Tag Archives | Internet

A Box For Manipulating The News On Other People’s Computer Screens

By on January 18, 2013 in News 3

The artistic creation of Julian Oliver and Daniil Vasiliev, the Newstweek device allows for “altering reality on a per-network basis” by literally changing the headlines on people’s screens:

Newstweek is a device for manipulating news read by other people on wireless hotspots. Built into a small and innocuous wall plug, the Newstweek device allows writers to remotely edit news read on wireless devices without the awareness of their users.

While news is increasingly read digitally, it still follows a top-down distribution model and thus often falls victim to the same political and corporate interests that have always sought to manipulate public opinion. Newstweek intervenes upon this model, providing opportunity for citizens to have their turn to manipulate the press; generating propaganda or simply ‘fixing facts’ as they pass across a wireless network.

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Aaron Swartz, America’s Mohamed Bouazizi: We’re in the midst of a revolution, which side are you on?

By on January 14, 2013 in News 12

via chycho

The United States is ripe for a revolution. People are pissed, and rightfully so. The only question that remains is if the restructuring will be peaceful, like what we saw happen in Iceland, or will it be violent, like what we see happening in Greece and Spain.

As Chris Hedges has implied on multiple occasions, the revolution is well on its way:

“I have seen my share of revolts, insurgencies and revolutions, from the guerrilla conflicts in the 1980s in Central America to the civil wars in Algeria, the Sudan and Yemen, to the Palestinian uprising to the revolutions in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania as well as the wars in the former Yugoslavia. George Orwell wrote that all tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but that once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force. We have now entered the era of naked force.

… Read the rest

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China’s Top 10 Internet Memes Of 2012

By on January 2, 2013 in News 2

When the first lolcats emerged, who imagined they would morph into a key tool for transmitting political dissent? The Wall Street Journal runs down ten Chinese memes of note of the past year, including Liu Bo is Very Busy, seen at right:

Protestors scored a double victory in the Sichuanese city of Shifang in July, scuppering plans for a molybdenum copper plant while simultaneously giving Chinese Internet users their own version of the Occupy movement’s Lt. John Pike (aka Pepper Spraying Cop).

The overzealous policeman in China’s case, identified by web sleuths as Liu Bo, was wielding a baton instead of pepper spray. Posting under the hashtag #LiuBoisVeryBusy in Chinese, Sina Weibo users published images of the rotund Mr. Liu bearing down on a variety of victims, including the distressed subject of Edward Munch’s “The Scream,” Chinese track star Liu Xiang and a terrified-looking puppy.

… Read the rest

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China To Mandate All Internet Users To Register With Their Real Names

By on December 29, 2012 in News 20

The days of secretly being a dog on the internet may not last much longer. Via the The Next Web:

The Chinese legislature has approved a proposal that includes stipulations for real-name registration requirements for Internet users, state media reported on Friday.

The new rules [are] meant to “enhance protection of personal info online and safeguard public interests.” It’s worth pointing out that the exact timing and the implementation of these regulations have yet to be sketched out.

The most likely solution will be the requirement of showing government-issued identification at the point of sale for Internet service providers, both fixed-line and wireless. Internet cafes will likely feel the squeeze if restrictions force them to keep close track of their clientele, and dissidents will be hurt by the new restrictions, as it will become more difficult for them to operate anonymously online.

… Read the rest

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Big Business Is Gaming You

By on December 24, 2012 in News 13

Your world is being gamed, reports Nick Wingfield in the New York Times:

Congratulations. Reading the first paragraph of this article has earned you a badge.

If this made-up award makes you feel good about yourself, then you are on your way to understanding gamification, a business trend — some would say fad — that aims to infuse otherwise mundane activities with the excitement and instant feedback of video games.

Many businesses are using these game tricks to try to get people hooked on their products and services — and it is working, thanks to smartphones and the Internet.

Buying a cup of coffee? Foursquare, the social networking app that helped popularize the gamification idea, gives people virtual badges for checking in at a local cafe or restaurant.

Conserving energy? More than 75 utilities have begun using a service from a company called Opower that awards badges to customers when they reduce their energy consumption.

… Read the rest

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Internet English Is Blur

By on December 14, 2012 in News 4

Photo: chrislb (CC)

Grammar police, start your engines. The Internet is corrupting the English language at an alarming rate per this report from the BBC News Magazine:

Online, English has become a common language for users from around the world. In the process, the language itself is changing…

There are now thought to be some 4.5 billion web pages worldwide. And with half the population of China now on line, most of them are written in Chinese.

Still, some linguists predict that within 10 years English will dominate the internet – but in forms very different to what we accept and recognise as English today.

That’s because people who speak English as a second language already outnumber native speakers. And increasingly they use it to communicate with other non-native speakers, particularly on the internet where less attention is paid to grammar and spelling and users don’t have to worry about their accent.

… Read the rest

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What’s Up With Hunter Moore?

By on December 6, 2012 in News 6

A certain segment of the tech crowd is aghast at the prospect of the return of Hunter Moore to the so-called “revenge porn” segment of the web. A breathless story by Jessica Roy in the New York Observer makes him out to be a modern day Antichrist of the Internet, but I can’t help feeling as though Moore is punking the Observer and its outraged readers – any insight from the disinfoverse?

…Mr. Moore is the proprietor of Is Anyone Up, which until last Spring was the web’s most prominent revenge porn hub, a site where spurned exes post embarrassing images of former lovers. Deemed The Most Hated Man on the Internet by Rolling Stone, Mr. Moore revels in his position as a professional antagonist, gleefully flinging around his favored retort—“I really don’t give a fuck.” He doesn’t sleep well at night, but not because his day job haunts him: he’s an insomniac.

… Read the rest

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The New Soft-Focus Lens Of War

By on December 3, 2012 in News 1

Via the The New Inquiry, Huw Lemmey on social media as tools of destruction:

By nightfall tonight that explosion which just shook your neighborhood, in one of the most densely populated areas on earth, will have been liked over 8,000 times on Facebook. Welcome to Gaza City.

The transmutation of territorial control today enters a new topography, an extension of the historical “propaganda war”: control of the networked space online. The IDF have run a comprehensive social media campaign from the first stages of the new assault, announcing the assassination of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari on Twitter, followed up by YouTube footage of his targeted killing within minutes.

Far from embracing ideas of a futuristic, dehumanising warfare, the instagrams of IDF, processed through the various “retro” and “soft-focus” filters, serve a dual purpose. The first purpose is that of historicization. Much as the hipstamatic literally filters the contemporary condition through the lens of the ’60s and ’70s, the use of “retro” filters removes the images of today’s IDF from their context within the current campaign of blockade and air assault and reframes them as part of the Israeli foundation story.

… Read the rest

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SOPA Author Likely To Head Congress’s Science, Space, And Technology Committee

By on November 29, 2012 in News 4

Popular Science reports on who will lead us into our bold and bright future:

Lamar Smith was not very popular with the Internet a while back. The GOP congressman from Texas sponsored the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which, you may recall, was not well-loved by much of the Internet. He also doesn’t believe global warming is man-made.

But now Smith is being recommended by his party to chair the Science, Space, and Technology committee, and he’ll probably end up with the job. This may be slightly controversial.

… Read the rest

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Man Arrested For ID Theft Of Most Of Greece

By on November 27, 2012 in News 2

It’s reaching the point where we probably should give up even trying to have identities. Via the Toronto Star:

Greek police have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing the personal data of roughly two thirds of the country’s population, police officials in Athens said on Tuesday.

The 35-year old computer programmer was also suspected of attempting to sell the 9 million files containing identification card data, addresses, tax ID numbers and licence plate numbers. Greece’s population is 11 million.

Police were also looking into whether the man had obtained the data files by hacking into a government server and whether he had an accomplice, officials said. The files were discovered after police raided his home.

… Read the rest

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