technology

Cost to Store All US Phonecalls Made in a Year in Cloud Storage so it could be Datamined

"Because of recent news reports, I wanted to cross check the cost feasibility of the NSA’s recording all of the US phonecalls and processing them. These estimates show only $27M in capital cost, and $2M in electricity and take less than 5,000 square feet of space to store and process all US phonecalls made in a year. The NSA seems to be spending $1.7 billion on a 100k square foot datacenter that could easily handle this and much much more. Therefore, money and technology would not hold back such a project– it would be held back if someone did not have the opportunity or will." Continue reading →

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A Computerized, Desktop Metal Fabricator for $1,400?

"So, you don’t want plastic guns made on a 3-D printer? You want a metal gun. You don’t care about metal detectors at an airport. You are concerned about gun registration. It looks as though your answer is almost here. Possibly by the end of summer, you will be able to buy a computer-driven desktop metal fabricator. So will a lot of people. Within five years, this technology will be everywhere. This is the wave of the future. We are going back to what we had in 1790: cottage industries. Only the cottages will be factories. This is decentralization on a scale we can barely imagine. Sales taxes? Gone. Tariffs? Gone. Registration? Gone. Buy a blueprint, download it, and DIY." Continue reading →

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Agorism’s Tech Triumvirate

"Both Bitcoin and Bitmessage rely on Internet access to function, and despite valiant efforts by supporters to create ad-hoc networks for protesters, it's still often within the State's power to prevent reliable access to many. The third emerging technology relevant here is Meshnet. Meshnet is a free and open-source project that aims to provide robust network access in the face of deliberate attempts by 'authorities' to restrict Internet access and censor online speech. Meshnet works by dynamically creating networks of wireless routers. Each router becomes a node in the network, relaying connectivity to other routers in its physical vicinity." Continue reading →

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Spy-Coins.Com

"On the 'Products' page is a complete list of our fully functional hollow spy coins. They are all precision machined from actual coins, and are absolutely indistinguishable from a solid coin to the naked eye. They can be safely handled without danger of separation, and could easily circulate without detection. These products are proudly made in The USA. Although the technology of the hollow coin is not new, the data media is. Many of our coins are specially machined to secure the MicroSD Memory Card, which has capacities of several gigabytes." Continue reading →

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Microsoft Waits to Fix Your Software Bugs So the NSA Can Use Them First

"In a move as fiendishly clever as it is galling, Microsoft tells the U.S. government about bugs in its notoriously buggy software before it fixes them so that intelligence agencies can use the vulnerabilities for the purposes of cyberspying. 'That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes,' sources tell Bloomberg's Michael Riley. But still, the biggest software company on Earth is holding off on its blue-screen-of-death problems to turn them into real-life spy features, an impressive feat that will no doubt frustrate consumers." Continue reading →

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Firefox plug-in warns users of NSA surveillance

"Justin Blinder released a plugin for the Web browser Firefox this week, and he’s already seeing a positive response in the press if not just based off of the idea alone. His 'The Dark Side of the Prism' browser extension alerts Web surfers of possible surveillance by starting up a different song from Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic 'The Dark Side of the Moon' each time a questionable site is crossed. Blinder told the Guardian that he built the program over the course of four hours with the hopes he could 'create some sort of ambient notification that you are on a site that is being surveiled by the NSA.'" Continue reading →

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Secret Court Ruling Put Tech Companies in Data Bind

"In a secret court in Washington, Yahoo’s top lawyers made their case. The government had sought help in spying on certain foreign users, without a warrant, and Yahoo had refused, saying the broad requests were unconstitutional. The judges disagreed. That left Yahoo two choices: Hand over the data or break the law. So Yahoo became part of the National Security Agency’s secret Internet surveillance program, Prism, according to leaked N.S.A. documents, as did seven other Internet companies. Like almost all the actions of the secret court, the details of its disagreement with Yahoo were never made public beyond a heavily redacted court order." Continue reading →

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Tech Companies Concede to NSA Surveillance Program

"When government officials came to Silicon Valley to demand easier ways for the world’s largest Internet companies to turn over user data as part of a secret surveillance program, the companies bristled. In the end, though, many cooperated at least a bit. The negotiations shed a light on how Internet companies, increasingly at the center of people’s personal lives, interact with the spy agencies that look to their vast trove of information — e-mails, videos, online chats, photos and search queries — for intelligence. They illustrate how intricately the government and tech companies work together, and the depth of their behind-the-scenes transactions." Continue reading →

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Facebook releases government surveillance data

"Several Internet companies have struck an agreement with the U.S. government to release limited information about the number of surveillance requests they receive, two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters. Facebook became the first to release aggregate numbers of requests, saying in a blog post that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 requests for user data in the second half of 2012, covering 18,000 to 19,000 of its users’ accounts. Other Internet companies are expected to release numbers of government requests without breaking out how many originate from the National Security Agency, the sources said." Continue reading →

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Missouri Appeals Court Strikes Down St. Louis Red Light Camera Ordinance

"Missouri's second-highest court on Tuesday ruled the St. Louis municipal ordinance authorizing the use of red light cameras is invalid. St. Louis adopted the photo ticketing ordinance in 2005, without the permission of the state legislature. American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the private company in charge of the program, began issuing $100 red light camera tickets in 2007. The measure presumes the owner of the vehicle is always the person driving it, which allows the city to prosecute the owner through the mail with penalties of up to $500 and ninety days in jail." Continue reading →

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