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KTamas shared this story from DOGHOUSE.

Okay fine it’s not quite that bad, but seriously, that’s what it feels like sometimes.

KTamas shared this story from The Verge - All Posts.

Toby’s Estate Coffee in Brooklyn should be my favorite local coffee shop. The Australian company’s first US location is big and bright, with ample seating, great service, and terrific coffee — the ultra-expensive Strada variable-pressure espresso machine behind the bar sees to that. It’s also full of attractive young people hellbent on challenging traditional notions of fashion, beauty, and exactly what constitutes a pair of pants. The entire experience is delightful.

There’s only one problem: there are exactly zero power outlets in the joint.

The lack of power is rumored to be deliberate; a gentle way to keep patrons from lingering all day over laptops while sipping $2.75 Americanos. Sure, you’ll see the occasional...

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Is this the elusive Jersey Devil as some Redditors have speculated? Perhaps it's the dreaded Chupacabras? Or a bastard cousin of the Montauk Monster? The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation claims it's just a furless squirrel. But then, that's what they'd want us to think. "Mystery Solved" (NJ.com)

    

On the eve of the G8 summit (taking place in a specially prepared Potemkin village in N. Ireland), the Guardian has published another Edward Snowden leak, this one describing how the UK spying agency GCHQ aggressively spied upon delegates to the G20 summit in 2009. According to the documents, UK spies attacked foreign delegates by "reading their email before they do" intercepting their BlackBerry messages and calls in real-time; capturing logins at special Internet cafes so as to spy on delegations after the event; getting NSA reports on attempts to crack Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev's satellite calls; and continuously logging and analyzing who was calling whom.

The report suggests that British delegation was briefed throughout, and that the operation was "sanctioned in principle at a senior level in the government of the then prime minister, Gordon Brown.

A briefing paper dated 20 January 2009 records advice given by GCHQ officials to their director, Sir Iain Lobban, who was planning to meet the then foreign secretary, David Miliband. The officials summarised Brown's aims for the meeting of G20 heads of state due to begin on 2 April, which was attempting to deal with the economic aftermath of the 2008 banking crisis. The briefing paper added: "The GCHQ intent is to ensure that intelligence relevant to HMG's desired outcomes for its presidency of the G20 reaches customers at the right time and in a form which allows them to make full use of it." Two documents explicitly refer to the intelligence product being passed to "ministers".

According to the material seen by the Guardian, GCHQ generated this product by attacking both the computers and the telephones of delegates.

One document refers to a tactic which was "used a lot in recent UK conference, eg G20". The tactic, which is identified by an internal codeword which the Guardian is not revealing, is defined in an internal glossary as "active collection against an email account that acquires mail messages without removing them from the remote server". A PowerPoint slide explains that this means "reading people's email before/as they do".

The same document also refers to GCHQ, MI6 and others setting up internet cafes which "were able to extract key logging info, providing creds for delegates, meaning we have sustained intelligence options against them even after conference has finished". This appears to be a reference to acquiring delegates' online login details.

Another document summarises a sustained campaign to penetrate South African computers, recording that they gained access to the network of their foreign ministry, "investigated phone lines used by High Commission in London" and "retrieved documents including briefings for South African delegates to G20 and G8 meetings". (South Africa is a member of the G20 group and has observer status at G8 meetings.)

I love that BlackBerrys are singled out as especially easy to intercept, something that is widely rumored. The entire piece is amazing, with specific revelations of spying. I'd love to know what the G8 delegations are making of all this as they head to NI. Perhaps GCHQ could tell us?

GCHQ intercepted foreign politicians' communications at G20 summits [Ewen MacAskill, Nick Davies, Nick Hopkins, Julian Borger and James Ball/The Guardian]

    

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remlat0:

tessék csak tessék, itt látható minden,
ami eddig rejtve volt, csak a szemének higgyen.
ez ingyen van hidd el, majszolj el egy fruttit,
itt mindenki arra van, hogy megmondja a tutit.

fiú és lány között itt lehet csak barátság,
s hogy a csengőhangod milyen, az releváns sajátság,
hogy pesti…

kelt shared this story from Boing Boing.

The Star Trek actor George Takei Takei, writes about being interned in Arkansas and California internment camps along with his Japanese-American family during WWII, a particularly important rememberance in the face of the out-of-control US spying revealed in the Edward Snowden leaks:

As I write this, once again the national dialogue turns to defining our enemies, the impulse to smear whole communities or people with the actions of others still too familiar and raw. Places like the museum and Rohwer camp exist to remind us of the dangers and fallibility of our democracy, which is only as strong as the adherence to our constitutional principles renders it. People like myself and those veterans lived through that failure, and we understand how quickly cherished liberties and freedom may slip away or disappear utterly.

Why We Must Remember Rohwer (via Reddit)

KTamas shared this story from i'm good at being uncomfortable.

a dublini meeting brilliánsan sikerült, a flamand koen pl. beavatott minket, hogyan kell politikusok előtt lepipálni egy banánimportőrt állami támogatásért folyó tárgyalásokon.
este az se szegte kedvünket, h a holland bas felnézve a telefonjából közölte, h a szomszédjukat délután a nyílt utcán lelőtték, de hát drogdíler volt, van ilyen. mondjuk most nem tudja, ki fog vigyázni a nyulukra míg ők elutaznak, mert eddig a drogdíler szittelte.

szépirodalom vs. banán: 1:0
maffia vs. nyúlbarát drogdíler: 1:0

deadheadingcrew:

ollirehn:

ollirehn:

fikanick:

galaxisriporter:

nulldisco:

mivoltmaaneten:

:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Na jó, egy gyönyörű sztori. Emlékszem hogy Balogh Ákossal leveleztem anno 2010 elején a valasztas.hu honlapjáról, mert felkért mint szakértőt hogy röviden írjak az akkor 17 millió Ft-ért elkészült fejlesztésekről.

Ha tudtam volna hogy Balogh Ákos fél évvel azelőtt eljátszotta ugyanezt kicsiben…

2.35 milliós fejlesztési költség + havi 190 üzemeltetési díj 2009-10-ben egy ILYEN honlap esetében az ugyanaz a kategória mint ahogy a valasztas.hu-nál is brutálisan túlszámlázták az összegeket.

Szóval kedves Balogh Ákos, te ugyanaz a kategória vagy mint az összes többi kormányzati és önkormányzati korrupciót megvalósító bűnöző, maximum nem akkora szinten, viszont Simicska legalább nem áll ki pontifikálni arról hogy hol húzódik az erkölcsi mérce, meg nem tetteti függetlennek és újságírónak magát.

A kurva anyádat.

Az intellektuális kurvaanyázás mindig nagy hatással van rám, elgondolkodtat.

A WaybackMachine archívuma szerint 2009-ben, az átalakítást megelőzően ilyen volt a józsefvárosi oldal. Az új oldal felépítését mi terveztük meg, a szerződés emellett tartalmazta a dizájnt, a tartalomkezelő funkcióinak programozását, valamint a beüzemelést/betanítást, a végén pedig az önkormányzaté lett a forráskód további felhasználásának joga - ez került 2,35 millió forintba. Tudom, tudom, ügyes kezű középiskolás unokaöcséd a haverjával feleennyiért kétszer ilyen jót csinált volna.

A valasztas.hu publikus felületet ilyen volt 2006-ban, majd ilyen lett 2010-ben, a 17 milliós fejlesztés után. Meg lehet nézni a kifinomult arculati változásokat, a megannyi új funkciót. 

A rosszabb vagy, mint Simicska jelzőnek meg kétségtelenül ott a helye a vitrinemben, a kaftános unoka és a szélsőjobboldali hecclap újságírója mellett.

Az igazan lenyugozo az egeszben, ahogy meg mindig nem erted. Ha az Eiffel-tornyot epitetted volna fel 100 Eurobol, akkor is egy propagandista kis patkany vagy, ha szemelyreszabott palyazatokon indulsz, biztos gyozteskent. 

a mandinerrol es koreirol akkor se fog semmi kiderulni soha, mert es itt a lenyeg, annyira kispalyas amatorok, hogy soha nem fognak rendes penzt lekaszirozni a propagandista melok miatt. ez van, ez a modern kori bayer zsoltik kenyere, egy kis jobbklikk uzemeltetesi penz, egy kis onkoris honlap, egy kis ez az, evi 100M-t nem lepi tul a tortenet. apropenzekbol is lehet a kutyakat etetni. :D es ha ebbe belegondolok, akkor hangos rohoges jon ram es csapkodom a terdemet kozben :DDDD

btw a gerenyi gaboros sztoriline-ra mikor fog vegre feny derulni? remelem megirja a cuki kis retrospektiv blogjaba!!!!!! HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

ideje van a születésnek és ideje van a halálnak.

whistlermamaja:

a félmeztelen kisfiú nagyon ki van borulva, mert a szülei kerti partiján a bekarmolt felnőttek szétcseszik a trambulinját

In the past, media and information was sparser, thus great works of art, music and literature shone brightly for great periods of time. In turn, a person’s relationship with media was cherished, deep, profound. This environment enabled art, media and literature to embed themselves not only into people, but into culture. Some of which still have an impact to this very day.

Today we are drowning in media. The value of media has plummeted and society treats it as such. People’s relationship with it is casual, disposable, temporary. This new relationship poses an issue for great works made in this new reality. The ability to stand out is a monumental feat. The difference between great and mediocre can be subtle, taking time to discern. Time people no longer commit. It’s easy to miss a masterpiece in the daily flood of information consumption.

In turn, the market has responded. Media creators deliver quickly accessible pieces of work to appeal to shorter attention spans and our casual relationship with media. Reality TV, microblogs, status updates. Those all exist for a reason. Additionally, creating media is easier than ever, which has brought a new segment of media creators – often referred to as everyone. We are bludgeoned with amateur photography, citizen journalism and part-time bloggers (like myself). Content creators used to be comprised only of those willing or able to commit themselves to the craft, for the purpose of making a living. The resources, training, and commitment it took to support oneself allowed only a select few to make it. Marissa Mayer recently declared the end of the professional photographer. Her statement is sad, but carries a lot of truth.

The flood of information, decreased attention span, and democratization of media creation has created a signal to noise ratio so low that there is essentially no recognizable signal. In the fortunate case where something great does rise above the fray to get noticed, it likely will not stand out for an extended amount of time. Nothing has time to embed in our lives, let alone our culture.

None of this thinking is new, but we are still trying to make sense of what will be the result of it. One postulation I have is that we’ve effectively seen the end of prolific singular works. There will be no great American novel, no Mona Lisa, no 9th Symphony. The age of immortality is over.

Our work may be forgotten, but its “genes” can now be passed down through the mashups, iterations, memes and references found down the stream. In X years time, no one will remember a great piece of work, but they will unknowingly see it in its descendants.

In the past, people aspired to create something that would be remembered past their life. If I’m right, people will need to settle for a blip on the radar of consciousness but a recognizable, yet unnoticed family tree of descendants. There’s no way to stop this unless people consciously decide to change their behavior en masse. Consuming content will continually require less time, money and effort. It will require a dedication to move against the path of least resistance. In my most optimistic moments, I’m skeptical.

In some ways this is good. This environment could create less demigodery and cult of celebrity. More focus on evolution. More segments of the population able to participate, allowing greater diversity and faster mutation. In many ways, the process of intellectual work would mimic evolution in nature. The network makes our ideas a “living” species.

Still, I wonder if some will look back with regret of what was lost. There will be fewer if no singular beacons to rally around. No peaks of humanity to aspire towards. Our work will simply be another link in the evolutional chain.