The Command Line

Following Up for the Week Ending 5/20/2012

Thomas Gideon — Sun, 20 May 2012 19:57:07 +0000

Unblocking The Pirate Bay The Hard Way Is Fun For Geeks, TorrentFreak
Pirate Party gaining strength in Germany, The Local via Slashdot
Google guilty of infringement in Oracle trial; future legal headaches loom, Ars Technica
Al Franken questions Comcast XBox streaming as net neutrality violation, Post Tech at The Washington Post
Google breached Oracle’s Java copyright, US jury finds, BBC News
Google Calls for Mistrial After Jury Says Android Stole From Java, Wired Enterprise at Wired.com
CISPA Sponsor Warns Bill Is Needed Because China’s Chinese Hackers From China Are Stealing All-American Secrets (China!), Techdirt
‘ACTA is dead,’ says Europe’s digital doyenne, The Register
Government asks: when can we shut down wireless service?, Ars Technica
ACTA Update XV, Open Enterprise
Benkler on the SOPA & ACTA Protests, Michael Geist
Seized site’s lawyer: US breaking the law by taking domain names, Ars Technica
After SOPA And ACTA, Now TPP Starts To Fall Apart, Techdirt
Iconic Piracy Suit Against Google Dismissed, Despite $25,000 Bounty, TorrentFreak
Netherlands becomes first EU nation to enshrine Net Neutrality in law, Boing Boing
Key Ruling In The Fight Over Artists Getting Their Copyrights Back Suggests The Labels May Be In Big Trouble, Techdirt
Verizon Refuses to Identify Alleged BitTorrent Pirates, TorrentFreak
Oracle to pursue longshot claim for copyright damages, Ars Technica
DNSCrypt arrives for Windows, The H Open Source: News and Features
Top judge: ditching software patents a “bad solution”, Ars Technica
‘First Base’ In Greek Courts For ISP-Level Blocking, Slashdot

Quick Security Alerts for the Week Ending 5/20/2012

Thomas Gideon — Sun, 20 May 2012 19:56:30 +0000

Flash 11.3 to bring protected mode for Firefox, The H Security: News and Features
New Exploit Kit RedKit Discovered in Wild, threatpost
Apple patches serious security holes in iOS devices, ZDNet
OS X plain text password flaw has been around for 3 months and counting, Ars Technica
Attackers target unpatched PHP bug allowing malicious code execution (Updated), Ars Technica
Node.js update fixes information disclosure vulnerability, The H Security: News and Features
PHP Group Set to Release Another Patch for CVE-2012-1823 Flaw, threatpost
Adobe Patches 13 Flaws in Photoshop, Flash Professional and Other Apps, threatpost
Microsoft patches 23 Windows flaws, warns of risk of code execution attacks, ZDNet
Travelers Cautioned When Using Hotel Internet Connections Abroad, threatpost
Thousands of Twitter passwords allegedly exposed, The H Security: News and Features
Apple releases OS X Lion 10.7.4, fixes FileVault password bug, ZDNet
Apple closes numerous holes in Mac OS X and Safari, The H Security: News and Features
Apple Security Update Blocks Old Flash Versions, threatpost
New .Secure Global TLD Proposed, threatpost
Photoshop, Illustrator users must pay for critical security updates, ZDNet
Adobe backs down, will release patches for critical holes, The H Security: News and Features
Smart Phone Privacy App, Schneier on Security
Gmail’s Security Hole Could Lead to Mass Harvesting of Accounts, Technology Review
California Considers DNA Privacy Law, Slashdot

Schedule for Balticon 46

Thomas Gideon — Sat, 19 May 2012 20:04:25 +0000

It approached faster than I realized but it is now less than a week to the official start of programming for Balticon 46. I look forward to returning as a program recipient on the new media track. As far as I can tell, I am scheduled for five panels this year.

The Impact of Social Media on Politics
Saturday, 9:00AM in D (I am assuming that is Salon D)
Copyright Update
Saturday, noon in Chesapeake (the first time my copyright panel has been in the big room)
Art of Celebrity Interview for Podcasting
Sunday, 9:00AM in Chesapeake
Home Brewing
Sunday, 7:00OM in Chesapeake (also first time for this reprise panel in the big room)
Open Source Podcasting: From A to Z
Sunday, 10:00PM in Derby

I still have not received any official confirmation of my schedule from the organizers. I will do my best to prepare, regardless.

We usually like to hold our room party, BYOBS (Bring Your Own Beer and Story) on Sunday night. This will be the third year we’ll be holding this gathering of home brewers and beer lovers at the convention. My dear friend and collaborator on the Living Proof Brew Cast, John Taylor Williams, and I have held this unofficial event as an extension of our participation on behalf of that podcast. Come and find either John or I for details of where and when we’ll hold BYOBS.

I will not be convening the FLOSS birds of a feather Friday night this year. I am simply too exhausted. But any of my listeners or fellows techs should stay tuned to my social media accounts for updates on where I can be found between panels and other events.

Freedom to Connect on Monday and Tuesday

Thomas Gideon — Sat, 19 May 2012 19:57:34 +0000

Just a reminder that I am volunteering, to help out with the audio/visual support, for Freedom to Connect this Monday and Tuesday at the AFI in Silver Spring, MD. I am not speaking but the roster of those that are is incredible. If all goes to plan, there should be live video stream of the panels; check the site for full details.

There will be no new podcast this Monday night because of this event and Balticon coming up right after.

TCLP 2012-05-14 How This Hacker Sees Public Policy

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:33:03 +0000

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

I will not be headed to OSCon in July after all but will be keeping my other event and travel commitments for the rest of this month, and June.

The hacker word of the week this week is fork.

The feature this week is another monologue trying to bring to the surface my hackish assumptions, this time on how I see public policy, especially my own experiences in cultivating a second career recently in this space.

View the detailed show notes online. You can 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 5/13/2012

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:18:39 +0000

Unblocking The Pirate Bay The Hard Way Is Fun For Geeks, TorrentFreak
Pirate Party gaining strength in Germany, The Local via Slashdot
Google guilty of infringement in Oracle trial; future legal headaches loom, Ars Technica
Al Franken questions Comcast XBox streaming as net neutrality violation, Post Tech at The Washington Post
Google breached Oracle’s Java copyright, US jury finds, BBC News
Google Calls for Mistrial After Jury Says Android Stole From Java, Wired Enterprise at Wired.com
CISPA Sponsor Warns Bill Is Needed Because China’s Chinese Hackers From China Are Stealing All-American Secrets (China!), Techdirt
‘ACTA is dead,’ says Europe’s digital doyenne, The Register
Government asks: when can we shut down wireless service?, Ars Technica
ACTA Update XV, Open Enterprise
Benkler on the SOPA & ACTA Protests, Michael Geist
Seized site’s lawyer: US breaking the law by taking domain names, Ars Technica
After SOPA And ACTA, Now TPP Starts To Fall Apart, Techdirt
Iconic Piracy Suit Against Google Dismissed, Despite $25,000 Bounty, TorrentFreak
Netherlands becomes first EU nation to enshrine Net Neutrality in law, Boing Boing
Key Ruling In The Fight Over Artists Getting Their Copyrights Back Suggests The Labels May Be In Big Trouble, Techdirt
Verizon Refuses to Identify Alleged BitTorrent Pirates, TorrentFreak
Oracle to pursue longshot claim for copyright damages, Ars Technica
DNSCrypt arrives for Windows, The H Open Source: News and Features
Top judge: ditching software patents a “bad solution”, Ars Technica

Quick Security Alerts for the Week Ending 5/13/2012

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:18:09 +0000

Flash 11.3 to bring protected mode for Firefox, The H Security: News and Features
New Exploit Kit RedKit Discovered in Wild, threatpost
Apple patches serious security holes in iOS devices, ZDNet
OS X plain text password flaw has been around for 3 months and counting, Ars Technica
Attackers target unpatched PHP bug allowing malicious code execution (Updated), Ars Technica
Node.js update fixes information disclosure vulnerability, The H Security: News and Features
PHP Group Set to Release Another Patch for CVE-2012-1823 Flaw, threatpost
Adobe Patches 13 Flaws in Photoshop, Flash Professional and Other Apps, threatpost
Microsoft patches 23 Windows flaws, warns of risk of code execution attacks, ZDNet
Travelers Cautioned When Using Hotel Internet Connections Abroad, threatpost
Thousands of Twitter passwords allegedly exposed, The H Security: News and Features
Apple releases OS X Lion 10.7.4, fixes FileVault password bug, ZDNet
Apple closes numerous holes in Mac OS X and Safari, The H Security: News and Features
Apple Security Update Blocks Old Flash Versions, threatpost
New .Secure Global TLD Proposed, threatpost
Photoshop, Illustrator users must pay for critical security updates, ZDNet
Adobe backs down, will release patches for critical holes, The H Security: News and Features
Smart Phone Privacy App, Schneier on Security

feeds | grep links > Simple Privacy Icons, Meta-analysis of File Sharing Studies, Twitter Fights Subpoenaes of OWS Info, and More

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:28:32 +0000

Privacy simplified, Jesse Brown, Technology at Macleans.ca
Meta-analysis of studies on file-sharing, Boing Boing
Twitter fights government subpoena demanding Occupy Wall Street protester info, Ars Technica
Mozilla Shrinks Memory Use in Firefox Add-Ons, Webmonkey at Wired.com
Ubuntu releases open hardware VGA Switch, The H Open Source: News and Features
New Proposal Could End the CSS Prefix Madness, Webmonkey at Wired.com

feeds | grep links > 3D Printed Circuit Boards, Magnetic Bacteria Building Bio-computers, National Experiment in Digital Currency, and More

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:57:00 +0000

3D-Printed Circuit Boards, For Solder-Free Printable Electronics, Slashdot
Magnetic bacteria may help build future bio-computers, BBC News
Minting the Digital Currency of the Future, Threat Level at Wired.com
Microsoft creates Kinect-like system using your laptop’s built-in speaker & microphone, ExtremeTech
Pirate island attracts more than 100 startup tenants, The Register
IEEE Approves Revision of Wireless LAN Standard, Slashdot

TCLP 2012-05-07 News

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:08:46 +0000

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

I will be at Freedom to Connect later this month, then at Balticon. In June, I will be in London from the 7th to the morning of the 19th. I will be taking a brief side trip to Paris the 10th through the 12th. In July, I will be at OSCon. Come and find me at any of these events or places or feel free to send a note if you are interested in a meet up.

This week’s security alerts are a proof of concept Android trojan that uses motion sensors to capture sensitive data and one of the first responses to the recent string of SSL concerns spins up.

In this week’s news, millions of Harvard library catalog records made openly available, first legal focus hackathon, single layer silicon compound could beat graphene to market, and 1Gbps wireless network made with plain old red and green laser pointers.

Following up this week CISPA veto recommended by White House and mainstream media ponders how The Pirate Party may be changing politics itself.

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 5/7/2012

Thomas Gideon — Sun, 06 May 2012 21:11:09 +0000

Facebook and many other sites also bypass Internet Explorer privacy controls, New Web Order via Groklaw NewsPicks
TV Now is the latest Internet-based DVR service to find courtroom trouble, Ars Technica
Microsoft backs away from CISPA support, citing privacy, Security and Privacy at CNET News via Groklaw NewsPicks
Report Says Engineer Designed Google Street View with Payload Data Gathering in Mind, threatpost
The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs, court rules, BBC News
Microsoft denies softening of CISPA support, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
Bill banning employer Facebook snooping introduced in Congress, Ars Technica
European Pirate Party shares copyright reform alternative to ACTA, Ars Technica
Is the TPP Foundering?, Michael Geist
Flashback ‘hijacked’ Google keyword searches, BBC News
Oracle and the End of Programming As We Know It, Slashdot
Comcast Praises Voluntary BitTorrent Crackdown Agreement, TorrentFreak
BART Defends Mobile Service Shutdown, Slashdot
iiNet wins copyright case against TV firms, news.smh.com.au
Markey ‘deeply concerned’ about police tracking of mobile phones, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
Broadcasters drop suit to block ‘white space’ devices, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
Oracle-Google jury reaches verdict on all but one Java copyright question, Ars Technica
EU Commissioner Kroes: ‘We Are Now Likely To Be In A World Without SOPA And Without ACTA’, Techdirt
Diamonds Used To Increase Density, Performance of Phase-Change Memory, Slashdot

Quick Security Alerts for the Week Ending 5/6/2012

Thomas Gideon — Sun, 06 May 2012 21:10:39 +0000

Mozilla to auto-upgrade Firefox 3.6 users to version 12, The H Security: News and Features
Flashback bots search Twitter for controllers, hit Snow Leopard hardest, Ars Technica
Skype divulges user IP addresses, The H Security: News and Features
Five Shocking Statistics From The Latest Internet Threat Report, threatpost
How to Disconnect from Web Tracking, ReadWriteWeb
Release of exploit code puts Oracle Database users at risk of attack, Ars Technica
‘Stand Your Cyberground’ Law: A Novel Proposal for Digital Security, Tech at The Atlantic
What online social networks may know about non-members, phys.org via Groklaw NewsPicks
Chrome 18 update closes high-risk security holes, The H Security: News and Features
Skype leaking user IP addresses, TCP ports, ZDNet
Firefox “security” add-on exposes users’ Web browsing history, Ars Technica
Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft, Ars Technica
Cross-platform malware exploits Java to attack PCs and Macs, ZDNet
Over 1.5 million Visa, MasterCard credit card numbers stolen?, ZDNet
BUSTED: Security Exploit Exposed by Skype “Tool” Not a Hole, ReadWriteWeb
OONI maps internet censorship on a global scale, The H Security: News and Features
New Malware Found Exploiting Mac OS X Snow Leopard, threatpost
Firefox security bug (proxy-bypass) in current TBBs, The Tor Blog
One third of Firefox users vulnerable to known flaws; IE and Chrome continue to gain share, Ars Technica
Android users targeted for the first time in drive-by download attacks, Ars Technica
Serious Remote PHP Bug Accidentally Disclosed, threatpost
Coming Up With Better Ways to Count — and Counter — Botnets, threatpost
Sigrok: open source framework for logic analysers, The H Security: News and Features
Skype knew about IP address security flaw back in 2010, ZDNet
Rogue Firefox extension hijacks browser sessions, ZDNet
Expert Warns That WordPress Autoupdate Feature Used To Infect Blogs With Malware, threatpost
Recent Facebook XSS Attacks Show Increasing Sophistication, Social Hacking
New Tor Browser Bundles (security release), The Tor Blog
PHP Group Releases New Versions, But Patch Doesn’t Fix CVE-2012-1823 Bug, threatpost
A Gaming Replacement for Those Annoying CAPTCHAs, ReadWriteWeb
Adobe warns: Flash Player malware hitting IE on Windows users, Zero Day at ZDNet
Critical Flash Update Fixes Zero-day Flaw, Krebs on Security
Verifying a User By Following the Movements of Their Mouse, Slashdot
Researchers spot new Web malware exploitation kit, Zero Day at ZDNet
Apple security blunder exposes Lion login passwords in clear text, Zero Day at ZDNet

feeds | grep links > DuckDuckGo CrowdSources Plugins, History of Key Design, Judge Rules IP Address is Not a Person, and More

Thomas Gideon — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:21:51 +0000

DuckDuckGo Search Engine Crowdsources Plugins, Webmonkey at Wired.com
The History of Key Design: From Ancient Wooden Rods to the Hotel Keycard, Slate Magazine via Nat’s Four Short Links
Judge: An IP-Address Doesn’t Identify a Person (or BitTorrent Pirate), TorrentFreak
Mozilla Ponders Major Firefox UI Refresh, Slashdot
iOS Dropbox app kerfuffle ends, but highlights confusion about guidelines, Ars Technica
Sandra Day O’Connor backs online game to teach kids about government, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley

feeds | grep links > Stock Exchange for Personal Data, 3D Printed Electromechanical Computer, Intel Response to Raspberry Pi, and More

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:47:01 +0000

A Stock Exchange for Your Personal Data
Technology Review describes what I think superficially is an intriguing idea, of enabling truster operators, brokers, to help those more or less concerned about privacy negotiate prices for their data appropriate to their respective stances. The problem is I don’t think it takes into account longitudinal affects, that is how data may get shared and re-shared well beyond the initial point of exchange. I am concerned at trying to solve issues around controlling data using a market mechanism, especially given how easily a lot of seemingly rational models in the lab are entirely overturned by actual behavior in the real world.
3D Printed Electromechanical Computer
There is something immensely delightful about the use of bleeding edge home 3D printing that MAKE points out in its use to resurrect an earlier form of computing. Since we don’t yet have personal scale printers that can printer mixed materials with the sophistication of electronic circuitry, this can also be thought of as a clever hack, to still produce an object capable of at least rudimentary computation.
Intel bakes palm-sized Core i5 NUC to rival Raspberry Pi • The Register
While the Intel Next Unit of Computing detailed in this article on The Register isn’t directly comparable to the Pi in either its form factor or intended market, I do think it is a pretty strong signal that the Pi is yet another category creating innovation, like the OLPC for netbooks and the iPhone for the modern smart phone. I am excited to see what competition for this new class of computer does in terms of enabling more widespread, accessible and bottom up innovation.
Event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the mysterious Voynich manuscript, Boing Boing
Mozilla Opens Doors on New $3 Million Data Center, Wired Enterprise at Wired.com
Study explains how retailers stop Linux from entering the market, The H Open Source: News and Features

TCLP 2012-04-30 How This Hacker Sees Meritocracy

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:45:18 +0000

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

This month, save for Balticon towards the end, should be pretty quiet.

Listener feedback this week was from Ralph looking for information on Commottion Wireless; Jon, ConFigures and Jim on the meaning of feeling your oats with relation to its original usage; Charles on the question of failure despite feeling your oats; and Daniel who was asking about a podcast on how I produce the podcast.

The hacker word of the week this week is foreground.

The feature this week is another monologue trying to bring to the surface my hackish assumptions, this time on how I see the suggestion of meritocracy in the FLOSS world.

View the detailed show notes online. You can 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.

feeds | grep links > EFF’s Hacker Mailing List, An 8-Bit Computer from Scratch, Dan Bull’s Free Single Climbs Music Charts, and More

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:19:04 +0000

EFF’s hacker mailing list, Boing Boing
Building an 8-Bit Computer From Scratch, MAKE
Dan Bull’s Free Single Hits The Charts, Techdirt
Are pseudonyms “anonymous”?, Tech @ FTC
Researchers build an RGB laser using quantum dots, Ars Technica
10 GHz Optical Transistor Built Out Of Silicon, Technology Review

Following Up for the Week Ending 4/29/2012

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:32:39 +0000

Why a pro-SOPA MPAA technologist changed sides and went to work for ISOC, Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com
Hurt Locker Makers Return to Sue 2,514 BitTorrent Users, TorrentFreak
Is Selling Your Ultraviolet Code Copyright Infringement?, Techdirt
Google acknowledges lobbying on cybersecurity bill CISPA, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
Oracle v. Google Shows the Folly of U.S. Software Patent Law, Wired Enterprise at Wired.com
Obama administration pushes for privacy safeguards in cybersecurity legislation, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
Pay-What-You-Like pricing study is bullish on naming your own price, Boing Boing
Security Experts, Internet Engineers Urge Lawmakers to Drop CISPA, threatpost
Copyright Maximalists Just Won’t Quit: Pushing New Monopoly Rights For Performers Through Sneaky Treaty Agreement, Techdirt
ACTA Update XIV, Open Enterprise
House set to revise CISPA language to add more privacy protection, Ars Technica
Cybersecurity Measure Heads to House Floor Despite Privacy Fears, Threat Level at Wired.com
Tor UK will go DRM-free, too, Boing Boing
Digital Economy Act’s anti-piracy measures are delayed, BBC News
White Space trial: First Cambridge, then… THE WORLD, The Register
Mozilla Considers H264 After WebM Fails To Gain Traction, Slashdot
CISPA passes House despite opposition, Ars Technica
Raspberry Pi programming put to test by computing student, BBC News
UK Digital Economy Act Delayed Till 2014, Slashdot
Pirate Party Presents ACTA Alternative to European Parliament, TorrentFreak
Google has been cleared of wire-tapping violations in connection with the Google Street View WiFi-sniffing scandal., Ars Technica
Two more cybersecurity bills approved in House, The Hill’s Floor Action
Apache OpenOffice Lagging Behind LibreOffice In Features, Slashdot
EU Liberals To Vote Against ACTA; Conservatives Want To ‘Fix’ It, Techdirt

Quick Security Alerts for the Week Ending 4/29/2012

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:30:19 +0000

Does Hashing Make Data “Anonymous”?, Tech @ FTC
Mac Flashback Attack Began With WordPress Blogs, Slashdot
Plumbers of the interwebs vow to kill IP hijacking, The Register
WordPress fixes file upload security problems, The H Open Source: News and Features
Security bug stalls new dot-word TLD land grab AGAIN, The Register
Researchers Find Bug in SMS App That Can Lead to iPhone Exploits, threatpost
New Flashback variant silently infects Macs, ZDNet
Researcher causes Endless Restart Loop on Samsung TVs, threatpost
can now update itself at The H Security: News and Features, Firefox 12 released
New Java Malware Exploits Both Windows And Mac Users, threatpost
OpenSSL Releases New Fix for CVE-2012-2110 ASN1 Bug, threatpost
Thunderbird and SeaMonkey updates arrive, close security holes, The H Security: News and Features
SSH firm aims to untangle crypto key hairball, The Register
Anti-Viral: Facebook Partners with Security Vendors to Stop Malware, Threat Level at Wired.com
Backdoor in industrial networking hardware, The H Security: News and Features
Backdoor Found In Arcadyan-based Wi-Fi Routers, Slashdot
PHP 5.4.1 and PHP 5.3.11 released, The H Security: News and Features
Version 4.0 of Microsoft Security Essentials released, The H Security: News and Features
Attack Mitigation, Schneier on Security
Ghost of HTML5 future: Web browser botnets, The Register
Microsoft squashes Hotmail password hijack bug, The Register
Elgamal, Marlinspike join dream team tackling SSL screw-ups, The Register
The hard drives most likely to expose your data aren’t your own, Ars Technica
Beware of IPv6 security goblins, IETF warns, Ars Technica
Backdoor that threatens power stations to be purged from control system, Ars Technica
SSL Pulse Project Finds Just 10% of SSL Sites Actually Secure, Slashdot

feeds | grep links > Plans for Next Ubuntu, A Look Back to 1980s Computing, C and C++ Possibly Resurging in Popularity, and More

Thomas Gideon — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:14:48 +0000

Theming update planned for Ubuntu 12.10, codenamed Quantal Quetzal, Ars Technica
Look back in Ascii: Computing in the 1980s, The Register Hardware
C/C++ Back On Top of the Programming Heap?, Slashdot
W3C to develop HTML5 and its successor in parallel, The H Open Source: News and Features
Tor Books goes completely DRM-free, Boing Boing
House to vote Friday on CISPA cybersecurity bill, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley

feeds | grep links > User Owned Social Network, Sinclair ZX Spectrum Turns 30, the Rewards of Simple Code, and More

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:05:59 +0000

Zurker – A social network owned by its users, P2P Foundation
Sinclair ZX Spectrum 30th Anniversary, Slashdot
The rewards of simple code, O’Reilly Radar
Vint Cerf: We Knew What We Were Unleashing on the World, Epicenter at Wired.com
Software Engineering Is a Dead-End Career, Says Bloomberg, Slashdot
Mobile Carriers Lobby Against Cellphone Location Privacy Bill, Threat Level at Wired.com

No New Podcast Tonight

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:28:09 +0000

Sorry I failed to write this post earlier. I have been working on a deadline on the day job since over a week ago. I had to work over the weekend, as well, to finish the work on time. Coupled with some family commitments over the last couple of days, I didn’t have the necessary time to finish the writing and recording work for the latest feature cast.

If you really cannot go a week without hearing from me, the good news is I was just on an episode of the new podcast from my employer, The Sidebar (the RSS feed is here). I had a fantastic conversation with a colleague from New America, Constantin Kakaes, one of our Schwartz Fellows.

You can also hear me on the latest episode of the Living Proof brewcast with my regular co-host and the incredibly talented producer, John Taylor Williams. We recorded on an unusual night for us and were inspired to do so largely without a net, as it were.

Now that I have finished the work that kept me from this week’s episode, I should have the necessary time to finish the writing and recording work. The promised discussion of hackish assumptions around meritocracy should only be delayed a week, to this coming Monday.

Following Up for the Week Ending 4/22/2012

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 02:03:56 +0000

Pirate Party Sues Hollywood Backed Group over Pirate Bay Censorship, TorrentFreak
FCC drops Google investigation over WiFi snooping, issues small fine, Ars Technica
US Supreme Court to revisit “first-sale” copyright doctrine, Ars Technica
As ACTA 1.0 Lies Dying, Are G8 Countries Already Working On ACTA 2.0?, Techdirt
Privacy activists launch online campaign against House cybersecurity bill, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
Speak Out Against CISPA: Join The Twitter Campaign And Contact Your Representative, Techdirt
Euro MP David Martin dismisses anti-counterfeiting treaty, BBC News
ACTA Closer To Death: Remaining EU Supporters Contemplate Rejecting It, Techdirt
SOPATrack: an app to show connections between campaign donations and voting records, Boing Boing
Copyright Maximalists Try To Regroup And Figure Out How To ‘Fight Back’ Against The Public, Techdirt
GOP chairman: Google ‘supportive’ of controversial cybersecurity bill CISPA, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
Language Is Free, Google Says in Java Lawsuit, Wired Enterprise at Wired.com
Security researcher unearths plans for Iran’s halal Internet, Ars Technica
CISPA Sponsor Mike Rogers Says Protests Are Mere ‘Turbulence’ On Landing, Techdirt
Copy protection means some DirecTV subs will need new gear to watch HBO, Ars Technica
Analysis: “Cybersecurity” bill endangers privacy rights, Ars Technica
Inventor of the Web condemns UK Internet surveillance plans, Boing Boing
Debunking CISPA supporters’ claims of harmlessness, inevitability, Boing Boing
Judge Grudgingly Awards $3.6 Million In DRM Circumvention Case, Slashdot
CISPA Has NOT Been Fixed; It Could Allow The Gov’t To Effectively Monitor Private Networks, Techdirt
Alan Turing papers on code breaking released by GCHQ, BBC News
iiNet wins High Court trial, The Register
Studios lose landmark anti-piracy suit in Australia, BBC News
Mozilla smartphone to go on sale in ‘late 2012′, BBC News
Germany: YouTube must improve monitoring of copyrighted content, Ars Technica
Dan Bull & Pirate Bay Attack the Music Charts With “Sharing Is Caring”, TorrentFreak

Quick Security Alerts for the Week Ending 4/22/2012

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 02:03:18 +0000

Malware blocks booting, The H Security: News and Features
Oracle accidentally release MySQL DoS proof of concept, The H Security: News and Features
New Mac Malware, SabPub, Used In Targeted Attacks, threatpost
The Cybercrime Wave That Wasn’t, NYTimes.com via Slashdot
ZeroBin provides an encrypted alternative to Pastebin, The H Open Source: News and Features
Google Warns 20,000 Webmasters About ‘Weird Redirects’, threatpost
Warning: Fake Instagram app on Android is malware, ZDNet
Schneier on Security: Password Security at Linode, www.schneier.com
Spoiler alert: Your TV will be hacked, InfoWorld Security Central via Slashdot
Oracle Patches 88 Vulnerabilities, Including Some that Allow Remote Exploits Without Authentication, threatpost
Trojan sneaks into hotel, slurps guests’ credit card data • The Register, The Register
Major OpenSSL Security Issue Found (and Fixed), Slashdot
Mac OS X invulnerability to malware is a myth, says security firm, Ars Technica
New version of OpenSSL closes security holes in ASN1 parser, The H Security: News and Features
Accountability – Not Code Quality- Makes iOS Safer Than Android, threatpost
If You Have a Smart Phone, Anyone Can Now Track Your Every Move, Technology Review

feeds | grep links > Mechanical CPU clock, Twitter’s Stand Against Patent Trolling, Pledgefunding a New Libre Animated Film, and More

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:26:28 +0000

Mechanical CPU Clock, Slashdot
Twitter’s Revolutionary Agreement Lets Original Inventors Stop Patent Trolls, Techdirt
Tube: a free/open pro-grade animated film raising money on Kickstarter, Boing Boing
Going With the Flow: Google’s Secret Switch to the Next Wave of Networking, Wired Enterprise at Wired.com
Programming project comes to primary schools, BBC News
Silent magician Teller files copyright suit over “stolen” shadow trick, Ars Technica
Prince of Persia Source Code Released On Github, Slashdot

TCLP 2012-04-16 News

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:57:22 +0000

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

This week’s security alerts are researchers develop improve quantum encryption and five year old remote code execution hole patched in Samba.

In this week’s news, algorithms for smart sand that sculpts itself, print your own robots being developed, exotics electronics may be possible with topological insulators, and multi-core chips as mini internets.

Following up this week The Pirate Bay promotion attracts over 5,000 artists and Blue Systems steps up to sponsor Kubuntu.

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 4/15/2012

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 01:46:59 +0000

CISPA Bill Lets ISPs Spy On and Report Pirating Subscribers, TorrentFreak
Maryland bans employers from asking for Facebook passwords, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
China’s Internet Society backs online censorship, The Register
Yet Another Copyright Troll Case Kicked Out Of Court, With Excellent Reasoning From The Judge, Techdirt
Researchers find a way to keep quantum memory and logic in synch, Ars Technica
Vote Pirate! Notes from a Pirate Party conference, Ars Technica
New quantum controls use vibrations to control other vibrations, Ars Technica
Iran moving ahead with plans for national intranet, Ars Technica
No more releases for Linux 2.4, The H Open Source: News and Features
Did Congress Really Not Pay Attention To What Happened With SOPA? CISPA Ignorance Is Astounding, Techdirt
Former Chief Tech Policy Officer At MPAA Admits That SOPA Was ‘Not Compatible With The Health Of The Internet’, Techdirt
Iran denies reports that internet will be cut, replaced by “clean, national intranet”, Boing Boing
Why Iran May Never Create a “Closed Internet”, Technology Review
Terms of service violations not a crime, appeals court rules, Ars Technica
Pirate Parties On Course for Historic Election Wins, TorrentFreak
Hotfile’s Most Downloaded Files Are Open Source Software, TorrentFreak
Unhappy With Even Minimal Scrutiny, US Removes Last Pretense Of TPP Transparency, Techdirt
Apple, publishers and ebook pricing – what does it all mean? • The Register, The Register
Dodd backtracks, says anti-piracy bill SOPA is ‘dead’ and ‘gone’, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
EU Rapporteur Deals Major Blow To ACTA: Recommends Rejection By European Parliament, Techdirt
First Raspberry Pi computers to be delivered, BBC News
Netflix never used its $1 million algorithm due to engineering costs, Ars Technica
ACTA Update XIII, Open Enterprise at ComputerWorld UK
Censoring The Pirate Bay is Useless, Research Shows, TorrentFreak
Judge not impressed with government’s arguments against preserving Megaupload data, Ars Technica
Apple: we broke “Amazon’s monopolistic grip” on e-book industry, Ars Technica
New Draft Of CISPA Announced: Some Progress, Still Big Problems, Techdirt

Quick Security Alerts for the Week Ending 4/15/2012

Thomas Gideon — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 01:18:28 +0000

Navy Hires Contractor to Data-Mine Gaming Consoles, threatpost
No human interaction required: AT&T iPhone unlock can be done via iTunes, Ars Technica
When you share with Facebook friends, you share with all the apps they use, Boing Boing
Google Fixes SSL Certificate Error in Chrome, threatpost
Hotel Wi-Fi uses JavaScript injection to modify web sites, The H Security: News and Features
Microsoft warns of ‘limited, targeted attacks’ against Windows vulnerability, ZDNet
Medicaid Hack Update: 500,000 Records and 280,000 SSNs Stolen, Slashdot
Rise of “forever day” bugs in industrial systems threatens critical infrastructure, Ars Technica
No Permissions Android Application Can Harvest, Export Device Data, threatpost
Rogue Ad Attempted to Redirect Wired Readers, Threat Level at Wired.com
Apple developing tool to detect and remove Flashback Trojan, ZDNet
Adobe warns of Reader X security holes, ZDNet
Mosh: Modernizing SSH With IP Roaming, Instant Local Echo, Slashdot
Bad bots: DDoS attacks spike in first quarter, outdoing all of 2011, Ars Technica
Python updates for hash collison DoS problems, Update at The H Security: News and Features
Malicious version of Angry Birds Space spotted in the wild, ZDNet
False Start’s sad demise: Google abandons noble attempt to make SSL less painful, Ars Technica
Stuxnet worm reportedly planted by Iranian double agent using memory stick, Ars Technica
Apple updates Java for a third time, this time with Flashback malware removal, Ars Technica
New ransomware variants spotted in the wild, ZDNet
Tough Love Triumphs: SCADA Vendor Koyo Fixes Basecamp Bugs, threatpost
Mozilla releases to address CVE-2011-3026, Mozilla Security Blog
Malware blocks booting, The H Security: News and Features
New targeted Mac OS X Trojan requires no user interaction, ZDNet
Five OS X security threats that fizzled, Ars Technica
How To Make VPNs Even More Secure, TorrentFreak

feeds | grep links > Why CISPA is Bad, Open Gaming Contest Announced, Privacy Protecting ISP Planned, and More

Thomas Gideon — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:29:15 +0000

CISPA Is A Really Bad Bill, And Here’s Why, Techdirt
Announcing the Liberated Pixel Cup: an epic contest for gaming freedom, Creative Commons
Super-Privacy-Protecting ISP In the Planning, Slashdot
New government report on IP doesn’t say what Big Content thinks it says, Ars Technica
MySQL 5.6 preview introduces a NoSQL interface, The H Open Source: News and Features
Computer Scientists Build Computer Using Swarms of Crabs , Technology Review
Physicists Create First Long-Distance Quantum Link, Wired Science at Wired.com
Open Source Hardware Association Announced!, MAKE

feeds | grep links > Remember Commodore’s Founder on His Passing, Super Charged Neural Networks, The Latest Cream from the demoscene, and More

Thomas Gideon — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:20:00 +0000

Jack Tramiel Remembered: The Legacy of the Commodore Founder and PC Pioneer
Scott M. Fulton, III writing for ReadWriteWeb was the first in my feeds I saw to report the passing of personal computing pioneer and founder of Commodore, Jack Tramiel. Despite the sad occasion for it, Fulton shares an accessible and surprisngly in depth history of the computer, the business and the man. Well worth the read for geeks of a certain age, such as myself, or to share with a generation that will really only ever know these systems via emulation and what is rapidly transforming more into folklore than history.
Computer scientist leads the way to the next revolution in artificial intelligence
Science Daily has a pretty clear description of some surprising research from computer scientist Hava Siegelmann of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The theoretical work in question dates back from 1993, the subsequent effort under way now is attempting to implement this “Super-Turing” computation into practical form. I can’t tell if this is an incremental or revolutionary leap forward but it seems to be part of the trajectory of artificial neural networks, one of the more promising sub-disciplines of machine intelligence. The article includes a fine and important distinction, that the machine in question trades off the sort of brute, mechanical calculation for which we rely on classical Turing machines in its quest to produce a more general reasoning intelligence that could have a wide variety of complementary applications.
Demoscene: 64k Intros At Revision Demoparty
Slashdot reminds us that the hackerly pastime of bumming code, of squeezing as much effect out of as little code as possible is very much alive despite the ever increasing capacities for computation invading ever widget around us. They point to a recent event from the demo scene that also embodies a certain ethos of constrained creativity, producing noteworthy examples that astonish despite coming in under 64kb in compiled form.
World Bank stakes leadership position by announcing Open Access Policy and launching Open Knowledge Repository under Creative Commons, Creative Commons
Copper-Graphene Nanocomposite Cools Electronics Faster & Cheaper, Slashdot
CISPA is SOPA 2.0: petition to stop it, Boing Boing

Following Up for the Week Ending 4/8/2012

Thomas Gideon — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:28:03 +0000

EFF Files Brief To Allow Users Access To Their MegaUpload Files, Slashdot
Hollywood’s Selectable Output Control: has it gone from FUD to dud?, Ars Technica
Version 4.0 – License draft ready for public comment!, Creative Commons
Champagne at CSIRO after WiFi patent settlement, The Register
Oz to review copyright law for digital age, The Register
Did The White House call for a new SOPA?, Techdirt
“Six Strikes” Copyright Alert system names surprisingly good advisors, Ars Technica
Oracle/Google settlement talks fail, Java patent trial to start April 16, Ars Technica
Forget SOPA, you should be worried about this cybersecurity bill, Techdirt
OS/2 turns 25, ZDNet
FTC fines RockYou $250,000 for storing user data in plain text, ZDNet
Megaupload defendants get Internet access back; Kim Dotcom allowed to record an album, Techdirt
MPAA Says Letting Anyone Access Data On Megaupload Servers Would Represent Infringement, Techdirt
Spanish ‘SOPA’: 79 site takedown requests in first month, TorrentFreak
Dutch Pirateparty refuses order to take down proxy, Slashdot
Canada’s warrantless spying bill is coming back, and it’s worse than before, Boing Boing
Consumer Reports survey confirms that we’re worried about online privacy, The Consumerist via BoingBoing
Programming the Raspberry Pi, MAKE
The Supreme Court to rule on monsanto seed patents, Slashdot
Google and Viacom: YouTube copyright lawsuit back on, BBC News
Dodd says SOPA can live again, The Hill’s Hillicon Valley
The story behind Australia’s CSIRO Wi-Fi claims, Slashdot
Google glasses face serious hurdles, augmented-reality experts say, Gadget Lab at Wired.com
ACTA update XII, Open Enterprise at ComputerWorld UK
Viacom v. YouTube ruling is a bummer for Google and the UGC community, Ars Technica
Where TPP goes beyond ACTA — and how it shows us the future of IP enforcement, Techdirt
Update on Wayland and X11 support, Slashdot
Raspberry Pi passes EU electromagnetic compatibility testing, Slashdot
HTML5 roundup: Mozilla demos standards-based video chat in Firefox, Ars Technica