Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Tamper-proof tape used by the CIA to secure envelopes sent to FOIA requestors (Photo: Matt Novak) Today, tech nerds are obsessed with high-tech encryption. But if you ever send snail mail, you might want to take a tip from America’s intelligence community. The CIA sends out letters that are secured with a specific type of…
Peter Thiel giving a speech in July at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) The New Yorker has published a fascinating article about Silicon Valley tech titans who are buying up property in New Zealand as they prepare for the apocalypse. The super rich are worried about the poor…
Donald Trump has elevated Ajit Pai to chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, giving control over the agency to a reliable conservative who’s been opposed to pretty much every big action the commission has taken in recent years, from establishing net neutrality to protecting consumer privacy to restricting major cable mergers. Pai has been a…
No alternative facts about it: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer really loves tweeting about his food fixations. The headstrong spokesman — who criticized and stonewalled the press in his White House briefing on Saturday — has seen some viral attention for his five-year Twitter feud against Dippin’ Dots. Turns out that was merely one…
As an engineer for the U.S. Digital Service, Marianne Bellotti has encountered vintage mainframes that are still being used in production — sometimes even powering web apps. Last month she entertained a San Francisco audience with tales about some of them, in a talk called “7074 says Hello World,” at Joyent’s “Systems We Love” conference. Created under the…
There is a reason we live in a golden age of dystopian science fiction: Increasingly, it feels like it is coming true. From “The Hunger Games” to “Elysium,” stories depict a world in which the trend of growing wealth and income inequality continues to its logical conclusion. This narrative seems inevitable because it has occurred…
Image: Wall Street/20th Century Fox Sometimes, owning a smartphone feels pricy. There’s the hefty chunk of change you’ll need to spend on the phone itself, and then the monthly fee you’ll need to fork over to operate it. But for just $400 and the cost of a few old Zack Morris-style brick phones, you can…
Mozilla has a new logo, the latest in the company’s effort to rebrand itself as a modern technology outfit worthy of your attention. It’s no surprise that the company reaching to stay relevant in the face of plunging usage of its key product, the internet browser Firefox. Somewhere out there is a designer who still…
Palmer Luckey (AP Images) DALLAS — After being basically in hiding for 117 days, Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey spent his first full day back in the spotlight getting grilled by a feisty lawyer who tried to “make fun” of the fact Luckey had no college degrees. Luckey took the stand here in the northern…
The National Park service retweeted some sick Donald Trump burns, noting how, uh, lightly attended his inauguration was compared to Barack Obama’s in 2009. But now, the NPS has been ordered by its Washington support office to “immediately cease use of government Twitter accounts until further notice,” according to an internal email obtained by Gizmodo….