Tech’s Masturbatory Historiography Stories by Rococo Modem Basilisk on Medium

Dec 102018
 

There’s this approach to computing history where we focus on work that looks shallowly similar to current norms, claim that work was ‘prophetic’ or ‘ahead of its time’, & mostly ignore differences & intent except as quirks. Because of the recent 50th anniversary of the Mother of All Demos, we’re getting a fresh batch of them. Fuck that.These folks weren’t trying to predict our current future. They were trying to create a future worth living in,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://medium.com/@enkiv2/techs-masturbatory-historiography-6d7ae12abf1f?source=rss-43a4cf6aa464——2

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Doom turns 25 – the FPS that wowed players, gummed up servers and enraged admins The Register

Dec 102018
 

Who cares about that, let’s whip out the BFG and blow up some of our coworkers On December 10, 1993, after a marathon 30-hour coding session, the developers at id Software uploaded the first finished copy of Doom for download, the game that was to redefine first-person shooter (FPS) gaming. Hours later IT admins wanted their guts for garters.…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2018/12/10/doom_turns_25/

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Congress Is Trying to Use the Spending Bill to Criminalize Boycotts of Israel and Other Countries American Civil Liberties Union

Dec 102018
 

Congress is trying to sneak an unconstitutional ban on political expression into the spending bill in order to avoid public scrutiny. According to recent reports, congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle are planning to sneak a bill criminalizing politically motivated boycotts of Israel into the end-of-the-year omnibus spending bill. The bill’s original sponsor, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), is pushing Democratic leadership to include this bill, which has not moved forward thus far primarily…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/rights-protesters/congress-trying-use-spending-bill-criminalize-boycotts-israel-and

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Rights Groups Turn Up Pressure on Google Over China Censorship Ahead of Congressional Hearing The Intercept

Dec 102018
 

Google is facing a renewed wave of criticism from human rights groups over its controversial plan to launch a censored search engine in China. A coalition of more than 60 leading groups from countries across the world have joined forces to blast the internet giant for failing to address concerns about the secretive China project, known as Dragonfly. They come from countries including China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, France, Kazakhstan,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://theintercept.com/2018/12/10/rights-groups-pressure-google-on-china-censorship-ahead-of-congressional-hearing/

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TSA’s Roadmap for Airport Surveillance Moves in a Dangerous Direction Deeplinks

Dec 102018
 

The Transportation Security Administration has set out an alarming vision of pervasive biometric surveillance at airports, which cuts against the right to privacy, the “right to travel,” and the right to anonymous association with others. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, which included language that we warned would provide implied Congressional endorsement to biometric screening of domestic travelers and U.S. citizens, became law in early October. The ink wasn’t even dry on that bill when…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/12/tsas-roadmap-airport-surveillance-moves-dangerous-direction

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New EU Piracy Watchlist Targets Key Pirate Sites and Cloudflare TorrentFreak

Dec 102018
 

In recent years the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has released several reports detailing “notorious markets” that contribute to large volumes of copyright infringement worldwide. The annual reports are aimed at guiding the U.S. Government’s position towards foreign countries where these sites and services are located. With a focus overseas, US-based platforms are not included. Earlier this year the EU announced that it would be following the example set by the United States…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/new-eu-piracy-watchlist-targets-key-pirate-sites-and-cloudflare-181210/

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