This is quite a week for the tinfoil hat brigade. I’ve been seeing two particular stories over and over in my social network feed and I feel compelled to address them. Let’s talk about the rant about social network and photos first. I’m not going to link to it, because I don’t want to see […]
Archive | Culture
Google To Sell Digital Textbooks Dirt Cheap
Google made several big announcements yesterday, and while most people (including yours truly) are excited about the second generation Nexus 7 and Chromecast, Google announced another service that has the potential to be a major game changer for education. Google Textbooks will launch in early August 2013, just in time for the start of classes. […]
Do This: Type The Konami Code While On Vogue’s UK Website
It may be a statement on the fashion industry’s predilection to return to previous fashion trends. It might be a comment on the assumed need for fashion models to look a certain way being an outdated idea. Or it could be that someone on Vogue’s website staff is a fan of old school video games. […]
Faraday Cages In Your Kitchen
Paranoiacs rejoice! Last week, Heather Murphy of the New York Times explained that Edward Snowden had lawyers place their cell phones in a refrigerator to block the signals, using the fridge as a makeshift Faraday cage. Murphy quoted Adam Harvey, a countersurveillance products designer, who said that a martini shaker is a foolproof Faraday cage that can […]
Google Celebrates LGBT Pride Month With Search Engine Easter Egg
In a post earlier this month on the Google+ home for Life at Google, the company spoke up about its involvement in LGBT Pride Month. From Silicon Valley LGBTQ mixers to Hangouts with Google Executives, planning a successful Google Pride is about more than coordinating the colors of the rainbow. Gayglers from all departments of […]
Senator Wendy Davis Versus Texas Republicans; Internet Versus 24-Hour News Networks
Moments ago, a riot and a revolution almost happened in Texas over women’s reproduction rights. According to TV news, there was nothing worth reporting. Thousands of people viewing the live feed of the proceedings, the people reporting on social media like Twitter and Facebook, and throngs of people numbering in the high hundreds to lower […]
Edward Snowden Boards Wikileaks Airlines
Edward Snowden has taken the world on a wild ride over the last two and a half weeks, revealing first a pair of massive NSA surveillance programs, and then his own identity, motives, and level of access to the sort of information he revealed. This weekend, Snowden himself became the focus of the story. On […]
Social Media Takedown On Juneteenth When Paula Deen Found Being Racist
We here at Techcitement aren’t usually judgmental folk. We leave that for BuzzFeed, Reddit, or Gawker. However, it’s not a far reach to say that the butter-pushing star of Food Network, Paula Deen is a truly awful person. If you’re unfamiliar with Paula Deen, she’s spent a lifetime promoting high-fat, high-calorie diets that usually involve […]
Just Because You’re Paranoid… Part 1: Securing Your Email
The news has been awash with stories lately of how the National Security Agency has the ability to access the telephone records and internet usage patterns of Americans and possibly others around the globe. Our own website featured an article on this subject when the story first broke over a week ago. While bringing down a […]
NSA Demands Verizon Turn Over Caller Database
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Do […]