Links

I’m going to take a bit of a different approach to the links this week, and perhaps from here on out. T. points out that while I share what I find interesting, I’m not actually sharing my opinions of these things. So I’m going to make a bit more of an effort to get these out in smaller batches and to comment upon them as well, rather than simply pointing out one or two really cool links, although please do read Pneumatic logic board made entirely from wood doubles as desk/organ – a wooden computer / musical instrument is just … awesome!

I tend to follow things which are of interest to me as well as following things which are of interest to other people’s research. If there’s something that I’m leaving out which is of interest, please do let me know.

Censorship:

1. Italy Censors Proxy That Bypasses BTjunkie and Pirate Bay Block    17 July 2011, 8:46 am
2. Trial of UAE bloggers set to resume    17 July 2011, 9:44 pm
3. Anticensorship in the Internet’s Infrastructure    18 July 2011, 5:58 am
4. Telex Promises Path Around State-Sponsored Net Censorship    20 July 2011, 9:28 am
5. Romania – Disturbing panorama of continuing media decline    21 July 2011, 7:13 am
6. Media watchdogs condemn Ecuador libel ruling    22 July 2011, 12:15 am

Censorship is interesting to me because it seems to be an area of tension between the right of individuals and the forces which shape technology – for example, the first link in the censorship list above. We have a country (Italy) which has decided that peer-to-peer file sharing is bad, so has blocked access to file-sharing sites. They’re using technology to prevent people from engaging in what may or may not be legal: it’s perfectly legal to share content which is in the public domain or which you own, but not legal to share copyrighted content … yet Italy has decided that file-sharing technology ought to be prevented because it could be used to break laws. This is like saying that people should not have access to knives because they might cut someone: it’s downright silly, if not idiotic. It is interesting to me that technologies should be restricted because of the possibility that they might be used for something illegal. This should disturb us all.

Copyright / Law:

1. In Patent Reform Legislation, Congress Starts to Slowly Chip Away at Business Method Patents    14 July 2011, 4:56 pm
2. Oppose Congress’ Criminal Streaming Bill    14 July 2011, 5:09 pm
3. Righthaven Ordered to Pay $5,000 in Sanctions for Its Misrepresentations to Court    15 July 2011, 6:03 pm
4. The FBI Had No Warrant for the Raid on Instapaper, Pinboard, et al.    16 July 2011, 4:03 am
5. Copied pleadings show there's no honor among antipiracy lawyers    17 July 2011, 2:55 pm
6. The “Graduated Response” Deal: What if Users Had Been At the Table?    18 July 2011, 10:51 am
7. Who holds the copyright to a picture taken by a monkey?    19 July 2011, 4:36 am
8. Apple Patents Portrait-Landscape Flipping: the patent system is broken    19 July 2011, 4:36 am
9. Intellectual property gone mad    19 July 2011, 4:53 am
10. Patent Trolls Drive App Developers from U.S. Market    19 July 2011, 3:04 pm
11. Report proves pirates are great consumers    20 July 2011, 11:24 am
12. A pound of flesh: how Cisco’s “unmitigated gall” derailed one man’s life    21 July 2011, 11:02 am
13. Universal Music accused of using fraudulent DMCA notices as a negotiating tactic    21 July 2011, 12:00 pm
14. Lawsuit says grandma illegally downloaded porn    22 July 2011, 7:13 am

The big players in copyright, of course, tend to have access to resources far beyond the resources of the individual. Thus we have governments responding to the big copyright and patent owners (link 2 above), passing legislation to protect the “intellectual property” of corporations. We also get cases where the government has gone far overboard (e.g., the FBI confiscating servers without a warrant and by mistake, link 4 above). Or we get cases where individuals are persecuted by corporations (Cisco, link 12 above), or where people actually innovating are driven out of the market (link 10, above). We also get corporations extorting money out of people (links 6, 9, 13, 14). Of course, there are bright spots, such as Righthaven being taken down (link 3) and such as copyright lawyers stealing from other lawyers in their legal pleadings (link 5). Despite the win against Righthaven, and the irony of anti-piracy lawyers being pirates themselves, the copyright world is fairly grim from where I stand.

Gender:

1. When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy    13 July 2011, 8:05 am
2. Bringing Girls Into the Science-Major Pipeline    20 July 2011, 9:28 am
3. Girls, Their Families and Friends, Gather for Computer Science    20 July 2011, 9:29 am

I’m always interested to see people trying to change the social stereotypes that girls are not good at science and math (links 2, 3). Whether this can succeed when society as a whole tends to act against such change, though, remains to be seen. How can educational programs combat the forces of society? How can we erase an internalized prejudice? The first link, though, could have gone into technology or into gender; I chose it for this category because it’s rather important to gender equality in that it describes a situation which is unfortunately not uncommon in the world of tech: sick, sexual humor driving a female developer to leave the world of tech. The particular case is rather extreme, but it’s unfortunately not unusual to have women feel like they aren’t welcome in the world of tech, and to suffer such idiocy for only so long before they leave the field. Can education combat this?

Germany:

1. Rare East German Photographs: The Other Side of the Berlin Wall    13 July 2011, 9:24 am
2. Shoddy Workmanship: Berlin’s Sinti and Roma Memorial Delayed by Fresh Dispute    19 July 2011, 3:37 am
3. Preventing Neo-Nazi Pilgrimages: Town Removes Grave of Hitler Deputy Hess    21 July 2011, 2:59 am
4. Growing-Up Neo-Nazi: Family Life Among Germany’s Far-Right Extremists    21 July 2011, 8:21 am

Germany is of particular interest to our friend W., and to his research as well. Germany is interesting in and of itself because it’s just so different from the other cultures with which I am familiar (i.e., those of the U.S. and the U.K.).

Hacking:

1. Pentagon hit by huge cyber theft    14 July 2011, 8:03 pm
2. Traitor or Whistleblower?: The Divided Life of Bradley Manning    18 July 2011, 6:35 am
3. LulzSec takes on Murdoch empire with Sun hack, fake death claim    18 July 2011, 4:32 pm
4. FBI Raids Homes of Three ‘Anonymous’ Suspects    19 July 2011, 10:20 am
5. Feds Charge Activist as Hacker for Downloading Millions of Academic Articles    19 July 2011, 11:55 am
6. FBI arrests 16 Anons across US; UK police pick up LulzSec member    20 July 2011, 4:43 am
7. More Than 35,000 Sign Petition In Support Of Aaron Swartz    20 July 2011, 9:31 am
8. Anonymous & Lulz Security Write Letter to FBI    21 July 2011, 7:54 am
9. Thousands of scientific papers uploaded to The Pirate Bay    21 July 2011, 10:54 am
10. 33GB of public domain JSTOR articles, and a manifesto    21 July 2011, 10:54 am
11. Huge Trove of Academic Docs Posted Online in Response to Activist Arrest    21 July 2011, 11:34 am
12. Hackers claim to breach NATO security    22 July 2011, 7:13 am

I’ve decided to lump the Anonymous hackers, LulzSec hackers, and the Whilstleblowers all into one category; I feel that they’re similar in that they seem to be targeting corporations which would stifle free speech or which would try to keep their dirty dealings hidden. While I don’t agree with the tactics of the hackers, I certainly understand the frustration.

Israel / Palestine:

1. Israel Passes Anti-Boycott Law: This Week in Online Tyranny    13 July 2011, 3:41 pm
2. Full Circle: German-Jewish Literary Culture Returns from Exile    15 July 2011, 8:45 am
3. Palestinians and Israelis march together    15 July 2011, 7:45 pm
4. French ‘aid ship’ sails towards Gaza    18 July 2011, 4:00 am
5. Gaza-bound boat boarded by Israeli forces    19 July 2011, 1:17 am
6. Gaza protest boat forced into Israeli port    19 July 2011, 10:02 am
7. Israel’s anti-boycott law a grave threat to free expression    20 July 2011, 5:27 am

Again, we’re confronted with the fight against those in power and how they use any means necessary to silence those who would object to their behavior. The State of Israel just seems to keep on going with its behavior and nothing seems able to touch it. What about international law? It doesn’t seem to apply.

Media:

1. Murdoch summoned to testify in hacking probe    14 July 2011, 6:42 am
2. Murdoch to answer phone-hacking questions    14 July 2011, 11:54 am
3. FBI probes 9/11 ‘phone hacking’ allegations    14 July 2011, 7:55 pm
4. Top Murdoch executive quits over hacking    15 July 2011, 2:33 am
5. Murdoch ally Rebekah Brooks arrested    17 July 2011, 8:30 am
6. Phone-Hacking Scandal Escalates: Rupert Murdoch Fights to Save His Life’s Work    18 July 2011, 11:49 pm
7. Murdoch attacked at British MPs’ hearing    19 July 2011, 9:23 am
8. Murdoch denies responsibility for hacking    19 July 2011, 10:49 am
9. The World from Berlin: ‘News Corp Can Only Survive if Murdoch Goes’    20 July 2011, 5:48 am
10. Cameron ‘regrets’ hiring ex- Murdoch editor    20 July 2011, 12:09 am

Who hasn’t been paying attention to the phone-hacking scandal? For me, this ongoing drama is all about Murdoch and how he’s tried to run the world for his own gain and with his own agenda, no matter what anybody else may have wanted. It’s all about the wealthy and powerful trying to control everything and get away with whatever they can. How will it end? Will it (please please please) bleed over and wipe out Fox News? We can only hope that the investigations go deeply enough … but with the media outlets in the hands of the criminals, well, I’m thinking that it will wind up as “business as usual.”

Medical Technology:

1. Genome Revolution Is Skipping Nonwhites    13 July 2011, 10:00 am
2. The Web Is Your New Memory    20 July 2011, 11:36 am
3. Hearing Loss in Teens Linked to Secondhand Smoke    21 July 2011, 9:37 am
4. Health care apps under FDA scrutiny    22 July 2011, 7:13 am

Medical Technology is a bit of an odd category of interest, here. I find it fascinating, though, to consider the interactions of technology and society (links 1, 2, and 4), and advances in medicine are sometimes just interesting for their own sake.

Miscellany:

1. The World from Berlin: ‘The US Is Holding the Whole World Hostage’    15 July 2011, 4:54 am
2. Indian Official Puts Public Webcam in Government office    18 July 2011, 4:13 am
3. Justice Department Trips in Anthrax Case — Again    20 July 2011, 1:15 pm
4. Irish PM attacks Vatican over abuse cover-up    20 July 2011, 4:01 pm
5. Pneumatic logic board made entirely from wood doubles as desk/organ    20 July 2011, 11:03 pm
6. Harvard and class    21 July 2011, 12:43 am
7. New Reactor in Tennessee: Safety Concerns Cloud US Nuclear Renaissance    21 July 2011, 6:52 am
8. Frequent TV Viewers More Likely to Vote on Looks    22 July 2011, 4:36 am

Miscellany: anything which didn’t quite fit into any other category. You’ll have to read the articles to find out what’s interesting about them, but I’m sure you’ll find them rewarding.

Museum / Library / Archive:

1. Old Dominion U. Professor Is Trying to Save Internet History    18 July 2011, 9:28 am
2. Imaging Technology Throws New Light on Ancient Artefacts    20 July 2011, 9:28 am

Technology as it applies to Museums, Libraries, and Archives.

Privacy:

1. Senators Ask Spy Chief: Are You Tracking Us Through Our iPhones?    14 July 2011, 6:26 am
2. Computer Search and Seizure: A Three-Panel Cartoon    15 July 2011, 3:04 pm
3. Australia: Coming soon, Travel Card That Tracks Your Moves    16 July 2011, 8:04 am
4. Meet the ‘Keyzer Soze’ of Global Phone-Tracking    18 July 2011, 4:00 am
5. Judge Grants Google ‘Street View’ Wiretap Appeal    18 July 2011, 3:47 pm
6. Internet Privacy: Resist the Temptations of the Cloud!    19 July 2011, 3:32 am
7. TSA Announces Privacy Overhaul of Nude Airport Scanners    20 July 2011, 3:31 pm

With advances come questions of privacy, particularly when the letter of the law doesn’t cover a particular innovation. When technology advances and certain things become possible which were impossible at the time law was drafted, society must decide what’s valuable. Privacy has suffered immensely because of advances in technology, and because of “the war on terror.” Personally, I don’t own a phone which can record my movements (my old phone works just fine, thanks), but I worry about the implications: just because it’s possible to do something doesn’t make it right to do it, even if it’s not technically illegal. I wonder about the evolution of law: when do we get to decide to make new ones, and don’t the people get any say in the matter? When technology is used against us, how do we fight back against that?

Robotics:

1. In Search of a Robot More Like Us    13 July 2011, 11:30 am
2. Zoobotics    13 July 2011, 11:35 am
3. ‘Octobot’ Could Save Your Life    19 July 2011, 6:34 am

Come on: robots are just cool!

Security:

1. DHS Claims Foreign Suppliers Have Embedded Malware in U.S. Electronics    13 July 2011, 11:32 am
2. Hotmail banning common passwords to beef up security    14 July 2011, 6:16 pm
3. Internet Bill Could Help Hackers, Experts Warn    15 July 2011, 8:49 am
4. Of Mice and Compromised Keyboards…Malware Goes Peripheral    16 July 2011, 7:15 am
5. Epic Marketplace caught stealing history by Stanford Security Lab    19 July 2011, 12:00 pm
6. Skype Bug Lets Users Hijack Accounts    20 July 2011, 4:42 am
7. Fragmenting the Internet Is Not a Security Solution    20 July 2011, 12:26 pm

Read article number 5. Understand that it’s possible for anybody to do such a thing. Why should you care? Well, your browsing history tells a whole lot about you. Have you had health problems & asked the internet about it (66% of Americans have done so)? What do you think that could be used for? Would your life insurance company like to know? Well, maybe they’ll find out by scraping your internet history. It’s technically possible, it’s not illegal (yet), and it’s worrisome.

Social Media:

1. Lady Gaga’s YouTube account is suspended    18 July 2011, 12:21 pm
2. Twitter to Track Dengue Fever Outbreaks in Brazil    20 July 2011, 9:29 am
3. AmEx hoping to get ‘likes’ on Facebook discounts    22 July 2011, 7:13 am

Social Media is just such a strange place. I’m fascinated by the interesting uses to which social networks can be put (link 2) as well as some of the hype surrounding them. Where will it go next?

Technology:

1. The Rise and Fall of the Independent Developer    13 July 2011, 12:49 pm
2. Computer Learns Game by Reading Manual    13 July 2011, 12:52 pm
3. Do No Evil? Google’s Deceptive Practices Harm Consumers    15 July 2011, 5:34 am
4. Facial recognition false positives lead to license revocations in Massachusetts    17 July 2011, 1:35 pm
5. Belgian newspapers: Google blocking us on searches    18 July 2011, 7:01 am
6. Google v. Belgium “link war” ends after years of conflict    19 July 2011, 11:54 am
7. Bill Gates wants to reinvent the toilet for mankind    19 July 2011, 12:35 pm
8. Computer Beats PC Game After Reading Manual    20 July 2011, 8:00 am
9. Photonic Neuron May Compute a Billion Times Faster Than Brain Circuits    20 July 2011, 9:29 am
10. Machines to Compare Notes Online?    20 July 2011, 9:29 am
11. Boost your productivity: Cripple your technology    20 July 2011, 9:31 am
12. People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs    21 July 2011, 4:52 am
13. Do Authors Dream of Electric Book Signings?    22 July 2011, 2:55 am

The “technology” category of links tends to be a bit of a hodge-podge, although not so much as that of “miscellany.” Read about the toilets (link 7), though. And link 11, about how technology doesn’t make productivity better but actually makes it worse. Link 12, of course, should be obvious … but the reasons behind why it’s true are worth a read.

War:

1. U.S. Cyber Approach ‘Too Predictable’ for One Top General    15 July 2011, 8:49 am
2. Arrest of ex-CIA lawyer sought over drone use    17 July 2011, 1:46 am
3. We could’ve had the Moon, but instead …    19 July 2011, 4:39 am

News about war is never pleasant. I tend to focus, though, on uses of technology in warfare (link 1), and on how international law plays out in this arena (link 2). It’s interesting to me, too, to consider just how many resources go into the whole mess (link 3). I tend to be very much a pacifist, personally, so of course I’m going to object to the situation. That aside, though, I really wonder whether all options were considered; is there such a thing as a rational decision to go to war? CAN there be such a thing as a rational decision to go to war? And who would you trust to make such a decision?

I hope you’ve enjoyed this altered format. Do let me know if there’s another type of news I should be gathering and sharing. For future links I’m going to try to write down my ramblings as they occur, rather than trying to remember them after I’ve already had T. listen to me go on about them.

-D