I just invited over 200 friends to become fans of the World Organization for Human Rights USA’s on Facebook. For the past week I’ve been building the social media presence of Human Rights USA. I connected our existing blog with a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. I designed every electron of our Facebook and YouTube presences, from what tabs we use, to whose channels we subscribe to. Did you know that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (aka ICE) has a YouTube channel? They do–and we are their only subscriber.
I value the time of every person with whom I am friends on Facebook. This is why I only send group communications when I truly believe action will make a difference, will do good. So fan us on our Facebook page. Watch one of our attorneys talk about Charles Taylor’s trial on Al Jazeera English. Maybe even Donate (any amount helps). Human Rights USA brings human rights to U.S. courts, and does substantial good. That’s why I work there.
But most importantly, pass it on.
Inspirational Quote:
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Ronald Reagan.
Below is the handout from a talk I gave today at my internship with the World Organization for Human Rights USA, which focuses on impact litigation. Attorneys face special risks to their computer security because they are regularly in possession of confidential documents.
Assumptions:
You already have a working, updated anti-virus system on your laptop;
You know not to open attachments from strangers (and you do not let your email program do so either);
You do not let strangers have unsupervised physical access to your laptop.
3 Technical Tips:
Get to know your computer’s rhythms: if she slows down suddenly, or starts having weird pop-ups, run anti-virus immediately.
Know the security holes of your operating system. Windows is famously insecure, and many anti-piracy technologies make it even less secure. OSX is more secure, but not perfect.
Use https for your email (its a setting in Gmail)
It is what all online banking and sales websites use—good enough for most people’s email needs
“According to security expert Gene Spafford, [using https] is analagous to ‘using an armored truck to transport rolls of pennies between someone on a park bench and someone doing business from a cardboard box’” (What is https). More on behavioral security next.
Your laptop security is only as good as your personal security
Even if a laptop is impenetrable remotely (which is nearly impossible), if it can be stolen it can probably be hacked
Change or rotate passwords about every 6 months, and make them memorable enough that you do not have to write them down. Secure password trick: use a line from a favorite poem that has punctuation*
Treat your laptop like cash: do not flash it in public and do not leave it unattended
3 Tips on How to Learn How Hackers Think
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
It is a fictional work about the history of cryptography, starting in WWII and ending up in the late 1990s. Reading it is a great way to learn how cryptographers think about security.
These are the two largest information security (ie, hacker) conferences. They are both in Las Vegas in the fall. Defcon’s forums are worth reading. (Black Hat also has Washington DC training sessions).
The Broken is a web-series on hacking. In the first episode, learn how to hack into WiFi networks (actually doing this may not be legal, but learning how it can be done is education).
Final Tip:
Think of your laptop like a house—your locks have to fit your needs. If someone is really determined, he will be able to get into your house, no matter your security system. This does not mean you cannot leave valuables in your house. It means understand that there is always a risk that something will be stolen, and the best anyone can do is mitigate that risk.
*You can think outside the box with passwords. All of the following were rated Very Strong by PasswordMeter.com:
Twas in the Merry Month of May /
“Impossible! for a plain…
Who am I?24601!
1/4 tbs milk?
ATCA (1789)
NOTE: don’t use these, since they are here. Choose a song or poem that is personally meaningful to you!
Inspirational Quote:
Amelia Earhart – “The most effective way to do it, is to do it.”
With access to a TV (thanks uber-cool roommate!) I’ve started having my favorite shows on in the background when I spin, write or read. I find myself attracted to TV shows with butt-kicking, geeky women.
1. NCIS–a police procedural with a military twist.
NCIS has two butt-kicking and brilliant women I would like to highlight: Ziva (Mossad agent and temporary NCIS agent) and Abby (Goth forensics genius).
Here NCIS agents are trying to detain a Marine with PTSD who is reenacting his escape from Iraqi Insurgents, and also having super-soldier drugs tested on him:
Abby is normally known more for her brains and quirky clothing than her fighting skills. Here she is kidnapped from NCIS (embed disabled by request).
2. Bones–another police procedural, this time from a forensic anthropologist’s view.
Dr Temperance Brennan (“Bones”) has 3 blackbelts. NOTE: I am still trying to find a good clip of Brennan kicking butt. Booth/Brennan fans (that is, fans who want Bones and her FBI partner Seeley Booth to be together) dominate YouTube to the extent it is difficult to find *any* clip which is not about their relationship. This is an ok example of how Bones operates.
3. Burn Notice–a spy for the U.S. government is blacklisted and must get help from his friends (including his explosives-expert ex-girlfriend Fiona).
(she is cooking fresh, homemade C4 in the clip.)
I like following the fictional stories of physically dominating and geeky women because I like collecting role-models. I don’t want Abby’s fashion sense, Bones’s lack of social awareness or Fiona’s pyromania; but I would not want Anne Lamott’s financial problems, Hilary Clinton’s husband issues or Isabella of Spain’s martial commitments. I can still look to them as thoughtful, intelligent, powerful female role-models. TV role-models will always be missing importance pieces that real-people role-models will have. But it is still fun to see how women function when they do not have to deal with rent or periods or the Metro. Fantasies allow us to explore aspects of our world directly without the burden of complex reality. I find value in these simplified worlds because they allow idealistic clarity which the real world eschews.
Inspirational Quote:
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.–Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
One of my mother’s favorite quotes is about Atticus Finch, the father in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird:
“Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets.”
There has been a lot of press and chatter around whether silly pictures on Facebook can cripple a new graduate’s job chances. Facebook allows me to live more publicly than my parents did, and to open up major life experiences to a wide group of friends and colleagues. As a fairly private person (who still has a LinkedIn, a Facebook, A Google Profile, and a Brazen Careerist Profile) I keep most silly pictures of myself off of Facebook and always think before changing my status (I mostly think of what my parents or cousins might comment).
What Jason Warner, who guest-wrote this post, says is that forward-looking companies won’t worry about silly pictures from weekend romps because those companies are not hiring who applicants are on the weekends–they are hiring who they are at work. He believes that companies will begin to re-clarify the line between public and private shared information, and try to ignore shared information which is private. I wonder if this is for the good.
Facebook gives me the opportunity to show that I am the same in my house as in the public street. That I am consistently the same Jessica at noon in Dupont Circle as I am at midnight in my room. Or that I am not. Facebook shows I take responsibility for all of my actions reflecting on me. Dan Savage talks about relationship resumes, finding out whether a potential partner ends relationships with scorched-earth campaigns or amicably. Facebook facilitates this life-resume checking. Every day I have to live up to what I did yesterday; Facebook just makes that accountability more public.
There are significant privacy issues surrounding Facebook-stalking someone to find out their relationship history, and public surveillance is not any way to encourage good behavior. However, with Facebook comes the opportunity to show the world we are ourselves anytime anyone should care to look.
Inspirational Quote:
“The classifieds are a public space where intensely private thoughts are being expressed all the time [...]“–This American Life: Classifieds, 6/1/09
I have recently found a new way to use YouTube to support people with disabilities–for people who are deaf and read sign (ASL, British, etc). How do you communicate music without sound? Pairing dance and rhythmic signing with the already very expressive sign-language these three creative signers bring songs to sign language in an authentic and fascinating way. Enjoy!
Below may be my favorite signed music video.
Notice: the signer is an *amazing* dancer and also is not wearing a shirt for parts of this. Also, the song itself is about a man who is a womanizer, so the content is adultish. You can find a fascinating discussion of this performer on what it takes to “translate” a song into sign (and dance!).
Inspirational Quote:
Friend on why signing is sexy:
“I think that signing is sexy because it involves doing really complex things with your hands…”
I was sitting in the lab, getting read to get down to some serious data entry for my poster (I am graphing each of my p4 video’s popularity statistics on top of the others, see here for more on that) and I thought I was going to have to move the little dot on YouTube’s data aggregator across the fields and manually input each data point. Then I noticed a little button near the bottom. It said “Download reports for this video: csv”. Hallelujah! I am now on the IMF website reading up on csv document format. I am so glad YouTube took care of my data entry!
UPDATE 1:
When I set the time-range of my Insight to 6 months, it only downloaded March. I was worried March was the only one that would be availible, but it seems that I can download data by month. yay!
UPDATE 2: weirdly, I cannot set my time-range starting or ending on a weekend. A moralistic comment on the evil of doing work on weekends perhaps?
UPDATE 3: I guess I cannot get that data. The alt-text for the csv link (which I have just read) tells me that “Reports can be a maximum of 31 days and can not contain data from before the 1st of March 2009″. (“can not” is sic). Well. That is unhelpful. At least I don’t have to do data entry for the last month and a half of views…
Since I cannot download all of the videos’ individual data at once, and cannot even download all of it at a time, this will be less helpful of a tool than I had supposed. *sigh*.
Inspirational Quote:
Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the and the blind can see. —Mark Twain
[ok, this is seriously the last post I do about/with xkcd. It is just so cool! I will be moving on soon.]
This is a fascinating set of graphical representations of the internet/blogosphere. They remind me a bit of what I have seen of Edward Tufte’s work. As someone with a love of metaphors, and a significant interest in explaining technology to non-initiates, images like these might be helpful. Or their in-jokes to thick to make any sense to non-initiates. It’s hard to tell!
Inspirational Quote:
“The invention of a tool doesn’t create change; it has to have been around long enough that most of society is using it. It’s when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible that the really profound changes happen, and for young people today, our new social tools have passed normal and are heading to ubiquitous, and invisible is coming.” Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody
A few weeks ago, as part of a Sondheim concert, I sang “Our Time” with the Repertory Chorus. I had sung it before in high school, for graduation either my sophomore or junior year. As we were learning it, Dr Page made a point of involving us in the lyrics, and making sure we truly understood what we were singing about. A little facetiously, I drew a parallel between “Our Time” by Sondheim and “Handlebars” by the Flobots. The lyrics and videos are below for comparison.
“Handlebars” by the Flobots
“Our Time” by Stephen Sondheim
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
Look at me, look at me
hands in the air like it’s good to be
Alive
and I’m a famous rapper
even when the paths’re all crookedy
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to “De Colores”
And “I’m Proud to be an American”
Me and my friend saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want cuz, look:
I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
Look at me
Just called to say that it’s good to be
Alive
In such a small world
All curled up with a book to read
I can make money open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine sixty four
Miles to a gallon of gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions
I know how to run a business
And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance
I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
I can split the atoms of a molecule
Of a molecule
Look at me
Driving and I won’t stop
And it feels so good to be
Alive and on top
My reach is global
My tower secure
My cause is noble
My power is pure
I can hand out a million vaccinations
Or let’em all die in exasperation
Have’em all healed of their lacerations
Have’em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don’t like’em and
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command
I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
and I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
and I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
Something is stirring,
Shifting ground …
It’s just begun.
Edges are blurring
All around,
And yesterday is done.
Feel the flow,
Hear what’s happening:
We’re what’s happening.
Don’t you know?
We’re the movers and we’re the shakers
We’re the names in tomorrow’s papers
Up to us now to show ‘em
It’s our time, breathe it in:
Worlds to change and worlds to win.
Our turn, coming through,
Me and you, pal,
Me and you!
Years from now,
We’ll remember and we’ll come back,
Buy the rooftop and hang a plaque:
This is where we began,
Being what we can.
It’s our heads on the block,
Give us room and start the clock.
Our dreams coming true,
Me and you, pal,
Me and you!
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To my mind, the central messages of both songs are the same: our generation has the power the change the future. The difference is, the Flobots see that power as dangerous and invasive, and Sondheim sees that power as positive and hopeful. In drawing my comparison, I particularly focus on the lines:
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance
and
We’re the movers and we’re the shakers
We’re the names in tomorrow’s papers [...]
Worlds to change and worlds to win.
Our turn, coming through,
I do not really think that Sondheim’s words speak for his generation or the Flobots speak for mine. I am more considering the parallels between these two pieces because I am interested in the fuller message they provide together–that the power to change the future is massively exiting (“Our Time”) and can become terrible (“Handlebars”) if handled irresponsibly.
Anyhoo, that’s enough for one day. I have to write a project proposal!
Inspirational Quote:
Christopher Morley – “There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
Below is my review from Goodreads on Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. I have been a member of Goodreads for about as long as I have been blogging, but I am much less regular with my reviews than I am with my blog posts. It is still a great site–sort of a Facebook for people who love reading.
I finally finished. I must say, it got better and better the farther I got through. On the list of books tech interns must read before trying to understand geek culture, I might place this one between Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Snowcrash. With threads ranging across 4 continents, 5 main characters and 2 time periods, this book takes a lot of brain-space to get through. But it was worth it. xkcd could have been writing about Randy in the Philippines when they drew this:
Inspirational Quote:
Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.-Thoreau
The recent change in the Facebook Terms of Service has been described in a lot of ways recently:
Facebook’s New Terms Of Service: ‘We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever.’” (Consumerist)
“When a person shares information on Facebook, they first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information so that we can show it to the other people they’ve asked us to share it with,” he wrote. “Without this license, we couldn’t help people share that information.” (Chief Executive of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg)
Taken with good faith, all they are allowing is for messages between you and friends not to disappear when/if you delete your Facebook. Taken cynically, the change reflects an aggressive content grab by what has become the ubiquitous tool of college and colleague communication. Follow the story through Consumerist.
Inspirational Quote:
“I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free.”–William Henry Harrison
