A Quick History of Digital Communication Before the Internet - Eager Blog
A potted history of communication networks from the pony express and the telegraph to ethernet and wi-fi.
Link tags: nsa
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National Security Agency (NSA) security/motivational posters from the 1950s and 1960s [PDF]
This responds to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which was received by this office on 5 February 2016 for “A digital/electronic copy of the NSA old security posters from the 1950s and 1960s.”
The graphic design is …um, mixed.
A Wire Across the Ocean | American Scientist
Ainissa Ramirez recounts the story of the transatlantic telegraph cable, the Apollo project of its day.
A web of anxiety: accessibility for people with anxiety and panic disorders [Part 1] | The Paciello Group – Your Accessibility Partner (WCAG 2.0/508 audits, VPAT, usability and accessible user experience)
Enumerating the anti-patterns that cause serious user experience issues that don’t get nearly enough attention:
- Urgency
- Unpredictability
- Powerlessness
- Sensationalism
While such intrusions can be a source of irritation or even stress for many people, they may be complete showstoppers for people with anxiety or panic disorders.
I’m looking forward to reading the follow-up post.
(I was going to say I was anxiously awaiting the follow-up post but …never mind.)
The New York Herald, August 7, 1865
A transatlantic cable, hurrah!
Flying Toasters | After Dark in CSS
For people of a certain age, this will bring back memories of a classic screensaver.
If you had told me back then that the screensaver could one day be recreated in CSS, I’m not sure I would’ve believed it.
How did we end up with a centralized Internet for the NSA to mine? - O’Reilly Radar
A great analysis of how centralised hubs are the easiest attack vector for bad actors like the NSA and GCHQ:
How did we get such industry concentration? Why is a network famously based on distributed processing, routing, and peer connections characterized now by a few choke points that the NSA can skim at its leisure?
NSA files decoded: Edward Snowden’s surveillance revelations explained
A superb piece of hypertext from The Guardian.
PRSM - The Sharing Network
Don’t ever worry about not sharing again.
NSA-Proof Your Email! Consider your Man Card Re-Issued. Never be Afraid Again.
We shouldn’t be protecting ourselves. We should be protecting each other.
How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets - NYTimes.com
Metajournalism.
The Ecuadorian Library by Bruce Sterling
A good ol’ fashioned rant.
NSA: The Decision Problem by George Dyson
A really terrific piece by George Dyson taking a suitably long-zoom look at information warfare and the Entscheidungsproblem, tracing the lineage of PRISM from the Corona project of the Cold War.
What we have now is the crude equivalent of snatching snippets of film from the sky, in 1960, compared to the panopticon that was to come. The United States has established a coordinated system that links suspect individuals (only foreigners, of course, but that definition becomes fuzzy at times) to dangerous ideas, and, if the links and suspicions are strong enough, our drone fleet, deployed ever more widely, is authorized to execute a strike. This is only a primitive first step toward something else. Why kill possibly dangerous individuals (and the inevitable innocent bystanders) when it will soon become technically irresistible to exterminate the dangerous ideas themselves?
The proposed solution? That we abandon secrecy and conduct our information warfare in the open.
Silicon Valley through a PRISM · Ben Ward
Ben is rightly worried by the blasé attitude in the tech world to the PRISM revelations. Perhaps that attitude stems from a culture of “log everything by default”?
I think there’s a deep rooted trait within this industry that sedates the outrage. That is the normality, complicity, and dependency on ‘surveillance’ in the software we make.
Kansas City Space Pirates - Home
A team competing in NASA's beamed power climber competition—a race to provide one of the technologies needed for building a space elevator. I doff my hat to these guys.
No Ideas But In Things
"No Ideas But In Things is a library of controls, animations, layouts, and displays that might be a source of inspiration for interaction designers. Dan Saffer is the curator. The title comes from a William Carlos Williams poem."
AIGA - Talking with Jason Santa Maria: An Event Apart, #04
Stan talks about the upcoming Event Apart in Philadelphia.