Category: Society & economy

The Krypton of Privacy

ATT: Your world delivered to the NSA.
Looks like we now know that the white underbelly of the beast lives just down the street — as well as what it looks like:

In San Francisco the “secret room” is Room 641A at 611 Folsom Street, the site of a large SBC phone building, three floors of which are occupied by AT&T. High-speed fiber-optic circuits come in on the 8th floor and run down to the 7th floor where they connect to routers for AT&T’s WorldNet service, part of the latter’s vital “Common Backbone.” In order to snoop on these circuits, a special cabinet was installed and cabled to the “secret room” on the 6th floor to monitor the information going through the circuits. (The location code of the cabinet is 070177.04, which denotes the 7th floor, aisle 177 and bay 04.) The “secret room” itself is roughly 24-by-48 feet, containing perhaps a dozen cabinets including such equipment as Sun servers and two Juniper routers, plus an industrial-size air conditioner.

And hey, the next time they hold a conference on “Intelligence Support Systems for Lawful Interception and Internet Surveillance”, let’s hold a BarCamp and riff on things like:

  • …lawful intercept of voice over the Internet (VoIP) and real-time Internet surveillance and the need for lawful interception and Internet surveillance
  • …what real-time Internet surveillance technology solutions are available, what tariffing mechanisms are available to pass costs off to the general public and how investments in Intelligence Support Systems (ISS) can generate a financial return without jeopardizing consumer privacy
  • …and how there are no lawful intercept or real-time Internet surveillance barriers that can’t be solved with adequate research and development investment and service provider commitments

That’s the spirit! Anything can be accomplished if you put your mind to it. Whether it’s right or wrong! Whohoo! Moral absolution!

Fuckers.

The state of the cowork

TEH

I have to make this quick. But I promised to get it out and it’s a good time to jot down a note or two about the State of the Cowork.

We had a meeting last week at Ritual with two new arrivals: Michelle and Wai Yip. That’s from a total of 81 members on our nascent Google Group.

We floated three courses of action:

  1. Pursue Ted‘s upholstery repair shop discovery
  2. Follow up with Schlomo about his place
  3. Look into the American Industrial Center down in dogpatch

…and at the very least set a course to do more research on AIS — resulting in this video from Ryanne and Michelle.

Coworking Vancouver -- aka WorkspaceInterestingly, much of what Ryanne says maps identically to what Bill MacEwan of Vancouver’s Workspace says in this video — which happens to coincide with some excellent photos of their newly renovated space on 21 Water St in Gastown.

So, this is where we’re at: We’ve got more information about AIS and it’s looking promising. It’s possibly not ideal in every respect (not streetfront, for one thing) but the space is pretty excellent in general and seems affordable for our needs. Riya is also donating furniture to our effort and, wouldn’t you know it, David Crow of Torcamp fame and Teh Boris of Vancouver’s Bryght have cooked up a business plan that’s nearly ready for publishing under CC license. Oh, and it’s no accident that Boris has decided to push forward with an independent Innovation Commons in Vancouver separate from Workspace.

Anyway, once that plan is out, we can start tossing in the numbers from our potential spots here in San Francisco and see what adds up… what kind of infrastructure we need, how many people we can support and what extra money we need to beg for… just kidding. But yeah, we’re close, we’re hungry and dammit, we’re goin’ to get Teh Space up this summer.

And apparently yet another person out there on the intarweb has a similar idea in Atlantic Canada. Those crazy Canadians…!

Calling all heros

Calling all heros

→ ..rant follows.. ←

Been reading Batman, The Dark Knight Returns after I found the series at a closing sale deep in the Mission. I always have loved Frank Miller’s work and this is no exception.

Reading comics now, when I’m 25, is a different experience than when I was younger, more naive, and perhaps less literate. And certainly just as much if not more visual. In fact the stories really never resonated with me much; sure I’d read them but I was much more into the art.

So reading comics now — comics only 10 years old but already classic in their own right — while reading the news, I wonder if we’re stuck in some weird life-imitating-art vortex. Or some alternate reality. Yeah, that must be it.

In which case, I don’t see any reason why I can’t put a call out for all remaining heros to show themselves. In fact, I’d call for amnesty on all of them, if they’d just come out and give us a hand and maybe provide, even for a fleeting moment, some semblance of a heroic ideal.

You see it in the movies in fact. You see it with characters like V. But those tales of hyper-violence that exist in the Matrix genre of reality are farcical, pretending to give us some deep clue about the inner reality of our time but only obfuscate the confusion and true alienation of our time.

I’m sorry, I can’t just call in an exit. I’m sorry, I just can’t take the blue pill. I’m sorry, I don’t have the strength of 40 men with the ability to absorb hundreds of bullets fired point-blank. I’m ordinary; I’m human; I’m no hero: I’ll die and make mistakes. And so I’m terribly desirous of someone who is some kind of superperson to come in and clean up the mess we’ve made.

. . .

No but see, I did the dishes tonight (– at least part of them). We had our pasta, we did the dishes. Has the President ever done dishes?

Look, I’m utterly distressed. I’m at a loss for a clear sentiment here — I mean, any hope of raising kids normally, with a sense of right and wrong and order is out the door, thanks to the most popularest-ever Decider in Chief. You do realize what’s going on, right? You do realize what else has been happening lately? You do realize that nothing the President says is true, is believeable, is trustable, is something that you should repeat with authority? That our credibility as a nation is in the ashtray? That this country — our country — is being lead by a baboon?

Fuck, the man signs a bill into law and then jots down the ways in which he’s not bound to play by them in the Federal Registrar. I mean, why have a system of courts? Why have a Constitution? Why did they fucking play that stupid ass “How a Bill is Made” video over and over in grade school when they left out the most important part: that the Supreme Dicktator isn’t bound to mortal laws… only the ones of His choosing.

. . .

That’s why I’m calling out the superheros. That’s why we need their help. There is no law in this country — not even the one that was supposed to get the person that we voted for the most into the White House — that applies to this administration. While the sniveling proletariet stutter through the metal detector conveyer belts that They Who Rule’ll never be subjected to, shovel $8 fuel into oversized steel death machines, while we foot the bill and they sip the champagne of Crusade Spoils and the rancorous chorus of the maligned, the disenfranchised, the disenchanted, dispirited, overpromised, underdelivered — the normals — grows deafening, the cracks begin to appear.

Jules from Pulp FictionBut they’ll not tumble without an unyielding force of righteousness — and without the help of the supers. I mean, badazz supers, like Batman. Or like Jules in Pulp Fiction. This is what he’d say, on the page right before the very last page of the series:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

Government gone wild III

ATT: Your world. Delivered. To the NSA.

What’s that line in Syriana?

“You’re not guilty until you’re investigated”?

Something like that.

And speaks volumes that, which seems terribly apropos, given that, without admitting any malfeasance, the government has decided to intervene in a civil case filed by the EFF against AT&T for their role in aiding the government spy on US Citizens.

You don’t see this often, folks, but yes, the government has decided to call up designated hitter “State Secrets Privilege“. Which basically reads “Ok ok, the jig’s up, you figured us out, game’s over. But now that you know, drop it. Don’t fuck with the government, or we’ll fuck with you.” (No really, I looked it up!).

Anyway, the case isn’t cold yet owing to a potentially independent-thinking judge — which is basically the Kryponite of this administration.

Anyway, food for thought from Gmail’s Quote of the Day:

Henry Ward Beecher – “The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government.”

Introducing: tequps

tequp logoI was up late last night chatting with Cris Pearson of Plasq (yes, the creators of Comic Life!) about his creation — the Aussie-born tequp!

He writes on the wiki:

A tequp is a local meeting with a global front. Get to know locals doing cool stuff, share startup/business experiences and talk about new technologies. Create, share and learn in an open environment.

Initially focussing on innovative software and internet development/design – but really, anything teq 🙂

Started in Melbourne, Australia, similarities to BarCamp where quickly noticed and have now teamed up to cross-polinate. Like the BarCamp model, tequp is open and meets are created by any interested people in their local area.

So we’re thinking of having one in late May at the NetSquared Conference — to present the work we’ve done at WineCamp the weekend leading up to the gala event. Oh, and if you’re a developer and interested in going to this sold out event, drop an email to Billy Bicket (billy -at- compumentor dot org) expressing your desire to attend.

Jelly: the gateway drug to coworking

Jelly

Amit‘s effort to open up House 2.0 for a type of new work (which he calls “Jelly” and smacks of SuperHappyDevHouse meeting Coworking) is heating up…

He writes:

We had another Jelly today and we’ve really started to hit a good stride with it. Today’s crew included me, Luke, JCN, Joshua, and Jackie. We got work done, had lunch outside at Bryant Park a block away, and had some great conversations.

If you’ve been thinking about it but just haven’t stopped by, it’s time. Email me to get on the list. The next one will be even better.

p.s. If you’re new to Jelly, this background may help. Basically, it’s a day when we open our doors to anyone who wants to come and work at our home. We provide internet, power, comfy couches, and tables. You bring a laptop and something to work on (tech-related or not). Enjoyable conversations take place, and work gets done. Great for freelancers, and refreshing for those who work in an office; it’s good all around.

p.p.s. Logo by Brian Massey, via Sketch-It, via Photojojo

I’ve been meaning to post an update on Coworking San Francisco (aka Teh Space) for some time and this provides yet another example of independents finding ways of supporting each other’s work.

This makes me wonder… perhaps in the interim before we find our permanent space in the city (we’ve already got a bunch of candidates and are following up with a number of them), maybe we could shack up with each other, one day at a time, wherever we’re used to working. At least in that sense we’ll be “coworking” and finding more time to congregate to plan teh actual space.

Hmm? How’s that sound? Roundrobin coworking?