The US government, in the persons of the FBI and Department of Justice, has been claiming that new levels of iPhone encryption turn those phones into “warrant-proof” zones, and that shouldn’t be allowed. But in that case, we have to make sure nothing else is a warrant-proof zone, either. Which means all of these things: The […]
Tag Archives: news
How Do We Stop the Spying?
Friday, September 6th, 2013 – 1:49 pm
I should really write something about the ongoing — and increasingly horrifying — revelations of NSA spying. The latest round of news basically boils down to: The NSA can now say, “I’m in ur crypto readin ur comms — all of them!” Every time I try to write about this, my heart pounds faster and I feel overwhelmed by sorrow, […]
Can jQuery Put Pressure On WebKit to Fix Bugs?
Sunday, February 17th, 2013 – 12:45 pm
If you didn’t already know that Opera Software decided to toss its Presto rendering engine in favor of WebKit, just stop reading this post right now and go catch up on the past week of news in the world of web development and browsers. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. Assuming you did already know that, you should […]
The Problem With “Objectify A Man In Tech Day”
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 – 8:46 am
Update: While putting the finishing touches on this post, I found out that its creator is cancelling Objectify Day, for a host of very good reasons. I think much of what I wrote here can still be useful, so I’m posting this piece anyway. I’m glad to see that the purpose I had in mind […]
Google+ Doesn’t Want “Real” Names. They Want WASPonyms.
Friday, August 19th, 2011 – 7:52 pm
Three pieces of news lately about Google+ make it clear that when Google claims they want you to use your “real” name, it’s a load of hooey. First off, a legally mononymous Australian journalist named Stilgherrian was told he couldn’t use that name — his actual, legal name — on Google+. He was not at all pleased, […]
COICA Is Dead, Long Live the PROTECT IP Act
Thursday, May 12th, 2011 – 8:34 pm
And by “long live the PROTECT IP Act”, I really mean, “let’s kill the PROTECT IP Act, as quickly and as dead as possible”. [Update: At least one petition to the US Congress opposing this bill can be found at Demand Progress; I will update with others as I find out about them.] Back when COICA was winding its […]
About WikiLeaks, DDoSes, Rape, and Justice
Monday, December 27th, 2010 – 2:44 pm
Why I’m In Favor of WikiLeaks’ Professed Ideals and Aims I am not a fan of government secrecy. Maybe some things should be kept secret, but by and large? Our government has overused that excuse to the point of absurdity. We can no longer trust the government to keep its citizens informed about what it’s […]
Facebook and Privacy
Saturday, May 15th, 2010 – 2:22 pm
Okay, so I’m a little late to the party in posting this. All the professional bloggers have already written about it, while I’ve been busy with my day job. Nonetheless, something that’s been on my mind since the beginning of the week, when it would have been timely: I think Facebook has now hit its […]
Does Wanting Privacy Make You Evil?
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 – 4:37 pm
According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” This is the same stupid excuse we always hear from people who want to invade everyone’s privacy, and I’m sick of it. Incidentally, we need a good term […]
Palm Is Lying, Not Just Spying
Friday, August 14th, 2009 – 12:48 pm
So, Palm was recently caught spying on its users. Major kudos, by the way, to Joey Hess, who initially broke this story. For those who haven’t kept up, various other news outlets and blogs have also been reporting on it. Palm’s response to this problem is a single paragraph of corporate PR-speak: Palm takes privacy […]