Harvard (Bruce) gets
it.
Cryptographer
and Harvard Scholar – NSA broke Internet’s security for everyone
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on November 19, 2013
Sean
Gallagher, Ars Technica: ”To say that there are a lot of people
who are angry with the National Security Agency (NSA) right now would
be an understatement. But the things that are getting the most
political attention right now—such as the invasion of the privacy
of American citizens and spying on the leaders of American allies—are
just a fraction of the problem, according to cryptographer and
Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society Fellow
Bruce Schneier. At a presentation in a conference room inside the US
Capitol on Friday, Schneier—who has been helping The Guardian
review the trove of documents provided by Snowden—said that in
its haste to “weaponize” the Internet, the NSA has broken its
mechanisms of security. And those breaks—including the
backdoors that the NSA convinced or coerced software developers to
put into the implementations of their encryption and other security
products, are so severe that it is now just a matter of time before
others with less-noble causes than fighting terrorism will be able to
exploit the holes the NSA has created. Schneier said that the
vulnerabilities inserted into security products by the NSA through
its BULLRUN program could easily be exploited by criminals and other
nation-states as well once they are discovered. And the other
attacks and surveillance methods used by the NSA “will be
tomorrow’s doctoral theses and next week’s Science Fair
projects.”
Not sure the FCC
Chairman gets it...
FCC
chairman: US phone system needs Internet makeover
The Federal
Communications Commission is getting ready to dial up an Internet
update to the nation's telephone system.
New FCC
Chairman Tom Wheeler announced Tuesday that the commission will
begin a "diverse set of experiments" next year aimed at
replacing the telephone system's traditional phone lines with
networks that are based on Internet Protocol. While many consumers
already make phone calls on the Internet using voice over IP, which
transmits large amounts of data in packet form, much of the nation's
telephone infrastructure still employs less-efficient analog
technology.
Wheeler, who won Senate
confirmation as the commission's chairman late last month, wrote
in a blog post Tuesday that he expects the commission to vote in
January on a package of recommendations to speed the initiation of
experiments and analysis of their outcomes, as well as consider the
associated legal, policy, and technical issues.
I hope to see more of
these...
Orin Kerr writes:
Yesterday
afternoon, the DNI declassified an 87-page
FISC opinion authored by Judge Kollar-Kotellythat
had allowed a bulk Internet metadata collection under FISA’s
version of the Pen Register statute,50
U.S.C. 1842. In plain English, the government
published a previously-secret opinion that had allowed for the bulk
collection of non-content Internet metadata under a statute that
provides very low levels of privacy protection. The program is now
defunct, but the opinion gives us another chance to analyze the
quality of legal analysis produced by the FISC.
I’ve
read the opinion, and I find its analysis quite strange. In
this post, I’ll explain why I find the opinion a head-scratcher.
Read more on Lawfare.
Keep up, this one could
have consequences. Some highlights from the article...
Just to keep everyone
apprised on developments in the case this month:
LabMD filed a motion
to quash 35 subpoenas that had been issued on one day. And on
November 12, LabMD filed its motion
to dismiss the FTC complaint with prejudice and to stay
administrative proceedings.
… Although much of
their argument mirrors Wyndham’s argument, LabMD also adds the
argument that HIPAA and HITECH control or trump any authority FTC
might have to regulate:
… In addition to
arguing that Congress’s clear intention was that HIPAA (and HITECH)
would control for the health care sector, and not the FTC, LabMD also
argues that data security is a matter for the states:
Here's something from a
very smart guy,talking about a subject I teach using tools he
developed. If I'm lucky, I'll have it figured out in no time.
November 13, 2013
Computational
knowledge. Symbolic programming. Algorithm automation. Dynamic
interactivity. Natural language. Computable documents. The cloud.
Connected devices. Symbolic ontology. Algorithm discovery. These
are all things we’ve been energetically working on—mostly for
years—in the context of Wolfram|Alpha,
Mathematica,
CDF
and so on.
But recently something
amazing has happened. We’ve figured out how to take all these
threads, and all the technology we’ve built, to create something at
a whole different level. The power of what is emerging continues to
surprise me. But already I think it’s clear that it’s going to
be profoundly important in the technological world, and beyond.
Might be a fun writing
assignment...
How
To Create Your Own Parody Facebook & Twitter Conversations
We’ve all seen them
on Reddit, Imgur and elsewhere. Whether it’s hilarious parodies of
historical events as if they took place on Facebook — like World
War II — or fictional characters taking to
the social network — like the characters of Harry
Potter — it’s an incredibly entertaining
way to bring history and creativity to the world of Facebook or
Twitter. So what if you wanted to do this yourself?
There’s quite a few
tools out there for doing just this — some of which will require
you to login with your Facebook account, and others that don’t
require any sign up at all. To find out more about how to create
parody social media conversations, check out out the list below. If
you need inspiration on how you can actually put these services to
good use, check out which historical
events are actually playing out on Twitter already.
An example of the dying
art of cursive writing.
Google
displays Lincoln's handwritten Gettysburg Address
… Five
known copies of the speech in Lincoln's handwriting exist,
according to a Web site devoted to the 16th president. Google's
new exhibit offers a look at one of those
speeches, known as the Bancroft Copy.
Through Google's online
exhibit, you can zoom in on every word of
Lincoln's speech. The exhibit also displays the letter that the
President wrote to George Bancroft, an American historian and
diplomat, who had requested a copy of the speech. Documents
and images about the Gettysburg Address
complete the exhibit in an attempt to provide insight into one of the
most celebrated speeches in American history.
(Related) Now days, it
might have been a PowerPoint.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/the-gettysburg-address-as-a-powerpoint/281636/
The
Gettysburg Address as a Powerpoint
(Related)
How
the Media Would Have Covered the Gettysburg Address
For all my students.
Essential
steps for securing your phone, and what else can be done to foil
thieves
Did I mention that we
have a 3D printer? I'm looking for a Lamborghini model...
– Meet 3D Builder,
the best place to view, prepare, and print your 3D models on Windows
8.1-ready 3D printers. 3D Builder is a fun, easy to use, free app
that helps you turn bits into atoms and explore the exciting world of
3D printing. It also includes a library of example 3D objects
to get you started.
I read a lot of PDFs,
so I need to try this.
– makes it easy to
organize and manage your digital library. You’re on the move –
and with PDF Stash so are your documents. Never worry about not
having the document you need on your current computer. PDF Stash
automatically keeps track of your place as you read and will resume
where you left off. Bookmark important pages and organize your
documents into folders for quick access.
(Related) A 3D
marketplace?
Like, because, dude!
English
Has a New Preposition, Because Internet
Let's start with the
dull stuff, because pragmatism.
The word "because,"
in standard English usage, is a subordinating
conjunction, which means that it connects two
parts of a sentence in which one (the subordinate) explains the
other. In that capacity, "because" has
two distinct forms. It can be followed either
by a finite clause (I'm reading
this because [I saw it on the web]) or by a
prepositional phrase (I'm reading this
because [of the web]). These two forms are,
traditionally, the only ones to which "because" lends
itself.
I mention
all that ... because language. Because evolution. Because there
is another way to use "because."
Linguists are calling it the
"prepositional-because."
Or the "because-noun."
You probably know it
better, however, as explanation by way of Internet—explanation that
maximizes efficiency and irony in equal measure. I'm late
because YouTube. You're reading this because procrastination. As
the linguist Stan Carey delightfully
sums it up: "'Because' has become a
preposition, because grammar."
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