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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 17 Issue 01
Volume 17, Issue 01 Atari Online News, Etc. January 2, 2015
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2015
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1701 01/02/15
~ North Korea Had Help? ~ People Are Talking! ~ PSN Back Online!
~ Gmail Blocked in China? ~ 2014, The Sad Internet! ~ NSA Eavesdropping!
~ Selling Unwanted Games? ~ Okay To Ruin Christmas? ~ Bing, Yahoo Outages!
~ Net Neutrality Pushback ~ Google Outs Windows 8.1 ~ Halo 5 Beta!
-* Lizard Squad Hacker Arrested *-
-* Lizard Squad Offers DDoS Attack Tool *-
-* U.S. Hits North Korea With Huge Sanctions! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Again, let me wish you all a Happy New Year! Believe it or not, this issue
marks our 17th year! I honestly didn't think that we'd still be around for
very long back in the 90's, much less this long! But, we're here. For how
much longer, I have no idea. So, for the moment, let's welcome in the new
year, and have a drink or three to celebrate!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - PS Network Back Online After 3-day Outage!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Alleged Lizard Squad Hacker Arrested!
Where To Sell Back Your Unwanted Games!
And more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
PlayStation Back Online After 3-day Outage
Sony says its PlayStation Network is back online after three days of
disruptions that began on Christmas.
But heavy traffic might continue to cause problems for customers seeking
to play their favorite games, the company said Sunday.
A group of hackers called Lizard Squad or someone claiming to speak for
it took credit for the disruptions. In a blog post Saturday night
saying service had been restored, Sony vice president Catherine Jensen
added that "PlayStation Network and some other gaming services were
attacked over the holidays with artificially high levels of traffic to
disrupt connectivity and online gameplay."
Microsoft's Xbox Live service, which also went down Thursday, was back
online Friday, although the company reported continuing problems.
So far, there's no evidence to link these episodes with last month's
attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. The FBI has blamed that attack on
North Korea, which was furious about Sony's "The Interview," a movie
comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Lizard Squad Member 'Ryan' Explains Why It's OK To Ruin Christmas
Millions of children and adults who expected to enjoy 25 December playing
games on their Microsoft or Sony consoles were deprived of the chance by
a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS).
The attack, clearly timed to create the maximum amount of publicity and
disruption, was directed at the PlayStation and Xbox servers the games
consoles depend upon.
It prevented gamers from setting up their consoles, downloading games or
joining others to play games online.
Although both networks are up and running again now Microsoft restored
their service more than a whole day sooner than Sony - a final ignominy
in a year to forget for them.
Hacking group Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility for the attack,
having previously threatened both companies.
In an interview with Sky News a man speaking for the hackers claimed it
was 'basically' the work of three people and they'd done it...
...to raise awareness, to amuse ourselves...
They [Microsoft and Sony] should have more than enough funding to be able
to protect against these attacks.
In the event it was a different kind of funding that satisfied their
'principles'.
Internet entrepreneur and console gamer Kim Dotcom engaged the vandals via
Twitter on 26 December and offered them vouchers for his MegaPrivacy
service worth $300,000 USD if they called off the attacks.
A tactic which worked, apparently.
Speaking from Finland the Lizard Squad front man, calling himself Ryan but
named by Brian Krebs as Julius Kivimäki, told Sky's Joe Tidy that he
didn't feel any guilt about depriving people of their Christmas presents:
I'd be rather worried if those people didn't have anything better to do
than play games on their consoles on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
I mean I can't really ... feel bad. I might have forced a couple of kids
to spend their time with their families instead of playing games.
Ryan's attempt to justify the attack as somehow doing some good, whilst
shifting the blame to the victims and passing off the impact on gamers as
inconsequential, is a stuck record we've heard many times before.
This is not what helping looks like, this is doing it 'for the lulz'.
Ethical hackers, the kind who actually help improve security, use their
skills to find bugs and report them quietly and responsibly so as to
minimise collateral damage.
But a DDoS attack isn't a skilful hack - it isn't picking the lock, it's
blocking the door from the outside with as much rubbish as you can pile
up.
You won't see Lizard Squad earning bug bounties from Microsoft or
appearing in Sony's hall of thanks.
It isn't for Lizard Squad, or anyone else, to decide how millions of
people can or can't spend their Christmas day.
And the gamers aren't the only victims.
The attack itself was almost certainly launched from a large network of
compromised computers that are owned and paid for by others. Computers
that were broken into and used illegally and which have to remain
compromised for groups like Lizard Squad to operate.
Lizard Squad aren't interested in security, they're in it for the lulz,
and we know how that story ends.
Alleged Lizard Squad Hacker Arrested
One of the guys allegedly responsible for keeping you from playing video
games on Christmas Day 2014 has been arrested.
On Monday (Dec. 29) United Kingdom police arrested Vinnie Omari, 22,
alleged member of the hacking group known as Lizard Squad, while raiding
his London home, the Daily Dot reports. Lizard Squad has claimed
responsibility for the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that
knocked Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network offline on Dec. 25.
Omari's arrest followed a raid on his home by the police. A press release
from the Thames Valley Police Department, apparently concerning Omari,
says that he was arrested "on suspicion of fraud by false representation
and Computer Misuse Act offences [sic]." Omari was released from jail on
Tuesday, and thus far no charges have been filed.
They took everything... Xbox One, phones, laptops, computer USBs, etc.,"
Omari said in an email to the Daily Dot, who broke the story. Omari also
included a picture of the search warrant.
Lizard Squad has risen to notoriety in the past few months by claiming
responsibility for some high-profile DDoS attacks against gaming networks.
On Christmas Day, the group only stopped its attacks on Xbox Live and the
PlayStation Network after MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom gave the group
3,000 vouchers for his uploading service.
After that, Lizard Squad claimed the Christmas attacks were just a
"commercial" for a do-it-yourself DDoS tool called Lizard Stresser, which
the group was developing and offering for sale on the online black market.
On Dec. 27, Omari was interviewed by British news channel Sky News, where
he was cited as a "computer security analyst" and talked about Lizard
Squad's activities. Two days later, independent security reporter Brian
Krebs claimed in a report posted to his blog that Omari was a member of
Lizard Squad. In the same post, Krebs also claimed that the Lizard Squad
member who sometimes uses the online pseudonym "Ry|an" was a Finnish
teenager named Julius Kivimäki.
It seems the Federal Bureau of Investigation agrees with him; the FBI is
also reportedly investigating a Lizard Squad member named "ryanc" or
Ryan, whom they believe to be a Finnish teenager, as the Daily Dot
reported on Dec. 28th. "Ryan" recently appeared on Sky News, openly
claiming that he was a member of Lizard Squad.
"Both of these individuals [Omari and Kivimäki] may in fact be guilty of
nothing more than taking credit for other peoples crimes. But I hope
its clear to the media that the Lizard Squad is not some sophisticated
hacker group," Krebs wrote in his blog post, dated the same day as
Omari's arrest.
Today, as news of Omari's arrest broke, Krebs seems to have had a laugh
on Twitter, as he tweeted the photo of the search warrant with the words
"Poor Vinnie ...#skidfail."
Halo 5 Beta Impressions, Its Alright But Needs Work
After the underwhelming release of 343 Industries Halo 4, the next
numbered entry in the franchise, Halo 5: Guardians is set for release
sometime this year. For those of you who own the Halo: Master Chief
Collection on Xbox One, the beta is running from December 29, 2014
through January 18, 2015. As is usual, the beta is focused exclusively
on the arena portion of the online multiplayer aspect of Halo 5:
Guardians.
After downloading 10GB worth of Halo 5 goodness, itd be a lie to say my
personal hopes for the beta were high. Halo 4 felt like an
alternate-world Halo game, and the Master Chief Collection simply didnt
work. Rejoice friends, for the beta is pretty damn enjoyable. According
to 343 Industries, the beta is completely hosted on dedicated servers at
60fps. It certainly, shows. Matches were found quickly, and played often.
Do keep in mind that this is a beta so lag and some disconnect issues are
abound. but overall everything is far more stable than the Master Chief
Collection.
The first thing I noticed about the arena portion of Halo 5 multiplayer,
was the commitment to supplementing the story of Guardians. Before you
even download the beta, youre greeted with a cinematic of a group of
Spartan IVs standing behind the Arbiter and the Halo:Nightfall TV series
lead, Agent Locke. The two discuss Master Chief, and reveal hes being
hunted for going AWOL. Its Lockes duty to hunt down the Master Chief,
and from the looks of it, the Arbiter is keen on helping, though he states
that Master Chief must have his reasons. Whether or not these cinematics
play throughout an arena season has yet to be revealed, though like the
Spartan Ops from Halo 4, this seems likely.
But enough of the story crap, lets get down to why youre here gameplay.
Remember, these impressions are based on the first week of the beta, which
includes one gametype: team slayer (team deathmatch) and two maps: Empire
and Truth. As the beta progresses, 343 Industries promises to release new
maps and gametypes with the next batch of content dropping on January, 2
2015.
First and foremost, Halo 5 is fast. Out of all the entries in the
franchise, this one is all about traversal. The agile Spartan IV soldiers
are nimble and squishy. They hit fast, but go down quick. As for
traversal, players now have more options to them in combat helping them
get into and out of firefights. Like Advanced Warfare these spartans have
the ability to do a burst strafe using the thrusters on the back. This
short burst allows them to slide around corners and get into cover, or
traverse a gap their jump cant quite reach. This burst does come with a
short cooldown limiting the ability to spam the maneuver.
The next addition to the game, and certainly my favorite, is the hover.
When your character is aerial, aims down the sights of your weapon (which
looks badass as hell) and you will hover in place for a few seconds. This
move allows a tactical view of the area ahead, and helps give you the
jump on unsuspecting enemies. Careful though, a space-age soldier
hovering in the air just screams shoot me.
Sitting duck waiting to pounce
Another aerial maneuver is the ground pound. While in the air, clicking
on both analog sticks and holding them breaks you out of the first-person
perspective and give you a view of your character and the area below and
allows you to control your landing reticule. After a few seconds, your
thrusts build enough thrust to send you to the floor, plummeting like a
comet and delivering a deadly pound to an unsuspecting foe. Hard to pull
of, but cool nonetheless.
The final addition to the Halo 5 players arsenal is the sprint and
shoulder charge. If youve played any shooter, you know that clicking on
the left analog stick allows your character to sprint for a short
duration of time. In Halo 5 that sprint is indefinite. Hitting melee
during a sprint will initiate a shoulder charge that helps to clear a
short distance and damages any enemy in your path. This move is
excellent for clearing space in a short-to-mid-range firefight, but as
you mightve expected, leaves you vulnerable should you miss.
As for the maps themselves, Truth, the Halo 2 Midship remake, stands out
on its own as a gem. Although, the color palette of red and blue enemies
left me squinting at times throughout the purple map. Empire on the other
hand is a beautiful asymmetrical map with interesting spaces surrounding
the power weapons. On Empire, the power weapons are the ol sniper rifle.
One side of the map houses the sniper inside some tight quarters making
for some tense hand-to-hand combat. The opposite side of the map places
the sniper in an open area, encouraging teamwork to secure the item, and
rewarding the winner with an open alley to snipe from.
A major gripe with the beta so far is the kill-cam. Kill-cams have a
history they punish players who managed to find nice hiding spots.
Additionally, the kill-cam as it stands simply doesnt work. Most of
time, the only thing that shows is the time after youre killed,
rekindling the rage you felt when you first died. Followed by the
familiar beep, beep, BEEEEEP of the respawn timer that takes you to a
black screen before throwing you back into the action. But surely that is
more of a server issue.
As for the most impressive aspect of the Halo 5 beta so far, the trophy
has to go to the design aesthetics. The user interface is sleek, and
positively Halo in vibe and sound. Even the Announcment of the respawn of
the power weapons is a wonderful addition from Halo 4 that encourages
teams to fight for their weapons.
Where To Sell Back Your Unwanted Games
We all get dud gifts for the holidays. And while you might appreciate the
fact that Uncle Ernie tried his hardest to give you something special,
that copy of The Voice: I Want You probably wasnt exactly what you were
hoping for.
If youre lucky, Uncle Ernie knew he was out of his depth and included a
gift receipt with the present. But even if he didnt, you have options.
Mercifully. Heres what to do with games youre not planning on keeping:
The most popular and in most cases, quickest choice is to head to your
local GameStop. The retailer is easy to find, and itll take back pretty
much any game.
GameStop will let you swap games for either cash or store credit, though
youre a sucker if you take the cash. The company puts a much higher
value on trades, and unless youre giving up the habit entirely, chances
are youll want a new game sooner or later.
If youre trading in several games or plan to trade in more through the
course of the year, its worth signing up for the PowerUp Rewards
program. Theres a $15 annual fee, but that increases the value of your
trades, up to a couple of bucks per title. That can pay off in the long
run if youre a big gamer.
Dont just trade games whenever the mood strikes you, though. Several
times per year, the company offers promotions that put a bonus on
trade-ins, which can boost their value by anywhere from 30 to 90 percent.
The best way to keep up with that is by checking GameStops flyers, its
website, or the forums of sites like CheapAssGamer.
GameStop got some competition this year, though, as Walmart jumped into
the trade-in business and came to play. In late October, the retailer
launched its certified preowned program in 1,700 stores nationwide.
Walmarts trade program accepts games for all existing console systems,
but unlike GameStop, the retailer does not accept game hardware. CE
Exchange maintains the database determining the value of the titles. That
eases the burden on Walmart associates, who only have to scan the games
UPC code (after first checking the disc for scratches and cracks) to
determine how much credit to give the customer.
This isnt the first time Walmart has explored the used game business, but
its by far the largest expansion of the program. In 2009, the retailer
launched a pilot program using kiosks but never expanded on it. This
time, its a bit more serious.
Why choose Walmart over GameStop? It really boils down to the game.
Before you head to either retailer, consider price shopping online.
GameStops site will give you an idea of how much its paying for recent
titles.
Walmart has a similar option as well. And both Best Buy and Target list
their prices for all games online. You can get an extra 10 percent on
your trades at Best Buy if youre a member of its Unlocked Gamers Club,
though at $99 for a two-year membership, its a bit pricey.
Stay home and head online?Of course, if youd just as soon have the cash,
theres always eBay, though youll be competing against a lot of people
doing the same thing. Unless youre selling a limited edition or
otherwise special copy of the game, the prices might not be so hot.
Alternate bidding site Glyde.com will also get you some cash. Its not as
robustly populated as eBay, which can be a good or bad thing, depending
on the game.
Interestingly, Amazon is now a big player in the used game space. Heres
how it works: Enter the games you want to dispose of on the site and
youll see their trade value. Assuming thats acceptable to you, you
print out a free shipping label, box them up, and drop them off at the
nearest UPS location. A week or so later, your Amazon account will
receive a credit in that amount, which can be used on games or anything
else the site carries. Bad games for a new iPad? Not a bad trade.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
U.S. Suspects North Korea Had Help Attacking Sony Pictures
U.S. investigators believe that North Korea likely hired hackers from
outside the country to help with last month's massive cyberattack against
Sony Pictures, an official close to the investigation said on Monday.
As North Korea lacks the capability to conduct some elements of the
sophisticated campaign by itself, U.S. investigators are looking at the
possibility that Pyongyang "contracted out" some of the cyber work,
according to the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record
about the investigation.
The attack on Sony Pictures is regarded to be the most destructive ever
against a company on U.S. soil because the hackers not only stole huge
quantities of data, but also wiped hard drives and brought down much of
the studio's network for more than a week.
While U.S. officials investigate whether North Korea enlisted help from
outside contractors, the FBI stood by its previous statement that
Pyongyang was the prime author of the attack against the Sony Corp unit.
"The FBI has concluded the Government of North Korea is responsible for
the theft and destruction of data on the network of Sony Pictures
Entertainment," the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement
to Reuters.
"There is no credible information to indicate that any other individual
is responsible for this cyber incident," the FBI said.
North Korea has denied that it was behind the Sony attack and has vowed
to hit back against any U.S. retaliation.
The people who claimed responsibility for the hack have said on Internet
postings that they were incensed by the film "The Interview," a Sony
Pictures comedy about a fictional assassination of North Korean leader
Kim Jong Un.
Some security experts have begun to question the FBI's assertion that
Pyongyang was behind the cyberattack. For instance, consulting firm Taia
Global said the results of a linguistic analysis of communications from
the suspected hackers suggest they were more likely from Russia than
North Korea. Cybersecurity firm Norse said it suspects a Sony insider
might have helped launch the attack.
"I think the government acted prematurely in announcing unequivocally
that it was North Korea before the investigation was complete," said Mark
Rasch, a former federal cybercrimes prosecutor. "There are many theories
about who did it and how they did it. The government has to be pursuing
all of them."
FBI Bulletin States Sony Hackers Are Targeting Media Outlets
The hacking organization that took credit for infiltrating Sony Pictures
Entertainment and stealing 10 TB worth of data has also threatened at
least one news media organization, according to an FBI bulletin that's
making the rounds in cyberspace. Known as the Guardians of Peace, or GOP,
the group of hackers proved a major headache for Sony, who's antics
appear to have been motivated by The Interview, a comedy involving an
assassination attempt against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The bulletin, which is dated December 24, 2014 and is labeled as
unclassified, said the threat against the unnamed news organization by
the GOP "may extend to other such organizations in the near future." It
was first picked up the The Intercept and has since been posted online.
In the bulletin, the FBI refers to Sony as "USPER1" and the unnamed "news
media organization" as "USPER2," adding that the GOP posted Pastebin
messages that specifically taunted the FBI and USPER2 for the quality of
their investigations and implied an additional threat. According to the
bulletin, no specific consequence was mentioned in the post.
News outlet Fox News said it was able to confirm with the FBI that the
bulletin is real, however it's being stressed that it doesn't mean
there's any specific evidence of a threat to a news organization.
"As part of our ongoing public-private partnerships, the FBI and DHS
routinely share information with the private sector and law enforcement
community," the official said. "The FBI and DHS are not aware of any
specific credible information indicating a threat to entertainment or
news organizations, however, out of an abundance of caution, we will
continue to disseminate relevant information observed during the course
of our investigations."
The FBI in December blamed North Korea for the cyberattack against Sony,
which may have been aided by an insider. North Korea maintains it had
nothing to do with the incident.
U.S. Hits North Korea with Huge New Sanctions in Response to Sony Hack
The United States just struck back against North Korea for its alleged
role in the hack of Sony Pictures. In official statement released on
Friday, U.S. president Barack Obama said he was signing an executive
order authorizing stiff sanctions against North Korea for its ongoing
provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions and policies,
particularly its destructive and coercive cyber attack on Sony Pictures
Entertainment.
Bloomberg reports that the order targets 10 individuals in North Korea
along with three state agencies and effectively authorizes the Treasury
Department to block the individuals and agencies from accessing the U.S.
financial system and banning U.S. citizens from engaging in business with
them.
Lizard Squad Offers $6 DDoS Attack Tool
Have a site you'd like to hit with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)
attack? Lizard Squad has just the thing: a DDoS attack tool, which is now
available starting at $5.99 per month.
The group, which took responsibility for the recent attack on the Xbox
and PlayStation networks, is offering several packages for its Lizard
Stresser product, payable via bitcoin, of course. They range from $6 per
month (for 100 seconds) to $130 (for 30,000 seconds).
Some come with "lifetime" option, which really only covers the five-year
expected lifespan of Lizard Stresser, according to the group's website
(which we have not linked to); users can pay a one-time fee of $30 to
$500.
There's even a referral system: You earn 10 percent of whatever money your
friends spend. Also pick from Lizard Stresser's add-ons, for more
website-takedown power.
According to VentureBeat, the site will soon accept payments via PayPal.
The Lizard Squad has been busy lately. In addition to the PlayStation and
Xbox attacks, it claims to have played a part in the Sony Pictures attack.
In an interview with The Washington Post, an alleged member of the Lizard
Squad (identified only as "a Ryan Cleary," but not the same one who was
convicted of targeting the websites of the CIA and others) offered more
details about the security breaches.
"[O]ne of our biggest goals is to have fun, of course," the hacker said.
"But we're also exposing massive security issues with these companies
people are trusting their personal information with. The customers of
these companies should be rather worried."
Unlike the Sony Pictures hack, DDoS attacks typically just crash websites
rather than allow for information leaks. Still, "Ryan Cleary" believes
Sony and Microsoft's business-critical systems are not top security
priorities.
"We told them almost a month before that we'd do this," he told the Post,
referring to an early December tweet that promised a "Christmas present"
for Microsoft. "And yet we had no difficulties dropping them."
But the collective may have dug its claws in even deeper: "Ryan Cleary"
admitted to the newspaper that "we do know some people from the
[Guardians of Peace]," which infiltrated Sony Pictures Entertainment.
When asked if the Lizard Squad was involved in the attack, the hacker
brushed it off, saying, "we didn't play a large part in that." According
to "Cleary," the group simply passed along some Sony employee logins to
the GOP for their initial hack.
The Post also asked about Lizard Squad's latest target: Tor, which allows
for anonymous and/or difficult-to-track activity on the Internet.
In a Friday tweet, Lizard Squad (or someone affiliated with it) clarified
that "we are no longer attacking PSN or Xbox. We are testing our new Tor
0day."
Despite the message, "Cleary" said there is no actual zero-day attack
(which exploits a previously unknown vulnerability). Instead, the hackers
are running a huge volume of Tor nodes. As of Monday, he suggested Lizard
Squad is in control of 50 percent of the overall Tor network, and more
than 70 percent of exit nodes.
The goal, he explained, is simple: "make everyone understand how easy
this flaw in Tor is to exploit."
In a Friday statement, however, the Tor Project said "the attackers have
signed up many new relays in hopes of becoming a large fraction of the
network. But even though they are running thousands of new relays, their
relays currently make up less than 1 percent of the Tor network by
capacity. We are working now to remove these relays from the network
before they become a threat, and we don't expect any anonymity or
performance effects based on what we've seen so far."
Specifically, the hackers were targeting "specialized servers in the
network called directory authorities, [which] help Tor clients learn the
list of relays that make up the Tor network," Tor said. As of Dec. 28,
though, everything was "quiet," according to Tor.
One group that is not a fan of Lizard Squad's attacks on Tor? Anonymous.
Meanwhile, while he seemed fairly nonchalant about the massive attacks,
"Ryan Cleary" did apologize for the August attack on American Airlines
flight No. 362, carrying Sony Online Entertainment President John
Smedley.
"Only time I think we went a bit too far was the American Airlines
incident," he told the Post. "[W]e accidentally got some F-16s to escort
John Smedley's plane.
[T]hat was going a bit overboard."
Easy Access to Gmail Reportedly Blocked in China
A simple access to Googles e mail service Gmail has been reportedly
blocked in China for a while.
In accordance to BBC, locals stated that theyre nonetheless in a
position to use third-social gathering apps like Microsoft Outlook.
Nevertheless, utilizing Gmail by way of Googles website has been
unattainable for some time.
Google knowledge signifies that such visitors acquired even worse on
Friday and has remained stagnant since.
Google officers stated that there was no challenge referred to as but
with the corporates provision of Gmail.
Meadows, a spokesman for Google Asia Pacific stated that there was
nothing flawed on their finish so far as technical points have been
involved.
Jeremy Goldkorn, founding father of Beijing-based mostly media tracker
Danwei stated that the Chinese language authorities has been aggressive
about its web sovereignty and constructive about censorship of web.
Nevertheless, Chinese language authorities has neither denied nor
confirmed that the difficulty was a results of recent restrictions.
Electronic Eavesdropping: NSA Reports on Its Privacy Violations
The National Security Agency has a lot to keep track of all those
electronic communications and other signals, mostly innocuous but some
of which are critical to national security, collectively known as
signals intelligence or SIGINT.
In the post-9/11 world of terrorist threats, unconventional war, and
rapidly advancing technology, sorting through and making sense of all
that SIGINT becomes increasingly critical.
So does protecting the civil liberties of individual Americans, whose
private and personal information from cell phone records to email
communication may get vacuumed up (or specifically targeted) in the
NSAs massive electronic spying efforts.
Recommended: How well do you know the world of spying? Take our CIA and
NSA quiz.
On Christmas Eve, the NSA released a report on privacy violations from
2001 through the middle of 2013. It was required to by a Freedom of
Information lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The NSA release, which consists of its regular reports to the Presidents
Intelligence Oversight Board, is heavily redacted. Reports show data on
Americans being e-mailed to unauthorized recipients, stored in unsecured
computers, and retained after it was supposed to be destroyed, according
to documents cited by Bloomberg News.
Some incidents involved deliberate misuse of government surveillance, the
Wall Street Journal notes. In 2009, a US Army sergeant used an NSA system
to target his wife, also a soldier, leading to punishment including
reduction in rank to specialist. In another instance, an analyst in late
2011 reported that, during the past two or three years, she had searched
her spouses personal telephone directory without his knowledge to obtain
names and telephone numbers for targeting.
The NSA contends that "the vast majority of compliance incidents involve
unintentional technical or human error.
"In the very few cases that involve the intentional misuse of a signals
intelligence system, a thorough investigation is completed, the results
are reported to the [Intelligence Oversight Board] and the Department of
Justice as required, and appropriate disciplinary or administrative
action is taken," the NSA said.
"These materials show, over a sustained period of time, the depth and
rigor of NSAs commitment to compliance," the agency said in a
statement. "By emphasizing accountability across all levels of the
enterprise, and transparently reporting errors and violations to outside
oversight authorities, NSA protects privacy and civil liberties while
safeguarding the nation and our allies."
The revelation that the spying agency had been collecting and storing
domestic phone records since shortly after the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001, was among the most significant by Edward Snowden, a
former agency network administrator who turned over secret NSA documents
to journalists. The agency collects only so-called metadata numbers
called, not names and not the content of conversations. But the
specter of the intelligence agency holding domestic calling records was
deeply disquieting to many Americans.
The Senate last month blocked a bill to end bulk collection of Americans'
phone records by the NSA. Voting was largely along party lines, with most
Democrats supporting the bill and most Republicans voting against it.
The legislation would have ended the NSA's collection of domestic calling
records, instead requiring the agency to obtain a court order each time
it wanted to analyze the records in terrorism cases, and query records
held by the telephone companies. In many cases the companies store the
records for 18 months.
Patrick Toomey, a staff attorney with the ACLU's National Security
Project, told news agencies the new documents "shed more light on how
these spying activities impact Americans, and how the NSA has misused
the information it collects.
They show an urgent need for greater oversight by all three branches of
government, Mr. Toomey said.
Republicans Plan To Push Back Against Net Neutrality in 2015
Republicans in Congress say they plan to oppose any efforts by the
Federal Communications Commission to install net-neutrality rules that
demand internet service providers treat all online traffic equally.
Republicans in Congress say they plan to oppose any efforts by the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to install net neutrality rules
that demand internet service providers (ISPs) treat all online traffic
equally.
The FCC is expected to announce in early 2015 new rules for ISPs that
will hue close to President Barack Obama's plea for broadband service to
be treated like a utility, and for web traffic to remain on somewhat
equal footing, disallowing ISPs to prioritize certain content.
Though the concept of net neutrality what supporters say is a fight for
free and open internet has high support among both conservatives and
liberals surveyed in recent polls, as pointed out by TechDirt,
Republicans have vowed to fight any attempt to bar the likes of Comcast
and Verizon from granting preferential treatment to certain online
traffic dependent on payment.
Politico reported on Monday that Republicans, who will have a majority in
both the US House and Senate come January, plan to act on threats to
quash net neutrality.
Republican Sen. John Thune, who is set to lead the Senate Commerce
Committee, is considering a bill that would aim to thwart any such rules
presented by the FCC.
Thune is very interested in finding a legislative solution to protect
the open internet, especially if it means keeping the FCC from imposing
public utility regulations, a spokeswoman told Politico.
Meanwhile, Rep. Greg Walden, chair of a telecommunications subcommittee
in the House, has said he will hold hearings to cast attention on net
neutrality rules, and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chair of the House Judiciary
Committee, said he may seek legislation that would aim to undermine the
FCCs net neutrality authority by shifting it to antitrust enforcers,
Politico wrote.
Calling any such net neutrality rules a drag on innovation and
competition, Republicans in Congress have said they are contemplating
legislation to cut FCC funding, Politico reported, and other methods to
hamper FCC moves on net neutrality, according to The National Journal.
"Federal control of the internet will restrict our online freedom and
leave Americans facing the same horrors that they have experienced with
HealthCare.gov," Rep. Marsha Blackburn said earlier this year.
Democrats and other supporters of net neutrality say such moves would
allow for the creation of a multi-tier system and fast lanes in which
data is delivered to customers at a speed pursuant to the price paid to
ISPs by content creators.
If a party wants to be insistent on being
anti-internet equality, thats
a bad place to be, said Rep. Anna Eshoo, top Democrat on the Houses
telecom subcommittee.
Adding to the mix is a Republican plan to address possible changes to the
Communications Act, which guides the FCC and its regulation of cable,
wireless, and phone companies.
The Communications Act has not been revamped since the mid-1990s, a long
way from telecommunications operations of today. Republicans may tie this
debate to its net neutrality maneuvers, according to reports.
Each time it has tried to regulate the Internet, the FCC has been
overruled by the courts because existing telecommunications laws were
written decades ago for a completely different era, the Thune
spokeswoman told Politico. The most straightforward approach would be
for Congress to update and modernize those laws to take into account
technological transformations while not discouraging the private-sector
investment and innovation that is critical for consumers and our
nations modern economy.
Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have urged Republicans to avoid linking net
neutrality to any reform of the Communications Act.
Adding to the debate are the possible sales of Time Warner Cable and
DirecTV to Comcast and AT&T, respectively. Comcast is seeking FCC
approval for the $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner, while AT&T wants
the okay to buy DirecTV for $48.5 billion.
In was reported in October that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler was believed to
be pursuing a hybrid plan concerning net neutrality that would
separate broadband into two distinct services: a retail one, in which
consumers would pay broadband providers for Internet access; and a
back-end one, in which broadband providers serve as the conduit for
websites to distribute content.
In November, Pres. Obama advocated for a plan more in tune with the
demands listed in a highly successful petition that garnered more than
105,000 signatures when it was posted on the White House website earlier
this year. In both instances, the FCC was urged to reclassify ISPs as
common carriers, like utility companies, which would then give the
agency distinct regulatory tools to promote net neutrality.
Obama said in a video posted on the official White House website that
Wheeler should implement the strongest possible rules to protect net
neutrality when the FCC eventually unveils guidelines that will govern
the way in which web traffic is delivered to customers by ISPs. The FCC
should reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the
Telecommunications Act, the president suggested, while at the same time
forbearing from rate regulation and other provisions less relevant to
broadband services.
This is a basic acknowledgment of the services ISPs provide to American
homes and businesses, and the straightforward obligations necessary to
ensure the network works for everyone not just one or two companies,
Obama said.
Shortly after the president weighed in, however, Wheeler fired back with
a response in which he said his agency will hear Obamas plea, but with
the same regard as the four million or so other comments received by the
FCC over the pending rules.
As an independent regulatory agency we will incorporate the presidents
submission into the record of the Open Internet proceeding, Wheeler
wrote. We welcome comment on it and how it proposes to use Title II of
the Communications Act.
Wheeler later said that the FCC has more work to do on the subject and
that the reclassification and hybrid approaches before us raise
substantive legal questions. We found we would need more time to examine
these to ensure that whatever approach is taken, it can withstand any
legal challenges it may face.
We must take the time to get the job done correctly, once and for all,
in order to successfully protect consumers and innovators online,
Wheeler wrote.
In response to Obamas call for an adherence to net neutrality
principles, Sen. Ted Cruz likened any such moves to the GOPs favorite
boogeyman, the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
Net neutrality, Cruz tweeted, is Obamacare for the internet; the
internet should not operate at the speed of the government.
A previous attempt by the FCC to install net neutrality rules was
rejected by a federal appeals court.
In January, the court said ISPs should be allowed to restrict access to
websites and block certain content from customers, depending on how much
consumers pay to be connected.
The three-judge panel agreed with Verizon and said the FCC had classified
broadband service providers in a manner that excluded ISPs from the
anti-blocking and anti-discrimination requirements instilled through the
Open Internet Order.
Politician's Fingerprint 'Cloned From Photos' by Hacker
A member of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) hacker network claims to have
cloned a thumbprint of a German politician by using commercial software
and images taken at a news conference.
Jan Krissler says he replicated the fingerprint of defence minister
Ursula von der Leyen using pictures taken with a "standard photo camera".
Mr Krissler had no physical print from Ms von der Leyen.
Fingerprint biometrics are already considered insecure, experts say.
Mr Krissler, also known as Starbug, was speaking at a convention for
members of the CCC, a 31-year-old network that claims to be "Europe's
largest association" of hackers.
He told the audience he had obtained a close-up of a photo of Ms von der
Leyen's thumb and had also used other pictures taken at different angles
during a press event that the minister had spoken at in October.
Mr Krissler has suggested that "politicians will presumably wear gloves
when talking in public" after hearing about his research.
Fingerprint identification is used as a security measure on both Apple and
Samsung devices, and was used to identify voters at polling stations in
Brazil's presidential election this year, but it is not considered to be
particularly secure, experts say.
"Biometrics that rely on static information like face recognition or
fingerprints - it's not trivial to forge them but most people have
accepted that they are not a great form of security because they can be
faked," says cybersecurity expert Prof Alan Woodward from Surrey
University.
"People are starting to look for things where the biometric is alive -
vein recognition in fingers, gait [body motion] analysis - they are also
biometrics but they are chosen because the person has to be in possession
of them and exhibiting them in real life."
In September this year Barclays bank introduced finger vein recognition
for business customers, and the technique is also used at cash machines
in Japan and Poland.
Electronics firm Hitachi manufactures a device that reads the unique
pattern of veins inside a finger. It only works if the finger is attached
to a living person.
Trials in the intensive care unit at Southampton General Hospital in 2013
indicated that vein patterns are not affected by changes to blood
pressure.
Google Outs Unpatched Windows 8.1 Vulnerability,
and Debate Rages on Both Sides
A Google researcher has disclosed an unpatched vulnerability in Windows
8.1 after Microsoft didnt fix the problem within a 90-day window Google
gave its competitor.
The disclosure of the bug on Googles security research website early
this week stirred up a debate about whether outing the vulnerability was
appropriate.
The bug allows low-level Windows users to become administrators in some
cases, but some posters on the Google site said the company should have
kept its mouth shut. Google said it was unclear if versions of the
Windows OS earlier than 8.1 were affected by the bug.
Automatically disclosing this vulnerability when a deadline is reached
with absolutely zero context strikes me as incredibly irresponsible and
Id have expected a greater degree of care and maturity from a company
like Google, one poster at the Google site wrote.
The vulnerability is your average local privilege escalation
vulnerability, the same poster wrote. Thats bad and unfortunate, but
its also a fairly typical class of vulnerability, and not in the same
class as those that keep people like me up at night patching servers,
the poster said. The sad reality is that these sort of vulnerabilities
are a dime a dozen on Windows.
Another poster, in what may be a slight overstatement, suggested the
versions of Windows affected are run by billions of computer users.
Exposing vulnerabilities like this has far reaching consequences, the
poster wrote.
People could get hurt by this and it doesnt bring anyone closer to a
solution. When an organization is as big and powerful as [Google], people
working there need to think of themselves as stewards of a great power
and work to be fair and regulate the harm that can come of misusing this
great power when possible.
Was it a secret worth telling?
Other posters praised Google for sticking to a deadline its had in place
since it launched its Project Zero bug-tracking team last July. No one
is done any good by keeping it secret, one poster wrote. By exposing
the [vulnerability] they allow those billions who may be running
vulnerable systems to be aware of the threat to their own security and
take countermeasures. A patch isnt the only way to mitigate the issue.
Given the nature of this vulnerability, there are other steps
administrators can take to start protecting their vulnerable systems
while they await a patch.
Microsoft said in a statement it is working to release a security update
to the reported vulnerability. It is important to note that for a
would-be attacker to potentially exploit a system, they would first need
to have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to a
targeted machine, a spokesman said by email. We encourage customers to
keep their anti-virus software up to date, install all available security
updates and enable the firewall on their computer.
Google, in a statement published on Engadget, defended the release of the
vulnerability information.
Googles 90-day deadline for fixing bug is the result of many years of
careful consideration and industry-wide discussions about vulnerability
remediation, the company said. Security researchers have been using
roughly the same disclosure principles for the past 13 years ... and we
think that our disclosure principles need to evolve with the changing
infosec ecosystem. In other words, as threats change, so should our
disclosure policy.
Google will monitor the effects of its policy closely, the company added.
We want our decisions here to be data driven, and were constantly
seeking improvements that will benefit user security, the company added.
Were happy to say that initial results have shown that the majority of
the bugs that we have reported under the disclosure deadline get fixed
under deadline, which is a testament to the hard work of the vendors.
Microsoft And Yahoo Confirm Search Outages
Microsofts search engine Bing.com and other sites, including live.com,
suffered a brief outage of somewhere around 20 minutes today, give or
take, according to reports on Twitter and other website-monitoring
services. While Bing.com and others have since returned (in fact, while
we were reaching out for comment on the outage), we noticed also that
Yahoos search service (powered by Bing) at search.yahoo.com is
currently down, as well. Were reaching out to see if theres any
explanation being provided for the outages.
When you perform a web search from Yahoo.com, youre redirected to
search.yahoo.com, and this has only been returning a blank page or, more
recently, an error message, instead of search results.
In Bings case, the site was not resolving at all, though some report
seeing the default IIS homepage instead. The website-monitoring service
IsItDownRightNow also confirmed that the site was offline for a brief
period today.
Some reported that other Microsoft domains, including portal.office.com,
outlook.com and hotmail, were difficult to reach, too, but we could not
confirm this directly. These sites appear functional now, and in some
cases, the website-monitoring service showed no disruptions or didnt
have data on the referenced domains. However, it does appear that
Live.com did experience a brief outage around the same time that Bing.com
was down (and Hotmail redirects to Live.com).
Yahoos search is powered by Microsoft, so its not surprising to see
both search services go down at the same time. However, at the time of
writing, Bing.com had returned but Yahoos search had not.
During the time of the Bing outage, mobile assistants Siri and Cortana,
which leverage Bing, were also affected.
Weve reached out to both companies for a further explanation or official
response, but comms and PR staff are still working a holiday schedule
which means answers could be delayed.
Update, 1/2/15, 3:30 PM ET: Microsoft has confirmed the outage with a
brief statement:
This morning Microsoft experienced a brief, isolated services outage
which has now been resolved. Our apologies for any inconvenience.
Update 2, 1/2/15, 4:20 PM ET: Yahoo has also confirmed its outage:
We are aware that Yahoo Search is unavailable to users. Our engineers
are working to restore the service at the earliest.
Microsoft May Soon Replace Internet Explorer With a New Web Browser
Microsofts Windows 10 operating system will debut with an entirely new
web browser code-named Spartan, according to a report citing anonymous
sources.
ZDNets Mary Jo Foley reports that this new browser is a departure from
Internet Explorer, the Microsoft browser whose relevance has waned in
recent years. According to Foley, it will be a lightweight browser
that looks and feels more like the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox
browsers. But her sources also indicate that Spartan will be offered
alongside IE when Windows 10 debuts next year.
With Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome grabbing so much of the desktop
marketand Apple Safari, Google Chrome, and Googles Android browser
dominating the mobile marketInternet Explorer is no longer the force it
once was. There was a time when it handled about over 90 percent of all
web traffic on desktop and laptop machines, but according to research
outfit Net Applications, its share has now dropped to 58 percent. On
mobile, its share is about 2 percent.
Spartan attempts to address both these markets, according to Foley.
Windows 10 is designed to run across a wide range of devices, and
according to Foley, the new browser will be available on phones and
tablets as well as laptops and desktops. Its unclear whether Spartan
will run on Android, Apples iOS, and other operating systems that
compete with Windows, but Foley says theres a chance it will.
Under new CEO Satya Nadella, the company realizes that, in the modern
world, its software must run on more than just Windows. In March,
Microsoft revealed a new version of Microsoft Office for the Apple iPad.
In November, it debuted free versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint
versions for the iPhone. And earlier this month, the company acquired the
mobile email startup Acompli, an email client compatible on both iOS and
Android mobile operating systems.
Microsoft Could Kill Internet Explorer; New Spartan Browser Coming Soon
Bad News for Internet Explorer fans, if any! Microsoft's almost 20 years
old Web browser with a big blue E sign might soon be a thing of the past.
With the arrival of Windows 10, probably by next fall, Microsoft could
come up with its brand new browser thats more similar to Mozilla's
Firefox and Google's Chrome, but less like Internet Explorer (IE),
according to a recent report published by ZDNet.
"Ok so Microsoft is about to launch a new browser that's not Internet
Explorer and will be the default browser in Windows 10," tweeted Thomas
Nigro, a Microsoft Student Partner lead and developer of the modern
version of VLC.
The browser, codenamed "Spartan," is a "light-weight" browser with
extension support, and multiple sources confirm that this new browser
isn't IE12. Instead, Spartan is an entirely new browser that will use
Microsoft's Chakra JavaScript engine and Trident rendering engine (as
opposed to WebKit). But Internet Explorer isn't going away completely.
According to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, Windows 10 will ship with both
Internet Explorer 11 and Spartan, though the former is expected to stick
around for backwards compatibility only. The new browser will be
available for both desktop and mobile devices running Windows 10.
So far its unclear whether Spartan will be portable on non-Windows
systems, such as Android, iOS, or OS X, but if it is actually imitating
Chrome and Firefox, two of the most popular browsers out there, the idea
isn't too crazy. The new browser is currently under development.
However, if this new browser doesn't use Webkit, it will not likely be
accepted into Apple's App store, because Apple requires all "apps that
browse the web must use the iOS WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript"
according to its app store review guidelines.
What Microsoft will call the new browser is also a mystery at this point,
as 'Spartan' is just a codename for the project, and there's no
revelations on what it might be called by the company.
Microsoft hasnt provided any details about it but the company is hosting
a press event on Jan. 21 in the company's hometown of Redmond, Washington,
where it is expected to provide more details about the consumer version of
Windows 10, so perhaps we will know some more about Spartan then.
Yes, U.S. Workers Do Still Need Their Email
The end of email has been foretold many times, but despite these
predictions of doom, U.S. workers cant seem to get rid of it.
About six in 10 Internet-using workers in the U.S. list email as very
important to doing their jobs, topping the list of most important work
tools, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.
Email trumped the Internet as a whole, which 54 percent called very
important, and ranked well above mobile or smartphones [24 percent] as
well as social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn,
which only 4 percent of workers found important. Surprisingly, the use of
landline phones outranked mobile phone usage: 35 percent of respondents
marked landlines as very important.
Despite email users being subject to hack and phishing attacks as well as
spam, it continues to be the main digital artery that workers believe is
important to their jobs, Pew said. Since taking hold a generation ago,
email has not loosened its grip on the American workplace, the research
group said.
The analysis in the report released earlier this week is based on an
online survey in September of 1,066 adult Internet users over 18. The
respondents included 535 adults employed full-time or part-time, forming
the base of the report.
Using the Internet does not lead to distractions in the workplace and
does not effect productivity, respondents said. Just 7 percent feel their
productivity has dropped because of the Internet, email and cell phones,
while 46 percent felt more productive, despite critics worrying that
digital tools can be a distraction, Pew said.
Whats more, more than half of the workers said that Internet, email and
cell phones expand the number of people outside of their company they
communicate with. And almost 40 percent said the tools allow them more
flexibility in the hours they work, while 35 percent said they also
started working more hours due to the digital tools.
Meanwhile, employers are starting to change practices regarding
employees Internet usage. Just under half of those surveyed said their
boss blocks access to some websites, and 46 percent said there are rules
about what workers can say or post online. The latter figure more than
doubled since Pew began asking about company rules in 2006.
The Sad Internet: 2014 in Review
The Internet is a place of both joyous wonder and corrosive meanness.
There are delightful and hilarious memes and GIFs and videos made by
GoPro-wearing puppies. And there are nasty troll attacks, flame wars,
and outrage galore.
In 2014, however, we noticed a number of projects and sites that dont
fit either trope: neither Happy Internet nor Angry Internet.
They suggest, instead, a Sad Internet.
Some manifestations of the Sad Internet make a mockery of the pervasive
cliché of the magical technology that connects us all, builds community,
and generally permits the crowd to find and reward the wonderful.
The Sad Internet is a place full of unwatched videos, unliked
photographs, unheard music, tweets that no one cared about, and
crowdfunding projects that nobody backed.
Join us, if you will, for a tour of the Sad Internet.
The online music service Spotify gets lots of attention for its
mind-bogglingly humongous catalog of songs. This year it also got
attention for a previously unnoticed footnote to that feature: Millions
of those songs have never been listened to by a single Spotify user.
The website Forgotify plumbs Spotifys unheard depths to present you with
a random selection from the zero-listen archives. Think of it, my
colleague Alyssa Bereznak suggested earlier this year, as the equivalent
of scrounging through a Tower Records (RIP) bargain bin.
Indeed, you might discover a hidden gem. Forgotifys motivation seems to
be positioned as giving all this unknown music a second chance. Or, you
know, a first chance.
Similarly, theres a note of optimism, or at least yearning, in the name
of No Likes Yet yet! As a practical matter, the site is designed to let
you discover Instagram photos with zero likes.
As I noted in an item about the site earlier this year, its also
designed to prod you to help these lonely photos (of Starbucks cups and
unremarkable hotel rooms and so on) with a redeeming like: As you mouse
over each image, you see an exhortation to offer some positive
reinforcement as you see fit.
Or you can just indulge in the potential schadenfreude of narrowing
results to your own circle of Instagram contacts. Or wallow in the
self-pity of reviewing your own unliked pictures.
Only fail to connect?If theres a cheerful rationale for Sad Tweets, it
escapes me.
The concept: Connect the application to your Twitter account, and it
presents you with a lowlights reel of your attempts at sharing that
attracted no likes, and no retweets.
In short, its a graveyard for your most depressing Twitter failures,
as my colleague Jason Gilbert put it earlier this year. And despite his
(rather depressing!) wish that the service would expand to allow users
to peruse other peoples sad tweets, for now it remains purely a
mechanism for self-loathing.
Petit Tube is a French site launched this year that, according to New
Media Rockstars, plays a stream of YouTube videos with zero views. Local
advertising and real-estate clips, along with some random baby, figured
prominently in my brief and somewhat excruciating exploration of the
service. Visitors may vote on what they see: Cette vidéo est bien? or
Cette vidéo nest pas bien? (Roughly translated, that means Yay or
nay?)
N.M.R. also points out two other low-to-zero-view offerings.
Underviewed scrapes YouTube for the lesser seen, the underviewed, and
contends that there are innumerable videos out there waiting to be
discovered. And what appears to be a Sad Internet early mover, the
Tumblr 0 Views promised the best of the bottom of the barrel
although its last post was actually in 2013.
I suppose it is possible that one of these projects might lead to the
discovery of an unviewed treasure that subsequently goes viral. But I
notice that despite their relative age, the entries on 0 Views
remain
mired in the land of four-figure view counts, at best. Sad.
The silence of the crowd?Surely Kickstarter has proved itself the source
of some of the Internets most inspiring success stories people raising
money for worthy art projects, useful gizmos, and, you know, potato salad
parties. Stuff that simply wouldnt have happened without the support of
the Internet crowd.
Sadly, thats not always how Kickstarter stories end. And thus,
Kickended, a site that collects campaigns launched on the crowdfunding
platform that failed to attract a single backer.
I wrote about the site here earlier this year, and strained to find a
silver lining: Its a useful, albeit bleak, reality check. Yes, the
Internet makes magic and wondrous and unprecedented things occur. But
only sometimes, and not for everyone. (Sheesh, what a Gloomy Gus!)
While its clearly been a big year for the Sad Internet, I need to give
full credit to a pioneer of the form: the Tumblr Screenshots of Despair.
Launched back in 2012, it set out to collect a bunch of screenshots
illustrating the feelings of desolation that can often accompany social
networking and life online, its creator wrote. SO FUN!
Specifically the site collects the accidentally despair-inducing text and
imagery often submitted by readers that gets presented to us by the
many digital and social-media services we deal with all day.
Oddly, the site is fun, in a dark-humor sort of way. And apparently
popular: Its amusingly depressing posts regularly attract tons of likes
and reblogs. Which just goes to show that, on the Internet, even sadness
can go viral. Yay?
And, finally, there is the Lonely Sculpture, created by artist Tully
Arnot. This consists of a silicone finger rigged to a servo motor, so
that it bobs up and down, nonstop. Positioned beneath this ever-tapping
digit is a smartphone displaying the dating app Tinder.
Tinder, which is one of the least subtle apps in the world, offers a
parade of pictures of potential partners who also use the service,
inviting users to signal interest or rejection with a tap or a swipe.
The Lonely Sculptures automated finger is positioned to mindlessly
like every single candidate the app presents.
Lonely Sculpture is a reflection of both our desire for human contact,
and of the isolating nature of social media networks and online dating,
Artnet glumly observes. As we become more and more dependent on
technology, the lines between man and machine are blurred.
Alternatively, perhaps one could interpret the piece as pumping a stream
of positivity into a digital ecosystem that often seems to be built
around the seeking of quantifiable approval.
Then again, even that reading doesnt make it an antidote to a years
worth of online bleakness. It makes this absurd mechanism the perfect
mascot for the Sad Internet.
And on that note, hey have a happy New Year, everybody!
=~=~=~=
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