Digital Era’s step one:
> Don’t use Windows. Just don’t. This also means don’t use the Tor Browser Bundle on Windows. Vulnerabilities in the software in TBB figure prominently in both the NSA slides and FBI’s recent takedown of Freedom Hosting.
To be fair to Windows, the recommendation is *not* OS X — Macs aren’t even mentioned.
Chrys Bader on the pending demise of Facebook:
> As your Facebook network becomes saturated, it can feel very public. It puts the focus on managing your image, rather than truly bonding with people. Young startups like Snapchat are providing shelter from the institution of Facebook by serving as a place where you can express yourself comfortably. A place where you don’t feel like your every move is being watched.
He has some really good points, which can be applied more broadly than just to Facebook.
Josh Gerstein:
> “I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying it and analyzing it without judicial approval,” wrote Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush.
Hope.
Great work from Anna Hill showcasing how deceptive ads are when it comes to beauty (well and probably just about anything other ad).
I think a lot of people now realize that *every* magazine type image is photoshopped, but I don’t think many people realize just how much things are photoshopped. Or, more importantly, just how easy it is.
There are countless YouTube videos and NAPP tutorials that you can watch — all that walk you through quick and easy steps to make (usually) women look more “inline” with magazine models. Some common ones that I can think of off the top of my head (ones that would take me no more than 10 minutes to do on a slow day):
– Disproportionately scale the image size so that you shrink the width of the image by 1-2%. This gives a thinner/trimmer look to the face/body and is hard to perceive even if you know the model well in real life.
– Add a Gaussian blur over the skin to make it porcelain smooth. (For men you do the opposite, looking to add contrast and sharpness to make more pronounced “manly” stubble.)
– Obvious: remove any blemishes, moles, and stray hairs.
– Whiten teeth to match white of the eye, which the white of the eye has had most veins removed from it.
– Isolate the iris on the eye and boost the vibrancy to get more colors/contrast/pop.
– Isolate the eyes and make each one bigger.
– Isolate the lips and make each on bigger.
– Grab the liquify tool and shape to Barbie like perfection.
And on, and on…
Peter Eckersley:
> A moment ago, it looked as though Google cared about this massive privacy problem. Now we have our doubts.
The best part about the above, is that you could apply it to any year from 2003 on.
Back in January of 2012, I wrote this short little 7-step post on how to fix BlackBerry. After reading [this oral history of BlackBerry](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-05/the-rise-and-fall-of-blackberry-an-oral-history), I think my how-to is more than adequate.
When I posted about not being able to find old images, many reminded me that archive.org has them. I spent some time grabbing those images and putting them back into the posts they belong in. Crisis adverted.
They are in need of funding though, I donated $100, and you should donate something too.
Diane Bartz:
> Former Google Inc executive Michelle Lee has been named deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and will run the agency until a new director is named, the agency said on Wednesday.
Word in D.C. is that the USPTO is heavily shopping around LinkedIn for Samsung execs to fill the top spot.
Miyoung Kim for Reuters on Apple’s reaction to having a case thrown out where Samsung was trying to ban sales in South Korea:
> “We are glad the Korean court joined others around the world in standing up for real innovation and rejecting Samsung’s ridiculous claims,” Apple Korea spokesman Steve Park said.
I like Steve Park.
Stacey Higginbotham:
> AT&T said Wednesday that it has started service in four Austin neighborhoods with an offer to bring its GigaPower fiber-to-the-home service for $70 a month — but with a pretty big catch.
> If you want to pay the lower rate you must agree “to participate in AT&T Internet Preferences.” This means, “AT&T may use your Web browsing information, like the search terms you enter and the Web pages you visit, to provide you relevant offers and ads tailored to your interests.”
Higginbotham says that it is highly likely this is a direct response to Google’s fiber roll out, so we can still blame Google for this.
Susan Wyatt:
> May said the TSA agent went through the bag, through the sewing supplies and found the two-inch long pistol.
> “She said ‘this is a gun,’” said May. “I said no, it’s not a gun it’s a prop for my monkey.”
> “She said ‘If I held it up to your neck, you wouldn’t know if it was real or not,’ and I said ‘really?’” said May.
Dipshits.
John Cassidy:
> According to Time, its award, which will be bestowed on Wednesday, goes to the person who, in the opinion of the magazine’s editors, had the most influence on the news. By this metric, it’s no contest. In downloading thousands of files from the computers of the electronic spying agency and handing them over to journalists like Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Barton Gellman, Snowden unleashed a torrent of news stories that began in May, when the Guardian and the Washington Post published a series of articles about the N.S.A.’s surveillance activities. Seven months later, the gusher is still open.
Nope, they choose Pope Francis. I think I remember seeing a news story or two about him, I think.
John Carey is now selling prints of his images and I now cannot decide which one(s) to buy.
Ashkan Soltani, Andrea Peterson, and Barton Gellman:
> Apps transmit their locations to Google and other Internet companies because ads tied to a precise physical location can be more lucrative than generic ads. But in the process, they appear to tip off the NSA to a mobile device’s precise physical location. That makes it easier for the spy agency to engage in the sophisticated tracking techniques the Post described in a story Dec. 4.
It makes perfect sense for the NSA to use data from cookies to track targets, because ,as the article says, nearly everyone has a Google cookie on their machine. This site serves three: WordPress (I think there may be two here, one for WP stats and another for your login/remember me), Mint (self-hosted analytics), and Go Squared. I am now considering removing all three, especially since I don’t need the stats to show advertisers. ((I mostly use stats to see who is linking in to me, and how well received each post is.))
There are many options for limiting how many cookies your computer stores, but it does break some websites and at the very least is fairly annoying. It’d be less profitable if Google removed the unique ID, but it is the best thing they can do for users.
It seems to me a more effective solution than an open letter for tech giants would be one, or all, of the following:
+ Refuse to give any money to any political candidate.
+ Refuse to sell your products to any governmental agency. Including SaaS products. (Never going to happen, but would be great.)
+ Create a pooled ad budget (like the one to promote this letter) to run ads (video and print) demanding reform.
This will never happen, but I still occasionally dream.
Great look at the practical downside of automated government spying.
MG Siegler:
> Think about how ridiculous that is for a second. A web browser needs a feature to make it easier to actually read on the web.
Ellen Nakashima:
> Morale has taken a hit at the National Security Agency in the wake of controversy over the agency’s surveillance activities, according to former officials who say they are dismayed that President Obama has not visited the agency to show his support.
Maybe if their PowerPoint slides weren’t so fucking bad President Obama would put them up on the fridge and everyone could feel better.
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