doctorow – Tech Today w/ Ken May

A 1×1 tracking pixel was used as evidence of treason against 30,000 Turks, sent tens of thousands to jail

When Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkish government took reprisals against hundreds of thousands of people suspected to have been involved in the failed coup of 2016, one of the criteria they used for whom to round up for indefinite detention as well as myriad human rights abuses (including torture) was whether people had a cookie on their computers set by a 1×1 tracking pixel served by Bylock, which the Erdogan regime says is evidence of support of exiled opposition leader Fethullah Gülen. (more…)

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A 1×1 tracking pixel was used as evidence of treason against 30,000 Turks, sent tens of thousands to jail

One quarter of New Orleans’ catch-basins were clogged to uselessness with 93,000 lbs of plastic Mardi Gras beads

London has fatbergs : glistening, multiton agglomerations of fat, sanitary napkins, “flushable” wipes, human waste, dirty diapers, used condoms, and delicious strawberry jam; New Orleans has 93,000 pounds of plastic Mardi Gras beads. (more…)

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One quarter of New Orleans’ catch-basins were clogged to uselessness with 93,000 lbs of plastic Mardi Gras beads

Floating 1,600dpi 3D projections made by pushing around flecks of cellulose and hitting them with a laser

Physicists at BYU have demonstrated a volumetric projection system that works by using a laser to unevenly heat single cellulose molecules in order to shove them around in 3D space, then painting the positioned molecules with lasers that cause them to glow; by choreographic both sets of lasers, extremely high-resolution moving images can be attained. (more…)

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Floating 1,600dpi 3D projections made by pushing around flecks of cellulose and hitting them with a laser

Deepfakes has democratized the creation of extremely realistic video faceswapping, especially in porn

Late last year, a redditor called Deepfakes gained notoriety for the extremely convincing face-swap porn videos he was making, in which the faces of mainstream Hollywood actors and rockstars were convincingly overlaid on the bodies of performers in pornography. (more…)

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Deepfakes has democratized the creation of extremely realistic video faceswapping, especially in porn

Self-destructing thumb drives with smoke loads, glowing elements, tiny explosives

MG’s Mr Self Destruct project takes the USB Killer to new levels, combining a $1.50 system-on-a-chip with a variety of payloads: smoke bombs, “sound grenades,” and little explosives, cleverly choreographed with keystroke emulation, allowing the poisoned drive to first cause the connected computer to foreground a browser and load a web-page that plays an appropriate animation (a jack-in-the-box that plays “Pop Goes the Weasel” with the drive’s explosive detonating for the climax). (more…)

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Self-destructing thumb drives with smoke loads, glowing elements, tiny explosives

EU standardizes edible insect rules

Alternative protein advocates in Europe have been stymied by the hodgepodge of national rules regarding insect consumption, but now the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will approve applications for edible bugs that will then be legal to serve to Europeans throughout the EU. (more…)

Federal prosecutors say that Ohio man used MacOS malware that covertly operated cameras and mics and exfiltrated porn searches for 13 years

An indictment in the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio’s Eastern Division alleges that Phillip R Durachinsky created a strain of MacOS “creepware” called Fruitfly, which was able to covertly operate the cameras and microphones of infected computers as well as capturing and sharing porn searches from the infected machines; the indictment alleges that Durachinsky used the software for 13 years, targeting individuals, schools, and federal agencies including the Department of Energy. (more…)

Disney’s 1998 copyright term extension expires this year and Big Content’s lobbyists say they’re not going to try for another one

In 1998, Disney led an entertainment industry lobbying effort that resulted in the term of copyright being extended by 20 years, even for works that had already been created — a law with an incoherent basis, given that the US copyright system is constitutionally constrained to passing laws to promote new creative works (giving creators more copyright on works they’ve already created doesn’t get them to make new ones, and it reduces the ability of new artists to remix existing works, the way Disney did with the Grimm’s fairy tales). (more…)

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Disney’s 1998 copyright term extension expires this year and Big Content’s lobbyists say they’re not going to try for another one

Israeli firm Cyberbit illegally spied on behalf of Ethiopia’s despots, then stored all their stolen data on an unencrypted, world-readable website

Researchers from the University of Toronto’s amazing Citizen Lab ( previously ) have published a new report detailing the latest tactics from the autocratic government of Ethiopia, ” the world’s first turnkey surveillance state ” whose human rights abuses have been entirely enabled with software and expertise purchased on the open market, largely from companies in western countries like Finfisher and Hacking Team. (more…)

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Israeli firm Cyberbit illegally spied on behalf of Ethiopia’s despots, then stored all their stolen data on an unencrypted, world-readable website

Verizon is finally killing Compuserve Forums

Compuserve’s sprawling, paleolithic forums were acquired along with Compuserve itself by AOL in 1998, and their fossil remains were augmented, year after year, decade after decade, by die-hard users who continued to participate there. (more…)

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Verizon is finally killing Compuserve Forums