Pluralistic: 08 Apr 2020

Today's links

  1. Solnit on the revelations of crisis: Pandemic speeds up processes that were too slow to notice.
  2. Nurse suspended for distributing crowdfunded PPE: Shame on Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.
  3. Cleveland Plain Dealer executed by union-busting owners: Firing health reporters during a pandemic.
  4. Monster-themed covid pinup PSAs: By Alejandra Oviedo.
  5. The Onion on Wisconsin's election: We need strategic Onion reserves for all our calamities.
  6. NSO Group says Facebook tried to buy its malware: NSO is worse than Facebook, but it's a close-run thing.
  7. How to pay for covid: Unearthing Keynes's "How to Pay for the War."
  8. Smart lock hemorrhages user data: And it broadcasts its unlock code over Bluetooth.
  9. TSA wanted to inspect 16 year old trans girl's genitals: Jon Corbett is on the case.
  10. Roger Fuckebythenavele vs Bannatyne Manuscript: Black Plague-era f-bomb eclipsed by 14th century frottage artist.
  11. Rube Goldberg feeding device: Now that's physical comedy.
  12. Public domain Zoom backgrounds: Fantastic backdrops for an absurd moment.
  13. This day in history: 2010, 2019
  14. Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 08 Apr 2020"

Pluralistic: 16 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Covid At Home: A guide for isolation, illness and recovery
  2. Trump wants a US-only vaccine: Reality has a well-known globalist/collectivist bias.
  3. Folding@Home to beat covid: 23 distcomp projects to give your CPU to.
  4. Italian hospitals fix their ventilators with 3D printed parts: Fablabs to the rescue.
  5. How to prepare for coming layoffs: A guide for techies junior, senior and prickly.
  6. Leaked Tiktok moderation guidelines are a censoring mess: No poors or ugly people welcome.
  7. Canceled Bar Mitzvah is still a mitzvah: Today I am a mensch.
  8. Shmoocon 2020 videos online: Hours of entertainment and infosec funnies.
  9. This day in history: 2005, 2010
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 16 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 15 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. HRDAG analyzes the best covid-19 studies: Ninja statisticians FTW.
  2. Chelsea Manning's supporters pay off her $256,000 fine in a day: She had our back so we have hers.
  3. The Onion is there for us: Doing for pandemic what they did for 9/11.
  4. The CIA's information security is really terrible: Root password was "123ABCdef".
  5. Euroleaks: exposing the secret workings of the Eurogroup: Where they decided to strangle Greece.
  6. Things to do with kids during lockdowns: A crowdsourced list.
  7. Covered Dish: A site for stories of mutual aid during a crisis.
  8. How to pull your business out of China: A guide for the anxious.
  9. This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 15 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 13 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Announcing the third Little Brother book, Attack Surface: And a new Little Brother/Homeland reissue, with an intro by Ed Snowden!
  2. Where I Write: A column for the CBC that's really about how I write.
  3. Stream 200+ global news channels: Each hand-picked, no registration required.
  4. AT&T's CEO fired 23,000 workers and gave himself a 10% raise: Life on the easiest setting.
  5. Chelsea Manning is free: But she's been fined $256K for refusing to testify to the Grand Jury.
  6. Rep Katie Porter forces CDC boss to commit to free testing: Literally the most effective questioner in Congress.
  7. Trump's unfitness in a plague: It's not because he's an ignoramus, it's because he's a nihilist.
  8. Malware that hides behind a realtime Covid-19 map: Peter Watts' prophecy comes true.
  9. Locked-down Siennese sing their city's hymn: A cause for hope in the dark.
  10. This day in history: 2015, 2019
  11. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 13 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 07 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Audio from last night's Canada Reads event in Kelowna: Thanks to Sarah Penton for being such a great interviewer!
  2. Gig economy drivers won't get sick-pay if they have covid-19 symptoms: Your Instacart driver is being incentivized to handle your food through his fever-sweats.
  3. Compromise threatens Intel's chip-within-a-chip: A bug in the Management Engine threatens five years' worth of Intel systems.
  4. The savior of Waterstones will turn every B&N into an indie: James Daunt has opened 60 profitable stores in his career.
  5. This day in history: 2015, 2019
  6. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 07 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 05 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Daniel Pinkwater wrote a new novel! Yippee for "ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL!"
  2. Warner Chappel discoved a new form of copyright fuckery so dense it blew a wormhole into another dimension: From the people who fraudulently claimed to own "Happy Birthday" for decades.
  3. RIP, Jim Tyre: The free internet just lost one of its most dedicated defenders.
  4. Decentralizing the web is a human problem: The web needs stewards, not owners.
  5. Right to Repair is the right to resilience: Independent repair is how we keep things going during emergencies.
  6. Keyless car fobs can be defeated with a cheap RFID cloner: Car manufacturers wontfix a showstopper bug. Again.
  7. Bookstores, libraries, human thriving and mental health: Books are great, even if the science behind their greatness is thin.
  8. Copyright experts' panel on fair use removed from Youtube: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
  9. Radicalized is out in paperback: Just hit every one of Canada's national bestseller lists, too!
  10. African Whatsapp modders are outcompeting Facebook: Adversarial Interoperability is how you beat digital colonialism.
  11. This day in history: 2015, 2019
  12. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 05 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 03 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense guide for students: Privacy is a team sport.
  2. Oregon's Dems have a supermajority, but the GOP won't show up for work: White nationalism is how plutes get turkeys to vote for Christmas.
  3. A Lever Without a Fulcrum Is Just a Stick: How to design a copyright to protect artists, not corporations.
  4. Facebook neutered "Download Your Data": "Your data" doesn't include a list of ad-tech companies that also hold your data.
  5. The EU's new copyright filters violate the GDPR: We told you so.
  6. Recycling spy agencies' malware for fun and profit: NOBUS is, and always has been, an idiotic idea.
  7. Japanese condiment company releases "sliced mayo": Comes in four flavors!
  8. Department of the Interior climate docs include junk science: Trump's man on the inside, sabotaging our future.
  9. This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 03 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic, your daily link-dose: 28 Feb 2020

Today's links

  1. Clearview AI's customer database leaks: Sic semper grifter.
  2. The Internet of Anal Things: Recreating Stelarc's "Amplified Body" with an IoT butt-plug.
  3. Oakland's vintage Space Burger/Giant Burger building needs a home! Adopt a googie today.
  4. Fan-made reproduction of the Tower of Terror: Even has a deepfaked Serling.
  5. Drawing the Simpsons with pure CSS: Impractical, but so impressive.
  6. Let's Encrypt issues its billionth cert: 89% of the web is now encrypted.
  7. AI Dungeon Master: A work in progress, for sure.
  8. How to lie with (coronavirus) maps: Lies, damned lies, and epidemiological data-visualizations.
  9. This day in history: 2019, 2015
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic, your daily link-dose: 28 Feb 2020"