24nov2013

The Internet Ideology: Why We are Allowed to Hate Silicon Valley

The "digital debate," as Silicon Valley wants to frame it, accomplishes nothing without understanding the political, social, and economic systems that technology amplifies or dampens. Without changing the debate, we will continue to get rolled by the military-industrial complex and out-of-control banking and advertising industries. Money quote: "Letting Google organize all the world’s information makes as much sense as letting Halliburton organize all of the world’s oil."

Bill Gates: Here’s My Plan to Improve Our World

And here’s an example of how Bill Gates’s “catalytic philanthropy” backs technology bets evaluated in the context of political and social change for the better.

Our Seven Privacies: The Many Important Facets of Privacy

A way to structure the complex idea of "privacy" in order to evaluate how the tools and technology we use affect it.

The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community

Requiring OSS contributions for a job is unethical and unnecessary.

Microsoft Warns Customers Away from RC4 and SHA-1

Recommends switching to TLS 1.2 for email. If you are running Dovecot and openssh 1.0.1 then you are set. As for GnuPG, you will need to check your signing key and modify the preferences to get away from SHA-1. An example of how to do this is shown here.

Realities of Performance Appraisal

Pretty good recommendations for how to work a complex and tricky process in large organizations. Recommended for managers.