John Oliver on Apple and Encryption

Geek Fun: Your Printer Is Doomed

This is hilarious.

IRS NSA LOL

Here's a hilarious follow-up to the pathetic Lois Lerner "lost emails" mess. 

Look at this headline. Just look at it: "IRS Claims Two Years Of Emails Were Destroyed In A 'Computer Crash;' Congressman Asks The NSA To Supply 'Missing' Email Metadata."  Bwahaha!

This is also a perfect excuse to listen again to the NSA Slow Jam, as Alessandra just said.  Well, I never need an excuse to post a Remy video, so here you go.

"Boohoo, My Computer Crashed."

I wouldn't take this excuse from my students.  Why should we take it from Lois Lerner?  Come on.  Anyway, "my computer crashed" is the updated version of "the dog ate my homework."

Nerd News: Publishers Withdraw 120+ Fake Research Papers

Here's the sordid tale:

The publishers Springer and IEEE are removing more than 120 papers from their subscription services after a French researcher discovered that the works were computer-generated nonsense. 

Over the past two years, computer scientist Cyril Labbé of Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, has catalogued computer-generated papers that made it into more than 30 published conference proceedings between 2008 and 2013. 

The "nerds behaving badly" tag is for the publishers who clearly had sloppy vetting practices.  My response:

So You're Not Paranoid If They Really Are Spying On You

My technophile buddy Alessandra would like you to know that she was right after all about digital privacy: "I told you so."

Satire Alert: "Terrified Obama Trapped Inside Healthcare.gov Website"

The Onion strikes again, taking an easy shot at the website debacle.

Life Imitates Science Fiction: 10 Examples

10 Sci-Fi Predictions That Became Science Fact by alltime10s

Geek News: What Happens When Authorities Don't Understand Technology?

Nothing good, my digital darlings.  Get ready for increasing clashes of the geek culture war.  SOPA/PIPA was just one battle, since Luddite authorities have never let their own ignorance stand in the way of concocting idiotic, heavy-handed "responses" to things they don't understand.  Here's a bit from the linked post:

We've obviously been covering a lot about Aaron Swartz lately, but his case is really just one of many similar cases involving people in positions of authority who simply don't understand basic technology, but feel that something must be illegal because they try to overlay an analog view on a digital world.

What Fresh Hell Is This? Email Privacy

Oh yeah, I'm sure this is going to turn out frickin' awesome:

A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.

CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans' e-mail, is scheduled for next week.

Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.

UPDATE: Given universal outrage, Leahy backs off. Good.

Life Imitates Satire: Taliban Accidentally CC's Everybody On Its Mailing List

Hitting "reply all" is apparently a universal office communications hazard, whether you're a mild-mannered software engineer or a bloody-minded evil terrorist.

LOL: Your Geeky Pop Culture Joke of the Day

If I have to explain, it's not funny anymore.

The 2012 Turing Award

The "Nobel Prize of Computer Science," this year's Turing Award goes to UCLA professor Judea Pearl with the citation "For fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence through the development of a calculus for probabilistic and causal reasoning." 

Kudos, sir!  Aside from his outstanding academic work, Professor Pearl is also the father of Daniel Pearl, and he intends to donate a part of the Turing Prize money to the Daniel Pearl Foundation.

Friday Fun Video: the Ultrabook Laptop Ad

Flame On!

This is a surprise to just about nobody.  Still, the story reads as though it's blaming Israel for ... something.  So ... is this like playing "good cop/bad cop"?  Like saying, "Sure, Iran, we and Israel teamed up to make this awesome cyberweapon to eat your computers, but then those darn loose-cannon Israelis went off and did stuff on their own, so you should be better to us since we're not like that"?  (Good luck with that, pal.)  On a geekier note, I'm tickled that Flame hid by masquerading as a routine Microsoft software update.  On a nerdier note, I'm tickled again that the thing is called Flame and that it was part of an operation code-named Olympic Games.

Geek News: Senator Ron Wyden Slams Cybersecurity Legislation Proposals For Eroding Trust & Privacy

We killed SOPA/PIPA, but now there's CISPA with its assault on privacy.  Check out what Senator Wyden (D-Oregon) has to say: "CISPA is an example of what not to do."  Again: Privacy should be the default, not the exception.  Remember this?

Handwriting Font!

Make a font from your own handwriting.  Very cool -- provided that you have legible handwriting.

Hahvahd Eggheads Versus SOPA

Harvard Researchers Explain That SOPA Supporters Are Misusing Their Research To Support SOPA.  Read it from Harvard Law School with this at the end:

... our decade-long study of Internet filtering and circumvention has documented the many problems associated with Internet filtering, not its overall effectiveness.  DNS filtering is by necessity either overbroad or underbroad; it either blocks too much or too little.  Content on the Internet changes its place and nature rapidly, and DNS filtering is ineffective when it comes to keeping up with it.  Worse, especially from a First Amendment perspective, DNS filtering ends up blocking access to enormous amounts of perfectly lawful information.  We strongly resist the claim that our research, and that of our collaborators, makes the case in favor of DNS-based Internet filtering.

3 More Thoughts on SOPA ... and a Cool Video

One, two, and three.  Do read.  See too this.  Plus evidence that SOPA will never work, because the geeks will fight back.

Geek Fun: Google's Majel vs. Apple's Siri

Yes, MAJEL.  Rejoice, Trek fans!  You have compatriots working at Google.