VIDEO — The BFP Roundtable Dissects the “Alternative” Media
Boiling Frogs Post Roundtable
Jan 11, 2014
Alternative to what and independent of whom? These are the questions that are seldom asked of the pseudo-alternative, foundation-funded and establishment-dependent “alternative” media. Today on the BFP Roundtable, Sibel Edmonds, Peter B. Collins, Guillermo Jimenez and James Corbett discuss the meltdown of the dinosaur media paradigm and how the establishment is using the pseudo-alternatives to continue to forward their agenda. We also discuss ways of counteracting this and positing real solutions to the problems we are facing.
SUPPORT BOILING FROGS POST:http://ur1.ca/ge4h7
WiFi + USB Drive = Your Own Mini-Internet (Freedom)
[by Tony Cartalucci]
Image: The PirateBox in use on a handheld device. Once the PirateBox is up and running, either on a standalone device like the one pictured to the right (background), or on your laptop as described here, it will appear as another WiFi network for people in range to connect to. Once connected files can be freely shared, and there is even a chat client users can communicate with. It is just as useful as a file server for a small business, as it is for circumventing the draconian criminalization of Internet file sharing.
In last week’s “Fighting Back Against the “Intellectual Property” Racket,” the “PirateBox” was introduced. The PirateBox transforms a laptop, router, or single board computer into a mini-Internet hub where files can be freely shared, and even features a chat program so users can communicate. It is a lite version of the mesh networks described in December 2012’s “Decentralizing Telecom” where independent mesh networks featured many software alternatives to emulate popular online programs such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and others. The PirateBox is an introductory project anyone with a WiFi adapter and a USB thumbdrive can do on their own with a little motivation and an hour to experiment.
In a busy office, a PirateBox can serve as a simple local wireless file server and chat client. In an apartment complex, it can become the center of a social experiment, an opportunity to reach out to neighbors and organize constructively, or just for fun – building badly needed local communities back up.
Instructions for perhaps the easiest of PirateBox’s implementations can be found on blogger, designer, and activist David Darts’ website here. The instructions are nearly fool proof, and a lot of the common problems ran into are described and their solutions linked to throughout the explanation.
The PirateBox does not connect to the Internet, nor does it operate from your hard drive. It works entirely on the USB thumbdrive you install it on, simply using your computer’s WiFi to network all who are in range.
Ideally you’d want to make a dedicated, standalone PirateBox to serve your space, office, and neighbors. A great place for beginners to embark on this is at your local hackerspace. If you don’t have a local hackerspace, look into starting one up.
Protesting is important, but protesting alone will not stem the problem at its source. The rot will continue to spread unless we develop tangible tools to pragmatically excise it and repair the damage it has already done. The problem of corporate monopolies ensnaring and subjugating us through their telecom monopolies can and is being solved by solutions like mesh networks, the PirateBox, and the onward march of open source software and hardware, simply displacing proprietary products and services. The best way to ensure success is to have as many informed and constructive people as possible join in the problem-solving process.
Since posting about the PirateBox, LocalOrg has received several success stories of people who have either already been using it, or have looked into it, prompting this follow up. Continue sharing your success, and if you would like, contact us and have them covered here on LocalOrg.
Inconsistencies and Unanswered Questions: The Risks of Trusting the Snowden Story
by Kevin Ryan
Global Research
digwithin.net
Jan 1, 2014
Last June, Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian revealed that Edward Snowden was the NSA insider behind “one of the most significant leaks in US political history.” Snowden explained his motivations through Greenwald by saying, “There are more important things than money…. harming people isn’t my goal. Transparency is.”
Such altruistic motivations were welcome news at the time but have come into question recently given that only a tiny fraction of the documents have been released nearly a year after Snowden started working with Greenwald. Perhaps more importantly, billionaire Pierre Omidyar is funding Greenwald’s slow release of those documents. It is worth noting that Omidyar’s Paypal Corporation has links to the NSA.
It was originally reported that the number of documents Snowden had stolen was in the thousands. Today, however, that number is said to be nearly two million. This calls into question Snowden’s early statement, as reported by Greenwald, that he “carefully evaluated every single document to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest.” The huge, new number also reveals that less than one tenth of one percent of the documents (only about 900) have actually been released to the public.
How could Snowden have “carefully evaluated every single” one of what is now being said to be nearly two million documents? He only worked for Booz Allen Hamilton for a few months. According to NSA Director Keith Alexander, Snowden also worked directly for NSA for twelve months prior to that, which is interesting. But still, that would require carefully evaluating thousands of documents a day during that entire time. Didn’t he have a job apart from that?
Journalist Margie Burns asked some good questions back in June that have not yet been answered. She wondered about the 29-year old Snowden who had been a U.S. Army Special Forces recruit, a covert CIA operative, and an NSA employee in various capacities, all in just a few, short years. Burns asked “How, exactly, did Snowden get his series of NSA jobs? Did he apply through regular channels? Was it through someone he knew? Who recommended him? Who were his references for a string of six-figure, high-level security jobs? Are there any safeguards in place so that red flags go up when a subcontractor jumps from job to job, especially in high-level clearance positions?”
Five months later, journalists Mark Ames and Yasha Levine investigated some of the businesses in which Greenwald’s benefactor Omidyar had invested. They found that the actual practices of those businesses were considerably less humanitarian than the outward appearance of Omidyar’s ventures often portray. The result was that Omidyar took down references to at least one of those businesses from his website.
VIDEO — ‘Breivik has better conditions’: Pirate Bay’s Anakata deprived even of books in jail
RT
Dec 17, 2013
Hollywood and pirates don’t always go together. What started as a legal battle against copyright infringement for the co-founder of the file-sharing service The Pirate Bay, has snowballed into a tide of hacking accusations from around the world. Now, Gottfrid Svartholm could end up in jail for 6 more years, as Peter Oliver reports. READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/j31knv
ALSO WATCH: Founder of the first Pirate Party Rick Falkvinge speaks to RT on Gottfrid Svartholm Warg – http://youtu.be/lfGS3U2lYIc
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[related: VIDEO — ‘It’s torture’: Pirate Bay co-founder kept in solitary awaiting hacking trial]
How To Hide Your House From Google Maps
by Truth Is Scary
Before It’s News
Dec 16, 2013
As it turns out, there is a way to prevent strangers from seeing your home online through Google Maps.
Many Americans don’t realize it, but Google actually has vehicles driving around the United States taking what are called “street view” pictures. If your home can be seen from a public street, there’s a good chance it’s on Google Maps.
How Google Maps Threatens Your Privacy
If want to find out whether your home is on Google Maps, simply go to Google Maps and type in your address. When the map appears you might see a small stick figure on the left side of the screen. Drag that stick figure to your street, and your house – and others – will appear. (Note: If the street is not highlighted in blue on the map, then your house and street have not been photographed.)
This can be a major problem for privacy because the Google picture can show strangers a great deal of your home and your life. When Fox and Friends contributor Kurt “the Cyber Guy” Knutsson went to Google Maps he discovered something bothersome — the inside of his garage and its contents, because he had left the garage door open the day the Google car drove down his road.
That’s not all that Knutson saw on Google. Google had taken a picture of his cars.
“You could see our license plates plain as day,” Knutson said. Knutson’s discovery indicates that details of your private life, and information that could harm you, can show up on Google Maps. Google claims it blurs out license plates and individuals before it posts pictures to street view, although it’s obvious that doesn’t always happen.
How to Hide Your House
The bad news is that there is no way to keep your address off of Google Maps. The good news is that you can get Google to blur out your property so Google Maps users will not see it. Here’s the process which is outlined at Google.
How to get your property blurred:
- Go to Google Maps and type in your address
- Bring up the street view of your property
- Look to the bottom right hand corner of the screen you should see an Icon Labeled: “report a problem.”
- Click on “report a problem.”
- You will get a page labeled “report inappropriate street view.”
- Look for the words “Privacy Concerns” and click on them.
- If you want your house blurred, click on “my house.” Then choose the option: “I have a picture of my house and would like it blurred.”
- Adjust the image and show Google which part of the photo needs blurred.
- Type the verification code at the bottom of the page into the box provided and click submit.
- Check back in a few days to see if the image has been blurred.
Source: http://truthisscary.com/2013/12/how-to-hide-your-house-from-google-maps/
11/21/2013 – Major Security FLAW in Google+ can Shutdown your Youtube page instantly with no strikes, no appeal
Dutchsinse
November 21, 2013
video explanation here:
__________
My youtube channel , http://www.youtube.com/dutchsinse, was erroneously shut down yesterday, lost all videos, and all Google+ access. I had no strikes, no violations, and was all green across the board.
How did my youtube get terminated? Easily.
They simply flagged my GOOGLE+ account as an “impersonator”. Yes, flagged my own dutchsinse MAIN GOOGLE+ page as an impersonator. LOL. They can do it anonymously, with no warning, and with no recourse by you to fix it, except, to SEND A PHOTO ID OF YOURSELF to G+ to prove you are who you say you are.
click to view full size:
What? Send a photo ID to G+ to save your YOUTUBE page from shutdown, after your G+ was falsely flagged as an “impersonator”?!!!
Madness. Seriously, big problem here, how do you PROVE you’re a screen name?
They’re asking for a photo ID to prove who I am. However, the google+ is named “dutchsinse”. My real name is Michael Janitch.
I sent them a copy of my passport 48 hours ago, filled out the form with my real name, never even received a confirmation reply that they received it. and as of today 220am CT november 21, no reply at all.
I’m dutchsinse. How can someone ELSE, an anonymous person, report me for “impersonation”? Which then causes G+ to INSTANTLY shut down my whole G+ page…. which then leads to the INSTANT TERMINATION OF MY YOUTUBE PAGE, and a blocking of all my associated G+ pages.
A domino effect caused by one single false flagging, one single easy abuse of a security feature on youtube that, SHOULD, have human review behind it, and should not be automated.
Yesterday, thanks to this fake / false google+ shutdown , I lost 75,000 subscribers, and 800+ videos. Lost access to ALL of it. Due to a single false flag on a separate service away from youtube!!!
Again, no email from youtube OR google+ was sent to me, warning me, or giving me a dispute option.
Very strange too, Google+ and youtube BOTH have my cellphone number already on file for login and verification purposes, no message sent to my mobile device at all.
Don’t forget, MOST IMPORTANTLY, there was no recourse to solve this. No link to click on, no email to send, and no option to dispute. For me to get it fixed, it literally took someone who works there to privately contact the “policy team” and do a few things to get my youtube restored.
Still locked out on Google+, still cannot make any comment even below my own video, and still cannot share anything via the share button. No reply from google, except to ask for an ID with my SCREENNAME on it?!
lol, can you say NIGHTMARE scenario here.
Meanwhile, no laughing matter, 3 years of work , 800+ videos, and 75,000+ subscribers on the line… all capable of being wiped out from a SEPARATE service like google+ ? Somethings not right about this.
Imagine if someone could shut down your PERSONAL facebook page with the click of a button, and then YOU have to prove who YOU are because they clicked a button.
Guilty until proven innocent , meanwhile they DELETE your youtube page, delete all your content, and you have to fight to get it back?
Shouldn’t the person making the impersonation CLAIM have to provide THEIR ID???????
Anyone can get shut down this way. Maybe a few larger channels will get slammed, then google might take notice. Right now, they’re not responding to any of my contact attempts.
PN 