Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Oh darn! That email was from Snowden? I could have been infamous!
Rolling Stone – Snowden and Greenwald: The Men Who Leaked the Secrets
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on December 8, 2013
Snowden and Greenwald: The Men Who Leaked the Secrets by Janet Reitman, December 4, 2013. This story is from the December 19th, 2013 – January 2nd, 2014 issue of Rolling Stone.
“Early one morning last December, Glenn Greenwald opened his laptop, scanned through his e-mail, and made a decision that almost cost him the story of his life. A columnist and blogger with a large and devoted following, Greenwald receives hundreds of e-mails every day, many from readers who claim to have “great stuff.” Occasionally these claims turn out to be credible; most of the time they’re cranks. There are some that seem promising but also require serious vetting. This takes time, and Greenwald, who starts each morning deluged with messages, has almost none. “My inbox is the enemy,” he told me recently… It would take until May, six months after the anonymous stranger reached out, before Greenwald would hear from him again, through a friend, the documentarian Laura Poitras, whom the source had contacted, suggesting she and Greenwald form a partnership. In June, the three would meet face to face, in a Hong Kong hotel room, where Edward Snowden, the mysterious source, would hand over many thousands of top-secret documents: a mother lode laying bare the architecture of the national-security state. It was the “most serious compromise of classified information in the history of the U.S. intelligence community,” as former CIA deputy director Michael Morell said, exposing the seemingly limitless reach of the National Security Agency, and sparking a global debate on the use of surveillance – ostensibly to fight terrorism – versus the individual right to privacy. And its disclosure was also a triumph for Greenwald’s unique brand of journalism.”


Not new, but something for my Ethical Hackers t build their “targeted surveillance” folder.
Password Filters [0] are a way for organizations and governments to enforce stricter password requirements on Windows Accounts than those available by default in Active Directory Group Policy. It is also fairly documented on how to Install and Register Password Filters [1].
… For National CCDC earlier this year (2013), I created an installer and "evil pass filter" that basically installed itself as a password filter and any time any passwords changed it would store the change to a log file locally to the victim (in clear text) as well as issue an HTTP basic auth POST to a server I own with the username and password.


So I can take my James Bond Commemorative Model Walther PPK, break it down , scan it, and print a dozen new ones! “Q” couldn't do it better!
Holiday Shopping List: For Those Who Live At The Bleeding Edge Of Tech
MakerBot Digitizer ($1400)
3D printers are so last week. Doesn’t everyone have one now? What the avant-garde 3D modeller is using this week is the MakerBot Digitizer. Put your hand-sculpted creation, or hard-to-find part on the turntable and generate a 3D model of it that you can feed to your dusty 3D printer. Now we’re duplicating!
The resulting file is ready-to-go for the MakerBot 3D printers, but can also be used in most 3D modelling software as well. This gives you the opportunity to improve upon the original and create something no one else has. Perfect for the DIY enthusiast, engineer, prototyper, industrial designer; anyone who wants to make cool 3D stuff. Want to learn more about 3D printing? Joel Lee’s, “What Is 3D Printing And How Exactly Does It Work?” article is for you!


For my students... Many Firefox (and Chrome) tools. I'll list a couple.
Turn Your Browser Into A Supercharged Workspace With These Simple Steps
… Writing & Editing
MarkDown Editor presents a clean and easy-to-use plain-text writing environment with Markdown support. You can display the Markdown content and the corresponding HTML output in adjacent vertical or horizontal panes. The plugin also has features to hide the HTML panel, apply external CSS, and export content to HTML.
For Chrome users: Write Space, Writer
… Reading Feeds
Bamboo Feed Reader and NewsFox are a couple of good extensions for reading and subscribing to RSS feeds. If you’re a Feedly user, you can install Feedly’s Firefox extension instead. There is also a Chrome extension for Feedly.
For Chrome users: Read Saikat’s post on excellent RSS extensions for Chrome


...and for my programming students.
10 Web Resources For Learning How To Code


Global Warming! Global Warming! (Because I haven't tweaked Al Gore in a while.)
Antarctica Sets Cold Record of -135.8 Degrees
… Feeling chilly? Here's cold comfort: You could be in East Antarctica which new data says set a record for soul-crushing cold.
Try 135.8 degrees Fahrenheit below zero; that's 93.2 degrees below zero Celsius, which sounds only slightly toastier. Better yet, don't try it. That's so cold scientists say it hurts to breathe.
A new look at NASA satellite data revealed that Earth set a new record for coldest temperature recorded. It happened in August 2010 when it hit -135.8 degrees. Then on July 31 of this year, it came close again: -135.3 degrees.


I had a huge collection of these maps as a kid.
National Geographic Maps Now Online
National Geographic has put 500 of its 800 maps online thanks to a partnership with Google. The maps vary in nature, with some featuring historic data, others being for travelers and adventurers. All are available on Google’s Maps Engine platform and can be found through the directory.


Might be something for my website students...
– is an easy tool for web designers. With the help of the site, you can present your projects in a browser for free. It’s all very easy – all you have to do is to drag and drop your project to the window, then the Webprojector will do the rest for you. The system will automatically upload the project onto the server and prepare a link under which you and your clients will be able to view and comment it.


This is more impressive than anything my congressmen are doing. Good on ya, Connor!
6-year-old tries to save NASA
… Connor Johnson has wanted to be an astronaut since he was three. When he learned that congress was threatening his future prospects to be a scientist or astronaut with NASA by cutting NASA's funding, he decided to do something about it.
… His family helped him start a petition. Although he did have some guidance, Johnson constructed the petition ideas on his own.
… If you would like to help out our little astronaut friend by signing his petition please visit: http://1.usa.gov/1hFmpNA

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