to Java, Ars Technica
Your Wireless Router – Your Next Big Security Headache, ReadWrite
Firefox ‘death sentence’ threat to TeliaSonera over gov spy claims, The Register
Linode Hacked Through ColdFusion Zero Day, threatpost
Old tricks are new again: Dangerous copy & paste, The H Open
Oracle critical patch plugs 128 security vulns, The Register
Fueled by super botnets, DDoS attacks grow meaner and ever-more powerful, Ars Technica
Law professor makes a case for legally recognizing the Dangers of Surveillance, NetworkWorld
Apple updates Safari and Java 6 support, The H Security
Average DDoS Attack Bandwidth Jumps Eight-Fold In One Quarter, Slashdot
Microsoft rolls out standards-compliant two-factor authentication, Ars Technica
Botched Security Update Cripples Thousands of Computers, Slashdot
Google and the FreeBSD Foundation fund Capsicum development, The H Security
Yes, “design flaw” in 1Password is a problem, just not for end users, Ars Technica
Russian BadNews bug found in Android app store, BBC News
Android Users Get Scammed With In-App Antivirus Ads, Slashdot

feeds | grep links > Internet Archive’s Software Collection, Probabilistic Programming, Adorable Robotic Documentarians, and More

Thomas Gideon — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:22:41 +0000

The Internet Archive Is Now the Largest Collection of Historical Software Online, Slashdot
Random House Dabbles in Interactive Fiction With Free-to-Play Game, Game|Life at Wired.com
What is probabilistic programming?, O’Reilly Radar
Meet the First Digital Generation. Now Get Ready to Play by Their Rules, Wired Magazine at Wired.com
Microsoft’s Open Source Company Is a Year Old. But What Is It?, Wired Enterprise at Wired.com
These Adorable Robots Are Making a Documentary About Humans. Really., Underwire at Wired.com

Following CISPA for 2013-04-16

Thomas Gideon — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:17:14 +0000

IBM executives head to Washington to press lawmakers on cybersecurity bill, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
34 Civil Liberties Organizations Oppose CISPA After Amendments, Electronic Frontier Foundation
CISPA cybersecurity legislation vote due in next 48 hours, The Register
White House threatens veto against CISPA, citing privacy concerns, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
CISPA Sponsor Claims Opposition Is ’14 Year Olds In Their Basement’, Techdirt
CISPA Goes to The Floor for a Vote, Privacy Amendments Blocked, Electronic Frontier Foundation
House Rules Committee Basically Rejects Any CISPA Amendments That Would Protect Privacy, Techdirt
Who Really Opposes CISPA?, Electronic Frontier Foundation