Ken's Weblog

People should not fear their governments; governments should fear their people.

Month: October 2013

  • Quote of the Day

    I have used Siri about 10 times.

    Honestly, I barely talk to people, why would I talk to my phone.

    Greg Pierce

  • An accurate prediction

    Five years ago, I wrote this:

    Expe­ri­ence sug­gests that if Obama does indeed win the elec­tion, the Obames­siah cult will praise him to the heav­ens for con­tin­u­ing to do exactly the same things that Bush has been doing for the past eight years, while the Bushe­viks will con­demn him as the Antichrist for doing exactly the same things that Bush has been doing. And of course none of them will ever acknowl­edge that their “beliefs” have reversed overnight, any more than they did when Bush replaced Clinton.

    Unsurprisingly, I was right.

  • Cause and Effect

    Swartz-Designed Whistleblower Tool “SecureDrop” Launched. An anonymous reader writes in with news about a new tool for whistleblowers/ “The ‘strongest-ever’ whistleblowing tool for sources to speak anonymously with journalists, partly developed by the late Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz, has been launched by the Freedom of The Press Foundation. Before his suicide in January 2013, Swartz had been working on a tool for sources to anonymously submit documents to journalists online, without using traceable email and in a way that could be easily catalogued by news organisations. Called SecureDrop, the tool can be installed on any news organisation’s website as a ‘Contact Us’ form page. But where these pages usually require a name and email address, the encrypted SecureDrop system is completely anonymous, assigning the whistleblower two unique identifiers – one seen by the journalist, and one seen by the whistleblower. These identities stay the same, so a conversation can be had without names being shared or known.” [Search Slashdot]

    I had no idea that Aaron Swartz had been working on such a tool until this story came out. It certainly explains why the Evil Empire was so determined to hound him to death.