From Net Neutrality to the Net’s New Tragedy
Whether it goes under the guise of SOPA, CISPA, TPP, or the NSA there has been plenty of evidence of late that the Internet is under assault by acronyms. The … Continue reading
Towards Which Utopia in 2014?
The start of a new year is the socially sanctioned moment when people are encouraged to engage in optimistic dreaming. People “resolve” that in this year they shall achieve some … Continue reading
In 2014…they’re resolved to keep watching…
It may be an understatement to claim that 2013 was an interesting year. Though it may also be a rather meaningless statement seeing as any year could be described as … Continue reading
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (and the NSA was watching)
Twas the night before Christmas, and all thro’ the house The only sound to be heard, was the click of a mouse; The family used their digital devices with little … Continue reading
(Probably Not You) – A review of Jaron Lanier’s Who Owns the Future?
These days there is barely time to get a firm grounding in the latest technological status quo before the whole situation changes again – often dramatically. A person can just … Continue reading
What Will 2014 Bring for Libraries?
Libraries survived 2013. Libraries will also survive 2014. This is not to suggest that all libraries, and by extension those who work in them and care about them, had a … Continue reading
Surveillance!? We’re Shocked! Shocked!
Of all the victims of the NSA’s massive surveillance effort – from world leaders to you to civil liberties and privacy – there is one particular group that has been … Continue reading
Is Privacy Really A Priority?
Would you be willing to get rid of your smartphone to protect your privacy? What about e-mail, would you close your account if it meant that you could be certain … Continue reading
They’ll Keep Watching Us…
The crowds gathered at a public protest seldom represent the true numbers that agree with the protestor’s cause. Whether prevented from attending by the physical obstacle of distance, financial obstacle … Continue reading
How Cheaply We Are Bribed…
Without meaning to be rude or insulting, here is a question for you to ponder: how cheaply can you be bought off? How lavish a bribe would need to be … Continue reading
Q: Who gets shut out in the shutdown? A: All of us.
At this point, it seems almost too quaint to refer to the situation in Washington D.C. as “the government shutdown.” While this certainly retains much truth to it – after … Continue reading
Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You…
If one is willing to look for them, political history supplies no small supply of darkly amusing parallels. October 1, 2013 marked the start of a government shutdown, but on … Continue reading
A Government Shutdown Keeps the Power On
In technological times it is easy for people to understand the concept “shut down.” It’s what one does with computers, and numerous other gadgets. When one is finished one selects … Continue reading
Banned Books and Budget Cuts
The honor “Banned Book” does for a book what a leather jacket did for James Dean. Before it was handsome, now it’s handsome with a vaguely rebellious air. For those … Continue reading
From Occupy to Preoccupied
Unsuccessful social movements are doomed to become fodder for academics and cause for continual quibbling amongst those who had once participated. Granted, the very question of “success” (and therefore “unsuccessful”) … Continue reading
Rotten to the Core
The new Apple product never falls too far from the technical tree; and the digital fruit that is picked from the orchard this season is rarely significantly different from the … Continue reading
Does it Matter Who Leads Microsoft Next?
When a massive technology corporation declares that their current CEO will be retiring in the next year to be replaced by an as-yet-unnamed successor this may simply appear to be … Continue reading
A More Connected World (to mine for data)
For those with a speedy Internet signal and a multitude of sleek technological toys at their (non-metaphorical) fingertips it can be easy to forget that much of the world (billions … Continue reading
A Prequel to 1984? Just look around…
If George Orwell had decided to write a prequel to his novel 1984 it is conceivable that the tale would look very much like a description of our current times. … Continue reading
Luddism for These Ludicrous Times
A specter is haunting our technological society – it is the specter of General Ludd. Granted, Luddite is generally not considered to be a complementary term. Most of the time, … Continue reading
Trystero’s e-mail account – Mailpile!
Regardless of what gets revealed about the surveillance that takes place though our technological devices, the fact remains that most people (the vast [vast!]) majority are not going to actually … Continue reading
Surveillance Fever! The infection spreads…
By the end of the day on August 5, 2013 a person in the US could be forgiven for thinking that the major news of the day was that an … Continue reading
The Cell is the Phone – Defining Our Machine Wrought Maladies
It was in 1983, a year before the age immortalized in authoritarian auspiciousness by George Orwell, that a judge in New Mexico began the program of monitoring people’s movements with … Continue reading
If the NSA is the Fever, is the Internet the Disease?
Confirmation came on July 31, 2013, of what many had feared, but which few had possessed the hard factual evidence to establish as more than a flight of paranoia. The … Continue reading
To Live Justly in Unjust Times
Key to the concept of democracy is the notion that those who are elected to serve the people will be good stewards of this responsibility. That these individuals will recognize … Continue reading
How Not to Heed a Warning
“The public was actively misled.” With those five words Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) provided further evidence of the need for whistle blowers in an age where the concept of an … Continue reading
A RoboCop Statue Amidst the Rubble – Distraction, Dystopia, Detroit
In dystopian fiction, the path that led to these crumbling civilizations is obscured by a haze of ash. While there may be general allusions to the historical event (a calamity … Continue reading
Grifting, Garbage and Graph Search
Money is much beloved by tech companies and major websites, yet it is hardly the most important thing for them. What glitters most brightly is not gold, but information. Granted, … Continue reading
Happy Days or Happy Daze? (A permission slip to not care about privacy)
When a scandal goes on too long, particularly one that touches many areas of our lives, we can quickly become inured to it. And as more NSA misdeeds came to … Continue reading
When Tinfoil Hats Become Fashionable…
Have you yet had the odd, if rather disconcerting, pleasure of walking by somebody wearing Google Glass? It can take a moment to recognize what has just occurred, after all, … Continue reading
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