Category Archives: General

Apple and Fingerprints

Posted on 2013-09-18 by jcs

Anyone who’s been following Irreal lately is painfully aware that the NSA scandals have kicked my paranoia into hyperdrive. Still, there are limits. Apple’s recent announcement of their fingerprint reader on the iPhone 5S has provoked those poor souls even … Continue reading →

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Trusting Microsoft

Posted on 2013-09-17 by jcs

If you’re a Microsoft user and at all concerned about the security of your computers, you need to read this BoingBoing story about Microsoft’s cooperation with numerous 3-letter government agencies. If ever there were an argument for open source, here … Continue reading →

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Bastien Guerry on Org Mode

Posted on 2013-09-16 by jcs

I just stumbled across this video by Bastien Guerry on Org Mode. It’s a couple of years old but is an excellent introduction to Org Mode and pretty much up to date. If you’re wondering what Org Mode is all … Continue reading →

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The Perfect GPG Pair

Posted on 2013-09-15 by jcs

If the NSA scandals are making you paranoid—and they should—one of the first steps you should take is to install email encryption software. Every time you read an article recommending the use of encryption software, the author inevitably remarks that … Continue reading →

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Why It Matters: A Story From Sweden

Posted on 2013-09-14 by jcs

I ended my Dinner With General Alexander post with the observation that when the Government collects data, regardless of the stated rationale, there will inevitably be mission creep that sees the data being used in new, unintended ways and that … Continue reading →

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Schneier on Being Safe

Posted on 2013-09-13 by jcs

Bruce Schneier, one our best independent security experts, has some useful advice on staying safe from NSA surveillance. He is working with the Guardian and has access to the Snowden documents so he can bring some reasoned analysis to the … Continue reading →

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It Just Gets Better and Better

Posted on 2013-09-12 by jcs

Glenn Greenwald’s latest article is out at the The Guardian. Despite repeated assurances that Americans’ data are respected and protected it turns out that the NSA is sharing raw intelligence including Americans’ data with Israel. As it happens, I don’t … Continue reading →

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Dvorak on the NSA

Posted on 2013-09-11 by jcs

John Dvorak is at his hyperbolic best in this piece on the NSA. In it, he throws out red meat for those of us enraged by what the NSA is doing. His take is that the NSA sees Americans as … Continue reading →

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Build Your Own Dropbox

Posted on 2013-09-10 by jcs

As I’ve written many many many times before, if you’re using Dropbox to store sensitive data you absolutely must encrypt it before committing it to Dropbox. I use Dropbox solely to sync my 1Password keychain between devices so the file … Continue reading →

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The War Between NSA and the Tech Industry Begins

Posted on 2013-09-09 by jcs

Patrick Gray over at Wired wrote an interesting article in which he posits that Tech Companies and Government May Soon Go to War Over Surveillance. His notion is that while tech companies may have been willing to accommodate the NSA … Continue reading →

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