thenatureofmind

Out in the Open: Inside the Operating System Edward Snowden Used to Evade the NSA

When NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden first emailed Glenn Greenwald, he insisted on using email encryption software called PGP for all communications. But this month, we learned that Snowden used another technology to keep his communications out of the NSA’s prying eyes. It’s called Tails. And naturally, nobody knows exactly who created it.

Tails is a kind of computer-in-a-box. You install it on a DVD or USB drive, boot up the computer from the drive and, voila, you’re pretty close to anonymous on the internet. At its heart, Tails is a version of the Linux operating system optimized for anonymity. It comes with several privacy and encryption tools, most notably Tor, an application that anonymizes a user’s internet traffic by routing it through a network of computers run by volunteers around the world.

Out in the Open: Inside the Operating System Edward Snowden Used to Evade the NSA | WIRED.

Wikileaks, Bitcoin and Raspberry Pi named by UK trust for promoting 'inspiring social change'

A global list celebrating “the people and organisations who are using digital technology to change the world for the better” has spotlighted a number of technological projects including Wikileaks, Bitcoin and Raspberry Pi.

The inaugural addition of the Nominet Trust 100 (NT100) admitted that whilst Wikileaks “may not be everyone’s cup of tea”, the site has created a “new model to combine investigative journalism and whistle blowing for the digital age, in the name of transparency, free speech and better government.”

 

Wikileaks, Bitcoin and Raspberry Pi named by UK trust for promoting 'inspiring social change' - The Independent.

BitTorrent's Taking Out Pro-Torrenting Billboards and They're Awesome

"Torrenting" is kind of a dirty word. It makes you think piracy, doesn't it? Well it shouldn't. Torrenting isn't illegal. It's not even morally ambiguous. It's just a way to send data, and it's awesome. Those are the points BitTorrent's trying to drive home with its rad new ad campaign.

Mysterious, anonymous billboards started going up a few weeks ago in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. All of them simple black text on a white background, spouting downers about regulating the internet and how great the NSA is. You know, the kind of ads The Man would take out.  

BitTorrent's Taking Out Pro-Torrenting Billboards and They're Awesome

Will Congress Unfriend Mark Zuckerberg?

Sen. Jay Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) plans to retire next year after nearly three decades in public office. But first, he's making a last-ditch effort to protect Americans' privacy in the digital age by reintroducing his "Do-Not-Track Online" Act. The bill would give consumers, as Rockefeller puts it, "the opportunity to simply say 'no thank you' to anyone and everyone collecting their online information" and would slap heavy fines on companies that steal your information.

Will Congress Unfriend Mark Zuckerberg?

Op-ed: Moving from an age of Internet scarcity to abundance

Consider your last electrical appliance purchase. Did you pause to think if your home could handle the increased electrical demand? No, because our electrical networks are built around the principle of abundance, not scarcity.

Op-ed: Moving from an age of Internet scarcity to abundance

Forget The Sequester: Entrepreneurs Are Saving The Future

Imagine a world with unlimited food, water, and energy—in which we prevent disease rather than cure it and in which our lifespans increase along with our wisdom and knowledge. This is what entrepreneurs are making possible. They are leveraging rapidly advancing technologies in a wide range of fields to do what only governments and big labs could do before: solve humanity’s grand challenges. They are creating technologies that will allow us to go from battling over scarce resources to debating how we share and distribute the bounty that we create.

Forget The Sequester: Entrepreneurs Are Saving The Future

Colorful 'solar glass' means entire buildings can generate clean power

A solar power company capable of "printing" colourful glass that can generate electricity from the sun's energy announced a £2m funding boost on Tuesday.

Oxford Photovoltaics, a spin-off from the University of Oxford, said the investment from clean-tech investors MTI Partners will help its solar glass, which can be dyed almost any colour, take a step closer to the commercial market.

Colorful 'solar glass' means entire buildings can generate clean power

Paradise or Oblivion

The Empire Lobbies Back: How Big Cable Killed Competition in North Carolina

After a city in North Carolina built a Fiber-to-the-Home network competing with Time Warner Cable, the cable giant successfully lobbied to take that decision away from other cities.

The Empire Lobbies Back: How Big Cable Killed Competition in North Carolina

Robots and Robber Barons

The American economy is still, by most measures, deeply depressed. But corporate profits are at a record high. How is that possible? It’s simple: profits have surged as a share of national income, while wages and other labor compensation are down. The pie isn’t growing the way it should — but capital is doing fine by grabbing an ever-larger slice, at labor’s expense.

Robots and Robber Barons