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HOWTO write more secure free/open source software Scottish mall-cop: it's illegal to take pictures in the mall; Scottish cop: photographers can have their devices confiscated under terrorism laws UK press has mass-credulity moment on national porn filter Disney, Dali, and toy trains Chaos Computer Club cracks Germany's illegal government malware, a trojan that spies on your PC and lets anyone off the street hijack it Occupy Wall Street sign of the day: Sasha, 7, painting "Homes for the Homeless" Lunchbox guitar Two children of the earth photographed next to a quarter Why fixers will save our planet Stick-on crooked teeth for beauty Seth Roberts: Grandmother knows best about Crohn's Disease Former Weezer bassist "predicted" own death? Megamash: retro Flash game requires you to mash up vintage genres to win Steam-powered car from 1884 sells for $4.6 million Book/CD of 78 RPM recordings and antique music-related photos Vampire fangs bottle opener Excellent Nollywood movie trailer: Mass Destruction Video of Survival Research Labs at LA MOCA last weekend Rich and Tasty: Recipes for the New Class Warfare Science Fiction Encyclopedia beta online The Matrix is a remix October 31st is Jesusween The Harry Potter/Glass Family Connection Wall Street Spirit Goldman Sachs, Lockheed pay Congress supercommittee members in charge of cutting budget Bigfoot discovered on sun (photo) DoD warming on cool energy? Haunted mirrors: half-silvered glass over creepy pictures Gweek 020: MAD's Al Jaffee Pratchett's Snuff: a rural/nautical tale of drawing-room gentility, racism, and justice HOWTO write more secure free/open source software
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 11, 2011 09:33 am Having recently conducted a security audit of several free/open source software programs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Chris Palmer and Dan Auerbach have published some guidelines for improving security in free/open software: Avoid giving the user options that could compromise security, in the form of modes, dialogs, preferences, or tweaks of any sort. As security ...
Read in browser Scottish mall-cop: it's illegal to take pictures in the mall; Scottish cop: photographers can have their devices confiscated under terrorism laws
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 11, 2011 08:00 am A security guard in Braehead shopping centre near Glasgow questioned a man who was taking pictures of his young daughter looking cute while eating an ice-cream. The guard told him that photography in the mall was "illegal" and demanded that he delete any photos he'd taken while there. When the man told him he'd already ...
Read in browser UK press has mass-credulity moment on national porn filter
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 11, 2011 06:52 am A media theory moment: UK media outlets are reporting on the government/ISP deal to "block child pornography", and are universally regurgitating the press release's language, saying this will "block adult content at the point of subscription." I've yet to see any of them adopt a more rigorous, neutral phrasing, like "Some pornography, and things that ...
Read in browser Disney, Dali, and toy trains
By David Pescovitz on Oct 11, 2011 05:17 am Here's an excellent photo of Walt Disney and Salvador Dali admiring what I presume to be Walt's model train. It was likely taken around the time of their collaboration, Destino. Production on that film began in 1945 but it didn't premier until 2003. (Thanks, Mark Pedersen!)
Read in browser Chaos Computer Club cracks Germany's illegal government malware, a trojan that spies on your PC and lets anyone off the street hijack it
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 11, 2011 05:11 am Germany's Chaos Computer Club published the sourcecode for a piece of malware used by the German government to spy on citizens. The software was discovered in the wild and reverse engineered. It can be used to spy on or control remote PCs. Because of flaws in the software, anyone who was infected with this by ...
Read in browser Occupy Wall Street sign of the day: Sasha, 7, painting "Homes for the Homeless"
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 11, 2011 04:08 am Scott Matthew of Turnstyle tells Boing Boing: Hi Xeni, saw your post about the signs of Occupy Wall Street, and thought I'd share ours. Amy (Cory blogged her autism story a few weeks ago) and took our seven-year-old daughter Sasha to visit Occupy Wall Street last Sunday. She was very interested in the many signs ...
Read in browser Lunchbox guitar
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 11, 2011 12:53 am My daughter and I built a guitar out of a lunchbox this weekend. It actually sounds better than the cigar box guitars I've built. For frets, it uses toothpicks. If you decided to listen to this sample of how it sounds, please remember that I am a horrible guitar player.
Read in browser Two children of the earth photographed next to a quarter
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 11, 2011 12:12 am I found these waterlogged insects in my backyard yesterday. I prefer to call them "children of the earth," but they are also known as "potato bugs" and "jerusalem crickets." Click image for a closer look. From Wikipedia: Common myths: As is true for other large arthropods (e.g. solfugids), there are a number of folk tales ...
Read in browser Why fixers will save our planet
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2011 09:34 pm My pal Kyle Wiens, founder of iFixit, is in Africa with Wired's Brian X. Chen to make a documentary about "e-waste in Africa, and the repair technicians who turn our unwanted junk into coveted treasures." He'll be reporting regularly on The Atlantic's Technology website. How can we fight entropy? For starters, repairing our broken possessions ...
Read in browser Stick-on crooked teeth for beauty
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2011 08:17 pm [Video Link] Hooray for stick-on crooked teeth! (Via Dangerous Minds)
Read in browser Seth Roberts: Grandmother knows best about Crohn's Disease
By Seth Roberts on Oct 10, 2011 08:07 pm Seth Roberts is the author of The Shangri-La Diet and posts at Seth's Blog about personal science, self-experimentation, and the scientific method. [Video Link] Crohn's Disease is a type of inflammation of the digestive tract. In most cases, it causes unremitting diarrhea, several times per day. In America, about 1 person in 1000 has it. ...
Read in browser Former Weezer bassist "predicted" own death?
By David Pescovitz on Oct 10, 2011 07:35 pm Weezer's former bassist Mikey Welsh tweeted the above on September 26. Then he followed up with, "correction - the weekend after next." Guess what? He died on Saturday. In Chicago. According to CNN, "a cause of death had not yet been determined."
Read in browser Megamash: retro Flash game requires you to mash up vintage genres to win
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 10, 2011 07:21 pm Play This Thing reviews Megamash, a weird chimeric Flash game that combines several kinds of play and requires players to figure out how to use the mechanics of each genre to solve puzzles: At first, it seems like a simple platformer in which you play a bunny collecting carrots and avoiding enemies. But half-way through ...
Read in browser Steam-powered car from 1884 sells for $4.6 million
By David Pescovitz on Oct 10, 2011 07:01 pm This lovely steam-powered jalopy, built in 1884, is said to be the oldest automobile still running. It sold at auction on Friday for $4.6 million. From CNN: The four-wheeled De Dion-Bouton et Trepardoux, nicknamed "La Marquise," was originally built for the French Count De Dion, one of the founders of the company that built it. ...
Read in browser Book/CD of 78 RPM recordings and antique music-related photos
By David Pescovitz on Oct 10, 2011 06:50 pm Record label/publisher Dust-to-Digital -- creators of Victrola Favorites and Take Me To The Water, have just released what appears to be another exquisitely-packaged book and CD set. I Listen To The Wind That Obliterates My Traces is a collection of vintage vernacular photographs related to music paired with a selection of 78rpm recordings that are ...
Read in browser Vampire fangs bottle opener
By David Pescovitz on Oct 10, 2011 06:35 pm Check out Gama-Go's Bite Me! bottle opener. Sharp!
Read in browser Excellent Nollywood movie trailer: Mass Destruction
By Xeni Jardin on Oct 10, 2011 06:35 pm Video Link. Nigerian films have better trailers than movies from any other country in the world. Always. (via Robert Popper)
Read in browser Video of Survival Research Labs at LA MOCA last weekend
By David Pescovitz on Oct 10, 2011 06:06 pm Last month, I broke the news that Survival Research Laboratories was restoring their first ever machine, the "De-Manufacturing Machine" (1979), for a group exhibition titled "Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974–1981" that just opened at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Above is video of the machine in action at the show ...
Read in browser Rich and Tasty: Recipes for the New Class Warfare
By Anonymous on Oct 10, 2011 06:00 pm .post img {margin-bottom:0px; } .captioned {font-size:14px;text-align:right;color:gray; } Portrait of a cute mature couple enjoying themselves while preparing food — Yuri Arcurs. Rich and Tasty: Recipes for the New Class Warfare A book proposal by Anonymous. High Concept: It now seems inevitable that the downtrodden will succeed in wresting power, wealth and influence from the elite. ...
Read in browser Science Fiction Encyclopedia beta online
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 10, 2011 05:34 pm A "beta edition" of the Science Fiction Encyclopedia's third edition (which is online-only) is up and available to the public. I served as a volunteer advisor to the project, and can't wait to see how it progresses as the millions of words' worth of canonical research finds its way online. (via Scalzi)
Read in browser The Matrix is a remix
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 10, 2011 05:16 pm Everything is a Remix, the short video series previously featured here, is back with a new installment on The Matrix, in which Rob Grigsby Wilson and his friends trace the influences, lifts, cribs, and sneaks that went into the Wachowskis's "original" movie. (via Neatorama)
Read in browser October 31st is Jesusween
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2011 05:03 pm [Video Link] Kids around the nation will be happy to hear that Jesusween celebrators plan keep their candy for themselves and instead "give out Bibles and Christian gifts -- in a friendly way!" on October 31.
Read in browser The Harry Potter/Glass Family Connection
By Nathan Pensky on Oct 10, 2011 05:03 pm J.D. Salinger published very little, considering his literary legend. His place in classic American literature of the 20th century is secured mostly by his single novel The Catcher in the Rye, his collection of short fiction Nine Stories, and his series of short stories and novellas known collectively as the Glass Family saga. His idiosyncratic ...
Read in browser Wall Street Spirit
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 10, 2011 04:33 pm Musician Dan Bull (YouTube) created this rap mix of Radiohead's Street Spirit to honor the protests in New York and elsewhere. "I made the song because I believe the monetary system needs to be reviewed, and the peaceful nature of the protests inspired me to get involved," he writes. "Being in the UK I couldn't ...
Read in browser Goldman Sachs, Lockheed pay Congress supercommittee members in charge of cutting budget
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2011 04:12 pm Keeping things honest, Washington style. Deep-pocketed corporate interest are writing big checks to members of the supercommittee, the group of 12 senators and members of Congress who have been tasked with coming up with a plan to cut over $1 trillion from the budget in the next decade. Ten members of the committee got $83,000 ...
Read in browser Bigfoot discovered on sun (photo)
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2011 03:54 pm Astrophotographer Alan Friedman took this photo of a large, vaporous Sasquatch taking a stroll on the surface of the sun. Sunsquatch (Via Neatorama)
Read in browser DoD warming on cool energy?
By Rob Beschizza on Oct 10, 2011 03:38 pm A document revealed under the Freedom of Information Act suggests that the U.S. government is interested in low-energy nuclear reactions, but remains cautious due to the issues such as the "lack of robust experimental verification and rigorous peer review." [New Energy Times. Thanks, M!]
Read in browser Haunted mirrors: half-silvered glass over creepy pictures
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 10, 2011 03:11 pm Etsy seller Bionicbuttercup makes "haunted mirrors": "Originally a picture frame, the glass was painted with a special paint that allows it to be part functioning mirror, part gateway to the paranormal (or, rather, you can just see the picture of the creepy kid behind the glass.)" (via Super Punch)
Read in browser Gweek 020: MAD's Al Jaffee
By Mark Frauenfelder on Oct 10, 2011 03:00 pm Ruben Bolling and I had a terrific time interviewing one of our heroes, the amazing Al Jaffee, who has been a member of MAD magazine's usual gang of idiots for 56 years (his work has appeared in every issue, save one). Best known for his MAD Fold-in, which has appeared on the inside back cover ...
Read in browser Pratchett's Snuff: a rural/nautical tale of drawing-room gentility, racism, and justice
By Cory Doctorow on Oct 10, 2011 01:23 pm Snuff, Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld novel is an absolute treat, as per usual. It's a Sam Vimes book (there are many recurring characters in the Discworld series, whose life stories intermingle, braid and diverge -- Sam Vimes is an ex-alcoholic police chief who has married into nobility) and that means that it's going to be ...
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