Show Notes – February 23rd, 2015

Hacker Claims Feds Hit Him With 44 Felonies When He Refused to Be an FBI Spy – wired

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/hacker-claims-feds-hit-44-felonies-refused-fbi-spy/

Don’t Want Your Laptop Tampered With? Just Add Glitter Nail Polish – wired

http://www.wired.com/2013/12/better-data-security-nail-polish

Spies Can Track You Just by Watching Your Phone’s Power Use – wired

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/powerspy-phone-tracking

 The Great SIM Heist How Spies Stole the Keys to the Encryption Castle – Firstlook.org

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/19/great-sim-heist/

MakeUseOf.com
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10 Networking Terms You Probably Never Knew, And What They Mean We live in an interconnected, super-networked world. New technologies constantly appear on the market and, unless you constantly read networking, computing or hacker news, you may find terminologies floating around that you don’t understand. Here we’ll explore 10 common networking terms, what they mean and where you are likely to encounter them. WLAN A Wireless Local Area Network links two or more
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MakeUseOf.com
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How To Beat Internet Trolls at Their Own Game There’s a certain subset of people on the Internet who like messing with people just for the sake of doing it. We call them trolls. In many cases, a little trolling can be funny and and kind of entertaining. In some cases, it goes too far, and leads to real world repercussions. So, what are you to do when faced with an Internet troll? It’s a topic we’ve covered before at MakeUseOf when we talked a
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Lifehacker
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Five Best Weather Web Sites Whether you’re heading out around town or you’re planning a long-distance trip, you probably want to know what the weather will be like when you get where you’re going—or later that day. A good, reliable weather site or service can tell you, in useful, accurate terms, and this week we’re looking at five of the best, based on your nominations. Earlier in the week we asked you to tell us which weat
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Gizmodo
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This Japanese Robot Feeds You Tomatoes While You Run Okay, it’s not exactly a robot—but I bet it’s still the craziest thing you’ve seen all day. Japanese juice and ketchup company Kagome built a freaking wearable tomato dispenser for a runner at the Japan Marathon this weekend. The video pretty much speaks for itself:What’s really going on here? Believe it or not, it’s a PR stunt to promote tomatoes over bananas. Dole Japan has sponsored the Japan M
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Women Reading
rainydayscoffeeandbooks:In Barnes and Nobles in Union Square,… rainydayscoffeeandbooks:In Barnes and Nobles in Union Square, NYC
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Gizmodo
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Your Phone’s Battery Use Lets Spies Track Your Movements Spies and cops can use your smartphone to track your movements. That’s no mystery—most smartphones come with a GPS chip that makes it pretty damned simple. So if you don’t want to be tracked, you just turn off the GPS feature, right? Unfortunately, there is another way prying eyes can follow your movements: through your Android phone’s battery. A team of security researchers from Stanford and the
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Google News
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Health-care tax error affects 800000 – The Seattle Times USA TODAYHealth-care tax error affects 800000The Seattle TimesThe mistake could prove to be a hardship, especially for the low-income workers who qualified for subsidized insurance policies and may be counting on tax refunds — but now must wait weeks to file their returns…. By ROBERT PEAR. The New York Times.Health-portal error to affect 800000 filersNew woes for HealthCare.gov: Wrong tax info s
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Boing Boing
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Revenge porn shitweasel pleads guilty, admits he hacked victims’ accounts Michael from Muckrock writes, “After months of legal wrangling, Hunter Moore, who ran ‘revenge porn’ website Isanyoneup, has agreed to a plea deal that will see him serve a minimum of two years and up to seven years in jail, as well as up to $500,000 in fines.” Read the rest
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Gizmodo
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A History of Internet Spying, Part 2 How long have intelligence agencies been keeping tabs on the internet, and what role did these agencies play in creating the internet we use today? For the most part, these kinds of questions have been relegated to comments sections on random blogs and the occasional tweet from researchers. We’re hoping to remedy that in whatever small way we can, starting with a look at the 1960s and 70s. This i
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Lenovo Laptop Owners Beware: Your Device May Have Preinstalled Malware Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo has admitted that laptops shipped to stores and consumers in late 2014 had malware preinstalled. You might want to read that again. A major manufacturer with $38.70 billion sales in 2014 alone, has been selling computers that are actively invading their user’s privacy, enabling man in the middle attacks and basically undermining trust. Meet Superfish. Actually,
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Lifehacker
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Used Electric Vehicles are Finally Here Tesla is facing the best kind of problem an automaker can have —they can’t produce enough cars to meet the demand. That’s especially impressive when you consider the Model S starts at over $70,000. Other manufacturers aren’t quite as lucky as Tesla, but overall the market for EVs (Electric Vehicles) and PHEVs (Plug-In Hybrids) is growing at a steady clip. The world is getter greener, and we’re not
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Engadget
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VLC’s popular media player will soon support Chromecast The next big release of VLC’s do-it-all media player will soon support Chromecast, according to a recent changelog. The media player is widely used across platforms, and version 3.0 has fans drooling with promised features like improved support for Y…
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DailyTech Main News Feed
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Quick Note: Google Translate Helps Irish Paramedics Deliver a Baby Mother was a Congolese immigrant and spoke only Swahili fluently; fortunately Google had a solution during her roadside delivery
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Gizmodo
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Why Did WNYC Delete Its Podcast on the Male “Expert” on Women in Tech? An episode of NPR’s On the Media podcast TLDR was unceremoniously removed from the On the Media website today, and people are not at all happy. Rightly so. The TLDR episode, part of NPR program On the Media, featured tech blogger Amelia Greenhall criticizing male “women in tech expert” Vivek Wadhwa. Greenhall explained how Wadhwa has come to dominate discussions of women in tech by sett
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MakeUseOf.com
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Future Video Game AIs Will Seriously Freak You Out Let’s be honest: video game AI (artificial intelligence) isn’t all that
Posted by lena on February 23rd, 2015 | No Comments Posted in Uncategorized

Show Notes – February 16th, 2015

Due to a cold instead of talking too much Lena decided to play a bunch of interesting TED talks for tonights show. She choose the theme of love, intimacy and the internet in honor of Valentines Day.

Posted by lena on February 16th, 2015 | No Comments Posted in Uncategorized

Show Notes – January 19th, 2015

Google opens its domain registration service to everyone in the US

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/13/7538197/google-domains-now-available-to-everyone-in-united-states

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3rd Annual Black Comic Book Festival

http://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2014/01/17/3rd-annual-black-comic-book-festival

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Mike Street  is calling in at 7:30p of @MrMikeStreet on twitter and Head of Blacks In Technology

–

Other News –

 

How This Teen Turned Her High School Internship Into A Game Design Career

http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/17/how-this-teen-turned-her-high-school-internship-into-a-game-design-career/

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REV. JESSE JACKSON’S RAINBOW PUSH ECONOMIC SUMMIT FOCUSES ON PATHS TO GREATER TECH DIVERSITY

http://madamenoire.com/503823/rev-jesse-jacksons-rainbow-push-economic-summit-focuses-paths-greater-tech-diversity/

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https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smartbrownvoices-celebration/id957351613?mt=2

Posted by lena on January 20th, 2015 | No Comments Posted in Uncategorized

Show Notes – January 12th, 2015

Lorrie Faith Cranor: What’s wrong with your pa$$w0rd?

Sally Kohn: Don’t like clickbait? Don’t click

Nikey auto matic tying sneakers coming –
http://consumerist.com/2015/01/09/nike-marty-mcflys-air-mag-sneakers-with-power-laces-will-arrive-in-2015/
Defining what ‘broadband’ menas

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/241361/fcc-chair-to-propose-redefining-broadband-as-25-mb.html

Is Facebook a ‘video platform’?
WiMAX is being turned of this November

Enable Android’s Secret Right-to-Left Layout If You’re Left Handed Android: Your phone’s default layout caters to the right-handed user. If you’re left-handed, switch your layout to right-to-left with just a tap to be more comfortable using your device. First you need to get into your developer options, then you can enable the layout change. Here’s how:Go into Settings > About Phone.Scroll down until you see “Build Number” and tap it seven times in qui

Lifehacker
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Chromebooks Can Now Run Linux in Its Own Window Chrome: You’ve been able to install and run Linux on Chromebooks for a while, but a new Chrome extension allows you to run it inside a window, without switching back and forth.The extension, Crouton Integration, still requires you to enable developer mode and install Crouton, but allows you to run Linux right in a window instead of as a full desktop. If you’ve already installed Crouton, the proces
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Lifehacker
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In-Store Pickup Isn’t Always Faster than Shopping In the Store At a glance, it seems like the order online and pickup at the store option offered by many retailers should be faster than just going in and grabbing the item off the shelf for yourself. However, in an admittedly small study, StellaService found that many retails stores have about the same checkout time. StellaService tested out in-store pickup at 11 retailers, including Best Buy, Home Depot, Macy
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Lifehacker
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How DDoS Attacks Work, And Why They’re So Hard To Stop Last week, eager Christmas celebrators across the world hooked up their brand new Xboxes and PlayStations only to find that both online networks were down, leaving countless new games totally unplayable. It was a particularly large piece of coal in gamers’ stockings, and while Microsoft’s service recovered after 24 hours, the PlayStation Network suffered a prolonged outage that lasted two full da
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MakeUseOf.com
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Running Linux In A Chromebook Window, Xbox Hackers Offer DDoS Attacks [Tech News Digest] Also, the Xbox One SDK leaks online, the most pirated movies of 2014, Nuclear Throne freebies, and a look back at 2014 in GIFs. Run Linux In A Window On A Chromebook It’s now possible to run Linux in a window on a Chromebook. Google evangelist François Beaufort revealed how to do so in a Google+ post, detailing the various steps Chromebook owners must take in order to run their favorite Linux dist
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MakeUseOf.com
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3 Ways JavaScript Can Breach Your Privacy & Security You’ve probably heard that JavaScript is dangerous. Well, that’s partly correct. JavaScript can be dangerous if the proper precautions aren’t taken. It can be used to view or steal personal data without you even realizing that it’s happening. And since JavaScript is so ubiquitous across the web, we’re all vulnerable. It all comes down to how JavaScript actually works. JavaScript is a good thing fo
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Lifehacker
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Find Out If AT&T or T-Mobile Owe You Money In the last several years, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon have been sneaking bogus monthly charges on our cell phone bills (a trick called mobile “cramming”). You can find out if you’re entitled to money back from this, at least from AT&T and T-Mobile. Verizon settled with the FCC back in 2012, but more recently AT&T settled for $105 million, T-Mobile settled for $90 mil
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MakeUseOf.com
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The Quantified Self: How To Track Your Life With Your iPhone The first step to change is knowing what you are dealing with. If you track your actions, you will be able to do them better. There is plenty of science to support this. However, tracking can be tiresome if you don’t have the right tools. That is not an excuse iPhone users can dole out any more, now that Loggr is here. Why Should You Quantify Yourself? The quantified self movement is gaining more
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Posted by lena on January 12th, 2015 | No Comments Posted in Uncategorized

Show Notes – January 5th, 2015

Rose Regina is Angry about Go Go
you should be too

http://www.neowin.net/news/gogo-inflight-internet-is-intentionally-issuing-fake-ssl-certificates

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/gogo-collaboration-feds/

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Damon Wayans (actor of the Wayans Bros) has a pretty cool app so says Martin
 http://youtu.be/rL-_IDK5KT4?t=7m8s
Martin Talks about a cool donation thing called – the extra mile
http://thextramile.org/

“Our mission is simple. Collect frequent flyer miles from people who don’t need them and give them to those who desperately do, to visit terminally ill loved ones with cancer.”

Check out https://skiplagged.com/

 

we talked about

http://www.tsa.gov/tsa-precheck

 
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Wait, a 3D Printed Lawn mower? Well, we have to admit, we never saw this coming… A 3D printed lawn mower? What? Why? Huh? How? Those were at least a few of the thoughts running through our head when we saw this come in on the tips line. [Hans Fouche] has a giant 3D printer that takes up most of the space in his garage, and after printing several large vases, a briefcase, bowls, and even a wind turbine blade — he decided to try
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MAKE Magazine
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Emailing Hardware into Space During December the first ever tool was ’emailed’ to the International Space Station and now, if you want to, you can print the same wrench on your own 3d printer.Read more on MAKE
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MakeUseOf.com
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4 Security Misconceptions That You Need To Realize Today With all the conflicting information available online, it’s understandable that you sometimes don’t know who to trust. Security and privacy are no strangers to misconceptions; we’ve covered some of the most dangerous cyber myths. If you’ve taken these myths as truth, it’s time to get the facts straight! Extinguishing the lies is a big step in making sure everyone is safer online. Misconception: Wi
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MAKE Magazine
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Smart Garage with Spark Core James wanted a way to monitor the status of his garage door without having to actually look at the door. Fortunately, he has a knack with electronics and knows his way around connecting different sorts of systems together with code. In the initial version of the project, James used an […]Read more on MAKE
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MakeUseOf.com
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How Do Smartphones Compare To Supercomputers Of The Past? Most of us carry a smartphone around in our pocket without really thinking twice about just how impressive it is. These tiny little devices can do so many things, and they can do them for a (relatively) low price. Have you ever thought about what your smartphone can do when compared to the supercomputers of the past? At one point, these computers were the pinnacle of power, and they required massi
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MakeUseOf.com
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The Best Windows Cleaning Tool Gets A Disk Analyzer You can now clean crap more efficiently with CCleaner v5. Microsoft Windows is actually a great operating system, even though it gets attacked often. However, one valid criticism is how much junk builds up in various places of the OS. CCleaner, or Crap Cleaner, has long been one of the best tools to optimize your PC, and the new v5 update continues the fine tradition. What’s New In CCleaner v5? Th
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MakeUseOf.com
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Hands On: How Haptic Technologies Will Bring Touch to VR Almost all of the impressive VR work done to date has focused on just two senses: your sight and your hearing. That’s a great start, and one that will enable lots of powerful experiences, but it is incomplete. In order to fully immerse users in interactive virtual reality environments, it’s going to be necessary to build peripherals that fully engage your sense of touch. Unfortunately, touch is a
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Engadget
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Here are the security measures NSA spies hate the most It’s tempting to imagine that few online safeguards will stop NSA surveillance in its tracks, but that’s not true. A new leak from Edward Snowden’s files reveals that there’s a surprising number of ways to thwart these snoops, at least as of 2012. Wh…
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Hack A Day
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College Researcher Makes Supercomputer from 420 PS3s Noting that funding for science has run dry for many researchers, [Gaurav] has built a supercomputer from 200 Playstation 3 consoles housed and chilled inside an old refrigerated shipping trailer. His mission at UMass Dartmouth from the National Science Foundation is simulating black hole collisions with an eye on learning something about gravitational waves. Dr. [Gaurav Khanna] is no stranger to
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Engadget
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Russia lets anyone use Earth-sensing data from its civilian satellites The US government has been willing to loosen its grip on satellite data, but what about the info from other countries? Don’t worry, that’s opening up as well. Russia has declared that the Earth-sensing data it collects from civilian satellites is now…
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Boing Boing
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Beautiful Japanese Firefox OS phone in a transparent case Al sends us the Fx0, a “beautiful mid-range phone running Firefox OS announced in Japan today by KDDI, one of Japan’s largest mobile phone companies.” Read the rest
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Engadget
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Vinyl demand is so high, a record label opened its own factory to keep up Jack White and his Third Man Records imprint aren’t the only ones benefiting from the vinyl boom. Oxford, Mississippi-based Fat Possum Records took matters into its own hands, building a pressing plant to meet the demands of its avid collectors. Afte…
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Gothamist
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Map: Raise A Glass At The Oldest Liquor License Holder In Your Neighborhood Data head Ben Wellington of I Quant NY has assembled yet another interesting look at New York State’s open data website, this time mining it to paint a picture of the city’s longest held liquor licenses. While it doesn’t accurately represent which establishments have been open the longest—bars changing hands, Prohibition and other factors automatically eliminate certain places—the map points out
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Lifehacker
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What’s Really Wrong With Facebook Facebook is changing its privacy policies at the beginning of the new year. As
Posted by lena on January 5th, 2015 | No Comments Posted in Uncategorized

Show Notes, December 15th 2014

http://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_crump_the_small_and_surprisingly_dangerous_detail_the_police_track_about_you
ACLU – Report
https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/071613-aclu-alprreport-opt-v05.pdf
You Are Being Tracked – How License Plate Readers Are Being Used To Record Americans’ Movements
http://www.ted.com/talks/kenneth_cukier_big_data_is_better_data?language=en

MakeUseOf.com
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Debian vs Ubuntu: How Far Has Ubuntu Come in 10 Years? Ubuntu recently released 14.10 “Utopic Unicorn”, which coincides with the fact that Ubuntu is now 10 years old! The king of Linux distributions has come a long way since its inception in 2004, so it’s a good idea to go down memory lane and take a look at the journey it has gone through so far. We’ll also take a look at how it has developed differently to Debian, the distribution upon which it is b
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Engadget
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Hulu offers free streaming on Android over the holidays Need a way to drown out your extended family while they’re visiting for the holidays? So long as you own an Android device and are in the United States, Hulu’s got you covered. See, the TV-streaming outfit is offering “many popular” shows as part of …
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MakeUseOf.com
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How To Automatically Change Passwords With New Lastpass And Dashlane Features Every few months, we hear of a new security vulnerability and all the techies advise you to change your passwords. There was Heartbleed in April, Shellshock in September, and several others before and after. Changing passwords across the many accounts you use is a time-consuming and tedious nightmare. Good news! Password management apps are now coming up with automated ways to change your secret c
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AJE – Al Jazeera English
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Thousands march against US police killings Demonstrators gather in Washington and New York to rally against the killings of unarmed black men by police officers.
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Gothamist
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How Vulnerable Will NYC’s New Payphone Wi-Fi Network Be? Mayor de Blasio’s ambitious plan to convert 10,000 pay phones into public Wi-Fi hotspots promises gigabit Internet speeds, providing New York with the fastest municipal Wi-Fi network in the world. While LinkNYC is being pushed as a “first-of-its-kind communication network,” the city faces a daunting task safeguarding the privacy of its users. [ more › ]
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MakeUseOf.com
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What’s Inside Your Computer: The Story Of Every Component You Need To Know Whether you’re buying a new computer or building your own, you’re going to be subjected to a lot of acronyms and random numbers. It can be hard to cut through the cruft and get to the meaningful information. This article is here to help. I’m going to dive into every major component inside a modern computer. I’ll explain what it does, its history, the important specs you need to understand and who
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Lifehacker
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What Happens If I Use Two-Factor Authentication and Lose My Phone? Dear Lifehacker,I’ve heard that I need to enable two-factor authentication on my phone, but it seems risky. What happens if I lose my phone? Will I lose my entire account? And if I change phones, how do I move the authenticator to a new device?Sincerely,Two-Factor Security ConcernsDear 2FSC,Two-factor authentication is an essential security measure that uses your phone to help prevent unauthorized
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Modify Facebook’s Ad Preferences to Control Which Ads You See Facebook ads aren’t the worst we’ve seen, but they’re still annoying and many of them are poorly targeted. Modify your ad preferences to stop Facebook’s tracking, or to make the ad selection better. If you’re going to see ads, you might as well be able to modify the preferences and control how targeted you are. Here’s how:On your smartphone or tablet, click on the tiny down-arrow in the top right
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TechSpot
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Ralph Baer, the father of video games, dies at the age of 92 Ralph H. Baer, known by many as the father of video games, has died at the age of 92. A pioneer in the industry, Baer’s name is credited on more than 150 patents but perhaps his most well-known contribution came when he created the very first video game console for the…
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Engadget
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Hackers leak Sony passwords, social security numbers and salaries The cyber attack against Sony Pictures continues to be a major problem for the company. For one, it looks like the hackers used malware called Destover (which security firms believe could have been created in Korea) that can completely disable hard d…
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Lifehacker
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Find the Files Taking Up the Most Space in Google Drive with this Link At a glance, Google Drive doesn’t allow you to sort files by size, which makes clearing out space kind of a pain. Thankfully, Digital Inspiration points to a hidden little spot where you can find that info. If you hover your mouse over the “space used” text in the bottom left corner in Drive, then select Drive, you’ll get a list of your files sorted by file size. Better yet, you can just
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MyCE News, Articles & Reviews
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Insecure Internet Explorer 6 market share finally drops below 1% The market share of Internet Explorer has finally dropped below 1% according to NetMarketShare. The drop relates to the amount of Windows XP users that have switched to another operating system. The demise of Internet Explorer 6 is good news for web developers and Microsoft. In March 2011 the software giant started a campaign to convince IE6 users to upgrade to a more modern browser. Internet Exp
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Engadget
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Grindr now shows an ETA to your next hookup Relax everybody: Grindr is going to make finding a potential partner a much simpler affair. You see, now the app will calculate travel time in addition to how far away a potential Lothario is from you, physically. So let’s say you’ve been messaging w…
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Kids can program the White House’s Christmas tree lights this year
Kids can program the White House’s Christmas tree lights this year The National Park Service’s annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony dates back to 1923, but this year it’s getting a software update. Google’s Made with Code Holiday Lights project will let any kid (or adult for that matter) animate the trees at
Posted by lena on December 16th, 2014 | No Comments Posted in Uncategorized

Show Notes December 8th, 2014

Lena talks about how wonderful her new phone is.

 

Body Cams:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/12/04/bodycams-transformed-a-tiny-airport-police-force-they-could-do-the-same-for-the-rest-of-america/

complaints against Springfield Mo regional airport saw this massive drop in complaints from a couple a week to about once a month.

complaints against officers in rialto CA dropped by 88%: https://ojpdiagnosticcenter.org/sites/default/files/spotlight/download/Police%20Officer%20Body-Worn%20Cameras.pdf

annectdotal evidence of a similar phenomenon in phoenix

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-body-cameras-20140927-story.html#page=1

“A recent federal survey of 63 law enforcement agencies using body cameras said nearly a third of the agencies had no written policy on the devices. (It is not known how many agencies overall currently use body cameras.)”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/04/wonkbook-the-eric-garner-case-is-not-an-argument-against-body-cameras/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/12/03/obamas-body-camera-argument-just-took-a-big-hit/

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/print/2014/12/seen-it-all-before-10-predictions-about-police-body-cameras/383456/

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2014/12/02/what-you-need-to-know-about-body-cameras

http://www.fatalencounters.org/ – officer involved fatalities (similar to project PM)

 

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not camera related:

Posted by lena on December 9th, 2014 | No Comments Posted in Uncategorized

http://devswithferguson.itch.io/bundle

this is a bundle of 9 games (all for Windows & OSX, some also for Linux) donated by their authors in support of the Ferguson Public Library and in solidarity with protesters resisting antiblack state violence and white supremacy

ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE FERGUSON PUBLIC LIBRARY (paypal takes $.30 + 2.9% on every transaction, itch.io does not charge a transaction fee)

THE BUNDLE IS AVAILABLE UNTIL 11:59 PM EASTERN ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6TH

PLEASE DOWNLOAD YOUR GAMES BEFORE THEN AS THIS PAGE WILL BE TAKEN DOWN AT THAT POINT

donate $9 or more and receive nine games (all games are provided as direct downloads except eidolon, which is provided as a steam key for filesize reasons):

A Very Very VERY Scary House – anna anthropy

Explore the scariest house you’ve ever seen in this digital Choose Your Own Adventure book! Will you solve the case of the Vanishing Cat or uncover the secrets of the Mysterious Bone? There are 58 unique endings to find!

Eidolon – Ice Water Games

Eidolon is a game about exploring a mysterious landscape and uncovering the stories of the people who lived there once before. It is a game about history, curiosity, interconnectedness, and the slow and inevitable beauty of life. You will be dropped into the dreary and mystical Western Washington circa 2400 c.e. with a bow, fishing rod, and little to guide your way. Awaiting you is a vast landscape filled with wildlife, edible plants, and the memories of our now-dead culture—stored in artefacts such as journals, sketchbooks, newspapers, zines, brochures, transcripts, and more. You must spend your fleeting moments moving through this place, collecting these memories, and piecing together what happened to these people, both from a historical perspective and from a much more personal one.

SPACE/OFF – merritt kopas & anna anthropy

SPACE/OFF is a two-player action game by anna anthropy and merritt kopas, inspired by Star Control and about a breakup in space. Play as jilted lovers MIND WOLF and COOL BUG and prove who’s angrier in one of three cosmic showdowns.

Boson X – Ian MacLarty & Jon Kerney

Boson X is a fast-paced rotational runner set in a particle accelerator. Quantum jump from Planck to Planck as you build up speed inside a massive particle accelerator and generate high-energy collisions to discover strange new particles. Use precise timing and fast reflexes to navigate a hazardous subatomic world where floors and ceilings don’t exist.

Game Test Life – Pinktreeleaf

Game Test Life is a story game that takes a snapshot into the phenomenon that is game testing. Can you survive as the game industry’s underdog?

FJORDS – Kyle Reimergartin

FJORDS PROGRAM ORIGINALLY CONCEIVED AS A SERIES OF EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING AND ITERATING THE VARIABLES OF THE SHARECART1000 PROJECT WITH EVENTUAL ILLUMINATION FOR MULTIPLE WORLDS CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND BEST PRAXIS. NOW ASSEMBLING AND MANIFESTING IN RELATIVELY STABLE FORMS ALLOWING EXPLORATION AND TESTING BY ALL SCIENCE PRACTITIONERS, IT IS OUR HONOR AND PRIVILEGE TO PRESENT AS INVITATION THE EXCITING COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC SCIENCE AND EDIFICATION, A TRANSFORMATIVE MOMENT FOR PARTICIPATION AND FURTHER COLLABORATION IN OUR SHARED VISION.

Marginalia – Connor Sherlock & Cameron Kunzelman

Marginalia is a first-person horror game that transports you to Kestlebrook, a secluded valley where history becomes enmeshed with a strange present. Weeks ago Eric left. Days ago you got a letter telling you to come to him. Now you’re here, but precisely where is here? And better yet, when?

The Floor is Jelly – Ian Snyder

Who hasn’t dreamt, at some point, of filling a pool full of jello and swimming in it? In some of us, that dream never died. Some of us kept dreaming: what if the whole street was jello? Or the continent? The world!? The Floor is Jelly posits a universe made of jello, made purely for one’s own amusement. No longer need we look to our walls and our floors and sigh, “How solid! How sadly immalleable! How I wish for a world consisting only of Non-Newtonian fluids!” That world has arrived, via the dark magic of videogames, as The Floor is Jelly.

Intimate, Infinite – Robert Yang

“Intimate, Infinite” is a literary first person triptych game about chess, gardening, and a murder, inspired by the Jorge Luis Borges story “Garden of Forking Paths.”

Posted by lena on December 5th, 2014 | No Comments Posted in Uncategorized

Show Notes November 24th, 2014

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/19/1346078/-A-lie-in-the-Darren-Wilson-defense-in-the-shooting-death-of-Mike-Brown-that-just-won-t-go-away#

interesting use of google maps
only covers the amount spent through the end of october

not ferguson:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/18/google-search-judge-free-speech

3h
Gothamist
200+
Free Wi-Fi Will Be Weaker In Poorer Neighborhoods The city’s plan to convert ratty, disused pay phones into convenient Wi-fi hotspots was a noble endeavor—the right to peruse social media is as inalienable as that to fresh produce and decent public transportation. Which is to say, residents of poor neighborhoods were bound to get shafted. [ more › ]
11h
MakeUseOf.com
29
5 Amazing Uses For Drones In The Future Unmanned aerial vehicles, more commonly called drones, are now infamous for their surveillance capabilities, but they have so much more potential than that, and it would be a disservice to dismiss them as “outright evil.” Like most tools, the usefulness of a drone depends on who’s in control. There are dozens of modern examples that show how drones can be used to improve everyday life. If we extra
10h
Slashdot
62
Cops 101: NYC High School Teaches How To Behave During Stop-and-Frisk HughPickens.com writes Kate Briquelet reports in the NY Post that Principal Mark Federman of East Side Community HS has invited the New York Civil Liberties Union to give a two-day training session to 450 students on interacting with police. “We’re not going to candy-coat things — we have a problem in our city that’s affecting young men of color and all of our students,” says Federman. &
3d
Engadget
500+
EU wants to separate search from the rest of Google Google’s been caught up in an antitrust tango with the European Union for years, and since the EU hasn’t been thrilled with the search giant’s attempted concessions, there might be an extreme new option on the table. According to a report from the…
6d
Lifehacker
100+
Test How Well You Read Other People with This Body Language Quiz Empathy may be the most important skill to have, and one of the signs of an emotionally intelligent, empathetic person is his or her ability to accurately read others’ facial expressions and body language. This quiz from University of California, Berkeley not only gauges this skill, it also offers pointers on how to read people better.The quiz shows you twenty photos of various people expressing a
5d
Lifehacker
63
Build a Motivational Bathroom Scale with a Raspberry Pi One of the most deterring parts about trying to lose weight is that moment when you look down at the scale. This custom built scale ditches unsatisfying numbers and uses a Raspberry Pi to actually talk to you when your step up to help keep you motivated.That number staring back at you is discouraging when it hasn’t changed much, and you can start to feel like everything you’ve done has been for no
7d
Engadget
4K
NYC to replace most of its payphones with free gigabit WiFi in 2015 Can you remember the last time you used a payphone? Neither can we. Public telephones are an outmoded piece of our communication infrastructure, and NYC is ready to replace them. The city has been toying with the idea for years, and today it finally…
7d
Boing Boing
500+
Do your eyes have perfect pixel pitch? Here’s a fun test to find out. Pixactly is “an online tool that tests how well you know your pixels.” Just draw a box that matches the dimensions provided. “Sounds easy, right? Pixactly.” [pixact.ly]
7d
The Tech Report
21
Hacker turns keyboard backlight into video game display Cooler Master’s QuickFire Rapid-i keyboard has an ARM-based processor that powers a handful of neat backlighting options, including per-key illumination and a light-as-you-type effect with an optional decay. But that’s nothing compared to what a member of the Mechanical Keyboards subreddit pulled off with a little hacking. A user by the name of Spritetm figured out how to play Snake, a classic arc
7d
Boing Boing
40
U.S. State Department email systems hacked Unclassified U.S. State Department email systems were cyberattacked in recent weeks, around the same time as White House systems were breached. Read the rest
9d
Boing Boing
200+
EFF makes DoJ admit it lied in court about FBI secret warrants Department of Justice lawyers told a judge that when the
Posted by lena on November 24th, 2014 | No Comments Posted in Uncategorized

Show Notes November 10th, 2014


Engadget
2K
Taking apart Google’s modular smartphone What do you want to know about Project Ara? Does a modular smartphone actually work? Yes. Is it very different from Android phones? In a basic how-a-phone-all-works, yes indeed. Paul Eremenko, Technical Project Lead on Google’s modular phone project…
2d
Engadget
1K
60 seconds with Hemingwrite, an E Ink typewriter Between social networks, video games and the endless void of procrastination we call “the internet,” computers can make pretty poor writing devices. Isn’t there something better? Insert Coin contenders Adam Leeb and Patrick Paul think so — they’ve…
1d
Engadget
500+
AT&T’s latest smartwatch for kids is both easier and tougher Your kids may be too young to put a Moto 360 or Pebble on their wrists, but that doesn’t mean they’ll have to go without a smartwatch. AT&T is now selling the FiLIP 2, an upgraded version of last year’s hybrid kid locator and wrist-worn phone. The…
1d
Engadget
3K
DARPA funds $11 million tool that will make coding a lot easier DARPA is funding a new project by Rice University called PLINY, and it’s neither a killer robot nor a high-tech weapon. PLINY, named after Pliny the Elder who wrote one of the earliest encyclopedias ever, will actually be a tool that can…
9h
Lifehacker
75
SurgeProtector Finds Nearby Areas Unaffected by Uber Surge Pricing iOS: Despite Uber’s convenience, its surge pricing has left people with outrageous bills. SurgeProtector shows you the nearest areas unaffected by surge pricing and can order an Uber for you.SurgeProtector is a simple app, but it’s not perfect yet. Currently, it only searches for areas within a kilometer for you. Nonetheless, in cities with denser populations like San Francisco, you could walk jus
9h
Engadget
400+
Latest Firefox browser puts web privacy one button away You may be very privacy-conscious in this era of mass surveillance, but your web browser hasn’t done much to keep up — big updates like Do Not Track and private browsing windows arrived years ago. Mozilla isn’t satisfied with this state of affairs,…
5h
Phone Scoop – Latest News
2
Industry Reacts to White House Net Neutrality Push Following the White House’s request to reclassify the internet as a utility, a number of industry organizations have fielded responses. First to respond was FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Wheeler “welcomed” Obama’s comments and said the agency would add them to the existing public discourse regarding the subject. He stopped well short of saying the agency would adopt such measures. “The
26min
Engadget
200+
Google now runs an airfield after signing a 60-year NASA lease It’s official: following months of negotiations, Google now
Lifehacker
3K
Obama’s Plan to Save the Internet Good news, America. Our president, Barack Obama, is finally standing up for the internet, and asking the FCC to classify it as a public utility. In other words, he’s asking the agency not to allow destructive things like fast lanes (a.k.a. paid prioritization) or throttling. It’s a great day!At least, today’s news is a great step in the right direction. It’s unclear so far exactly how the FCC will
4h
Lifehacker
16
Disney Movies Anywhere Puts Your Kids’ Favorite Movies in One Place Web/iOS/Android: For parents, having all your kids’ content in one easily manageable place is key. Disney Movies Anywhere puts your Disney, Pixar, and Marvel movies in a digital library that syncs to all of your devices for streaming.The app is free, but you’ll need a Disney Account to use it. You’ll be prompted to connect to either your iTunes or Google Play account, where you can take your local
4d
TEDTalks (audio)
10K
TED: Dilip Ratha: The hidden force in global economics: sending money home – Dilip Ratha (2014) In 2013, international migrants sent $413 billion home to families and friends — three times more than the total of global foreign aid (about $135 billion). This money, known as remittances, makes a significant difference in the lives of those receiving it and plays a major role in the economies of many countries. Economist Dilip Ratha describes the promise of these “dollars wrapped with love” and
2h
PSFK
4
‘Random’ News Reader App Ready to Burst Your Filter Bubble As Eli Parisier’s book The Filter Bubble sadly illustrates, content creators on the web benefit from picking up on topics that are already trending and directing you toward opinions you already agree with. Not only does it make for a less informed general public, but it also is a problem for content creators, creating a small cadre of “superstar” topics that are difficult to get past. Even if you
3h
Boing Boing
100+
How to avoid Uber’s surge pricing On Halloween night Gabrielle Wathen paid $362.57 for a 20-minute Uber ride, thanks to Uber’s “surge pricing.” You can avoid Wathen’s fate with SurgeProtector, a free app that finds locations nearby with cheaper Uber prices and sends a car to that spot. [via]
3h
TechSpot
9
Chinese hackers suspected in USPS breach, data on every employee compromised The FBI is investigating a data breach at the U.S. Postal Service in which employees’ personal data may have been compromised. Every person on staff with the Postal Service, from the Postmaster General down to letter carriers, was exposed according to a report from the Washington Post.
3h
PSFK
7
CloudGazer will turn your Boredom into a Free Roundtrip Flight Lying on on your back on a freshly-cut front lawn, squinting as amorphous clouds roam the sky—the childhood memory of cloud-gazing still exists as our cherished antidote for summer boredom. A generations grow up to trade lackadaisical afternoons for overbooked schedules, working adults might wonder, what happened to being bored? Boredom still exists, though leisurely gazing now happens on device
3d
Lifehacker
500+
The Internet Arcade Has 900 Classic Arcade Games You Can Play for Free If you need to take a break and have some fun, the Internet Archive has gathered over 900 classic arcade games from the 1970s through the 1990s and made them all playable in your browser.Games included in the collection range from early black and white games all the way up to 90s staples like Street Fighter II. Other gems include Bionic Commando, Missile Command, Burger Time, Out Run, Dig Dug, Rob
4d
Boing Boing
400+
Elvie – pelvic floor kegel exercise tracker Elvie is a kegel exercise tracker for woman. The company is taking pre-orders for $95. The pelvic floor is a powerful little set of muscles that sits like a hammock between your tailbone and pubic bone. Read the rest
6d
Lifehacker
3K
The Best Hidden Features of VLC VLC is easily one of our favorite media players (and yours too). However, it’s not just a one-trick pony. Under the surface, there’s a wide range of features that you might not have known it could do.Download YouTube VideosWe’ve discussed plenty of ways to download YouTube videos before. However, you have one option already installed on your computer. VLC lets you play and download YouTube videos
6d
Lifehacker
200+
Use Your Phone or Tablet in Bed Without Wrecking Your Sleep You’ve probably heard before that the blue light from your digital devices can interrupt your sleep if you use them too close to bedtime, sapping your productivity the next day. Good news: Research shows a way you might be able to get away with using your phone or tablet in bed without affecting your sleep. The light from our devices can interfere with the production of melatonin, which controls t
5d
Lifehacker
100+
PrivacyGrade Shows You Which Apps Collect Your Data (or Don’t) You may be surprised to learn that your favorite mobile game collects your location and phone data to serve you advertisements. PrivacyGrade verifies which apps use your permissions for legitimate reasons and which only do to display ads.Android apps require permissions for varying reasons. Although some of them make sense (e.g., location data for Foursquare), other apps still collect data even if
5d
Engadget
500+
Performances from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre are available online If you don’t have the cash or time to visit the recreated Globe Theatre and see Shakespeare’s plays performed in a near-original setting, you’ll at least have access to the next best thing. The playhouse has just launched Globe Player, a store that…
5d
Engadget
1K
Film company does the inevitable: shoots porn using a drone Here’s the deal: if a device has a camera, it will be used to shoot porn. No exceptions — not even if that device is a drone. Brooklyn film company Ghost+Cow shot a project called, erm, Drone Boning, using only unmanned aerial vehicles. Despite the…
5d
MakeUseOf.com
21
Are Hacked Email Account Checking Tools Genuine Or A Scam? Following the news of a vast breach of Google’s servers that resulted in an alleged 5 million email addresses being hacked, various websites were suggesting that readers should check whether they had been victims by entering their email addresses into “checking tools” – websites that can determine whether an email address is in a list of hacked credentials. The problem is, some of these checking t
5d
Engadget
1K
Tesla’s Model S aces European safety tests too Tesla’s electric vehicles might be known for their impressive range and executive looks, but founder Elon Musk is always keen to emphasize their impressive safety standards too. After picking up an unprecedented 5.4 stars on the US’ National Highway…
6d
MakeUseOf.com
61
11 Best Video Game Soundtracks For Studying Video games are awesome. Beyond their gripping stories, engaging gameplay, and social aspects, though, lies an oft-overlooked aspect: the music. A good video game original soundtrack (OST) is tough to get right; it needs to highlight whatever emotion the player should be experiencing at a point in time, as well as being submissive so as not to be distracting to the player. In the past, we’ve writt
6d
Posted by lena on November 10th, 2014 | No Comments Posted in Uncategorized
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