2007 July Archive at Nerd News Radio

Woah! I got tagged on the Eight Random Things Me meme by Howard O’Berry. I didn’t quite expect this to happen, but hey, it’s the Internet, anything is possible. I do have to admit, I’ve enjoyed learning more about some Powncers like Howard and Geoff. Here are the rules:

Each person starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

People who are tagged need to write their own post about their eight things and post these rules.

At the end of your post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Donâ€™t forget to leave a comment telling them that they are tagged, and to read your blog.

Ugh. Here it goes:

I’m currently an intern at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab Computing Culture group. I help them with “stuff.” It’s a great group to be working with. It’s like political technology and art. The group sign says “How artists can refigure technology to address the full range of human experience.” If you listen to the podcast tomorrow, you can hear a little about some of the projects I’m working on.

My family has a bird named Freud. He (Freud, the bird) was initially a gift for my father, and since my dad is a psychologist, the name seemed to fit. When we got the bird, I wanted to name the bird “Joe” (I was four). So technically, the bird’s name is “Joe Freud.” The bird can say a few things, such as “I’m Freud are you happy?” He’s a fun little bird. I can post a picture sometime in the future.

In a month, I can drive people under 21 around (I think :/). I got my drivers license in February. I’m 17 by the way.

I really, really, really want to learn how to fly a helicopter. I’ve had fantasies about joining the Navy to become a helicopter pilot. I think those fantasies will remain fantasies.

During this past school year, my Junior year of high school, I wrote a 10 page paper about human experience on the Internet, past, present, and future. I talked about how the Internet is evolving from two separate categories, users and developers, to one category, collaborators. I should host it for all to read.

I was recently appointed co-social justice coordinator in my Temple youth group, RYFTI. Yay!

I have played the cello for 11 years, since I was six, and I’ve played the bass guitar for six years, since I was 11. Funny how that works out. I don’t plan to become a musician though. I don’t really know what I want to do later in life. Something with art, technology, science, and politics.

I consider myself an amateur photographer. I shoot with a stock Nikon D70, and sometimes add on a Nikon SB-600 Speedlight flash. You can view the photos I put on the Internet on my Flickr page.

Well, hope y’all enjoyed, and here’s who I’d like to know more about: Carolyn from Pink Ninja Studios, Julie, Staci, Jaffar from Resilient-Reborn, Andrew, Tony from Teknision Inc., William from Sugar Attack, and Tom from Open Minded Design. Now all I gotta do is let these people know some how…POWNCE!

Seeing Yellow

Published

Kabren

on July 17, 2007

in News

. 0 Comments

“Seeing Yellow” is a project that stemmed out of the Computing Culture group at the MIT MediaLab (I’m currently working with this group).

“When you print on a color laser printer, it’s likely that you are also printing a pattern of invisible yellow dots. These marks exist to allow the printer companies and governments to track and identify you — presumably as a way to combat money counterfeiting. When one person asked his printer manufacturer about turning off the tracking dots, Secret Service agents showed up at his door several days later.” (From the Seeing Yellow website)

These tracking dots are not news. They’ve been “public” for quite a while. Here’s what I want you to do.

I want you to call up your printer manufacturer and request that the dots be removed. So far, over 800 people have called.

“There is nothing suspicious or criminal about wanting to privately or anonymously produce color documents. In fact, the ability to speak anonymously is an essential part of our democracy! We have every right to demand color laser printers without this “feature.” We have every right to demand that our printer manufacturers to fix their devices. We shouldn’t need to choose between our privacy and color print outs.

Let’s join together to call our printer manufacturers and demand that they tell us how to turn off the tracking dots. Let’s stand up to bullying and interrogations by the U.S. Treasury Department and Secret Service of others who have done the same. If we all stand up together, we can send a strong message that there’s nothing wrong with demands to print privately. Together, we can make it more difficult for groups like the Secret Service to bully individuals who do so.”(From the Seeing Yellow website)

Read the website to find out more.

This story has become very popular on Digg in the past 24 hours, and a major tech news site, Ars Technica, wrote an article. Here are some links:

The actual website:
www.seeingyellow.com

The Digg story:
Digg it! (Now over 900 Diggs)

The Ars Technica article:
Ars Technica

And here’s the link to the EFF, www.eff.org . The EFF “Defends freedom in the digital world.”

Please try to spread the word, this is important to our digital freedom!

NNR #20

Published

Kabren

on July 15, 2007

in Podcasts

. 0 Comments

Nerd News Radio #20 for Sunday July 15, 2007!

Some links:
My Pownce. I got 8 fresh invites waiting to be used…
Email Me
Subscribe to The Feed
www.kabren.com, my Tumblr Blog Thingy is a place where I post stuff, all my feeds go there.

Please go check out William Kamkwamba’s Windmill project at his blog. He’s doing a lot of work with renewable energy in the small country Malawi, which is in southern Africa. He’s completely self taught, and an inspirational figure.

Music:
Bloc Party - Atonement
Brother Love - There She Goes

Shownotes:
What Evolution Left Behind
Eyes Wide Shut
Ugh…iPhone…
OPEN SOURCE!!!!!1!
Ubuntu Graffiti and Graffiti Research Lab
Don’t Be Evil
Articles not blogs?
The Success of Facebook
New Web Metric
World’s Fastest Broadband
Hydrogen Atom Scale Model
AT&T is Spying Again…
World Internet Usage
Foleo
How Gullible Are We?
Hurricane!