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Black Code: how spies, cops and crims are making cyberspace unfit for human habitation

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 18 May 2013 15:15:46 +0000

I reviewed Ronald Diebert's new book Black Code in this weekend's edition of the Globe and Mail. Diebert runs the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and has been instrumental in several high-profile reports that outed government spying (like Chinese hackers who compromised the Dalai Lama's computer and turned it into a covert CCTV) and massive criminal hacks (like the Koobface extortion racket). His book is an amazing account of how cops, spies and crooks all treat the Internet as the same kind of thing: a tool for getting information out of people without their knowledge or consent, and how they end up in a kind of emergent conspiracy to erode the net's security to further their own ends. It's an absolutely brilliant and important book:

Ronald Deibert’s new book, Black Code, is a gripping and absolutely terrifying blow-by-blow account of the way that companies, governments, cops and crooks have entered into an accidental conspiracy to poison our collective digital water supply in ways small and large, treating the Internet as a way to make a quick and dirty buck or as a snoopy spy’s best friend. The book is so thoroughly disheartening for its first 14 chapters that I found myself growing impatient with it, worrying that it was a mere counsel of despair.
But the final chapter of Black Code is an incandescent call to arms demanding that states and their agents cease their depraved indifference to the unintended consequences of their online war games and join with civil society groups that work to make the networked society into a freer, better place than the world it has overwritten.
Deibert is the founder and director of The Citizen Lab, a unique institution at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. It is one part X-Files hacker clubhouse, one part computer science lab and one part international relations observatory. The Citizen Lab’s researchers have scored a string of international coups: Uncovering GhostNet, the group of Chinese hackers taking over sensitive diplomatic computers around the world and eavesdropping on the private lives of governments; cracking Koobface, a group of Russian petty crooks who extorted millions from random people on the Internet, a few hundred dollars at a time; exposing another Chinese attack directed at the Tibetan government in exile and the Dalai Lama. Each of these exploits is beautifully recounted in Black Code and used to frame a larger, vivid narrative of a network that is global, vital and terribly fragile.
Yes, fragile. The value of the Internet to us as a species is incalculable, but there are plenty of parties for whom the Internet’s value increases when it is selectively broken.

How to make cyberspace safe for human habitation

Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace

NMA on Rob Ford's crack video

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:05:14 +0000

Taiwan's Next Media Animation -- basically, news-of-the-weird, made weirder with instant machinima-esque videos -- weighs in on the allegation that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was caught on video smoking crack.

Crack smoking Toronto mayor Rob Ford caught on tape!

The Rob Ford files

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:24:42 +0000

In handy spreadsheet form! (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

A timely and topical single-serving site

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:49:29 +0000

Has Rob Ford Resigned Yet? (Thanks, Ryan!)

3D printing for kids, this weekend in Toronto!

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:36:09 +0000

Back in January, I blogged my visit to Toronto's MakerKids, a wonderful makerspace for kids. Now, MakerKids is running a 3D printing weekend for kids at Toronto's Harbourfront centre. Andy from Makerkids writes, "This weekend, at the 11th annual Toronto International Circus Festival (from May 16th-18th at the Harbourfront Centre), MakerKids will be helping kids to do 3D printing of circus creatures! At our station at this free event, kids will design fantastical animals and characters they'd like to see in a circus using the 123D Creature app. The crowd's favourites will be 3D printed for their designers to bring home!"

MakerKids 3D Printing at Harbourfront this Weekend (Thanks, Andy!)

Gawker reporter claims to have seen video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 17 May 2013 05:28:07 +0000

Gawker's John Cook was contacted by a tipster who offered to sell him a video of Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack for more than $40K. As proof, the tipster provided a photo of Ford posing with Anthony Smith, recently murdered in a gang-style shooting. The tipster claimed that Ford buys his crack from a dealer who services many of Toronto's elite, including "Ford's longtime friend, people on his staff, his brother, a prominent hockey analyst, and more."

Gawker didn't want to spend the $40K to get the video, though they did send Cook to Toronto, and he claims to have seen it. A CNN source tipped off the Ford people that the video is in circulation, and there the story stands:

Here is what the video shows: Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto, is the only person visible in the frame. Prior to the trip, I spent a lot of time looking at photographs of Rob Ford. The man in the video is Rob Ford. It is well-lit, clear. Ford is seated, in a room in a house. In one hand is a a clear, glass pipe. The kind with a big globe and two glass cylinders sticking out of it. In the other hand is a lighter. A slurred voice off-camera is ranting about Canadian politics in what sounds like an attempt to goad Ford. "Pierre Trudeau was a faggot!" is the one phrase the lodges in my mind. Ford, pipe in one hand and lighter in the other, is laughing, and mildly protesting at the sacrilege. He seems to keep trying to light the pipe, but keeps stopping to laugh. He is red-faced and sweaty, heaving with each breath. Finally, he finds his moment and lights up. He inhales.
In one move, the owner stops the video and draws the device back into his pocket.
"You took this?" I ask.
"Yes."
"When?"
"Within the last six months."
"You're sure it's crack?"
"Yes."
"You've seen him smoke crack before?"
"Yes. Gotta jet."
And he is gone.

Cook reports that someone with a Hotmail account identifying himself as Dennis Morris and claiming to be Ford's lawyer sent him an email threatening to sue him if he publishes. I'd be interested in knowing whether "Dennis Morris" is registered with the Law Society of Upper Canada, but they don't appear to have an online registry.

Rob Ford is one of the worst politicians in Canadian history (really saying something). My nickname for him is Mayor Laughable Bumblefuck. He's weathered some severe scandals during his tenure in office, but I think that this one would be terminal, and may even take down his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, a guy widely held to be the brains in the outfit.

For Sale: A Video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Smoking Crack Cocaine [John Cook/Gawker]

Update: dsac86 says in the comments: "The Law Society of Upper Canada has an online directory, and there is a Dennis Morris registered [http://www1.lsuc.on.ca/LawyerP...]. Dennis Morris has also represented Ford on a couple of other legal matters."

(Thanks to the dozens of people who suggested this, emailed/tweeted about it, left me voicemails, and shouted it to the heavens)

Toronto mayor sprints out of community council event to stick fridge magnets on cars in the parking lot

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:39:02 +0000

Rob Ford, Toronto's laughable bumblefuck of a mayor, attended a community council meeting in the district of Etobicoke on Tuesday night, but didn't stay. After a few minutes, he "sprinted" down the aisle and ran into the parking lot, where he compulsively began slapping "Rob Ford Mayor" fridge-magnets on the cars of the people attending the meeting. When a reporter asked him if this was strange behavior, he responded that "some people find the reporter strange." When his aide and director of operations and logistics David Price was asked about why the mayor's wasn't inside the meeting, he snorted derisively at the idea that the mayor might want to "[sit] and [listen] to those deputations."

Price, Ford's former high school football coach and his recently named director of operations and logistics, put magnets on cars before Ford arrived. He stood between Ford and the reporters after the mayor said he would take no more questions.
Price scoffed at the suggestion that Ford should be attending the meeting-in-progress rather than circling the parking lot.
“He can do whatever he wants. Putting magnets on a community event — what do you expect him to be, up on stage?” Price said. When a reporter said the mayor might be expected to at least sit in the audience and listen, Price said, disparagingly, “Sitting and listening to those deputations?”
Ford, who speaks often of his love of campaigning, spent more than 15 minutes in the church lot. He eventually spotted an acquaintance who uses a wheelchair, calmly wheeled the man in, and returned to his seat deep in the crowd.
He later gave an impassioned speech in opposition to the Humbertown proposal, then stayed to cast a vote against it. It is rare for the mayor to attend a cmmunity council meeting, and several members of the council thanked him for his presence.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford bolts from meeting to put fridge magnets on cars [Daniel Dale/Toronto Star]

(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

(Image: downsized thumbnail cropped from a larger image by Daniel Dale)

Controlling a robot arm with an Android phone

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:33:33 +0000

Paul sez, "This past semester, three engineering grad students at the University of Toronto (myself and two others) created an Android app for a course project that allows for wireless and intuitive control of a robotic arm from an Android-powered smartphone. We're pretty proud of the results (the link is to a demo we put together) and have released the code open source."

Android Robotic Manipulator Demo (Thanks, Paul!)

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford about to lose his job coaching high-school football?

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:57:22 +0000

Critics of Rob Ford, Toronto's laughable bumblefuck of a mayor, will tell you that at least he's good at teaching high-school football (maybe the only thing he truly enjoys). So it's newsworthy that the schools for which he coaches are considering firing him, and he won't show up to meetings to discuss his misconduct.

The school board is examining a Sun interview in which Ford made disparaging comments about the school community that have been called inaccurate by the board, parent council members, teachers and even one of Ford’s assistant coaches. The mayor asserted that Don Bosco players come from “broken homes” and would be dead or in jail if not for football.
Some parents have called for Ford’s removal.
“We haven’t made any decision whatsoever,” board spokesman John Yan said Thursday. “We’re trying to meet with the mayor, because we have to have an opportunity as part of the process to discuss his comments.
“Part of that process is for Mr. Ford to provide us with either with an explanation or a commentary on what transpired on the March 1 interview.

Rob Ford: Mayor cancels meeting with Toronto Catholic board to discuss his coaching future (Thanks, Gord!)

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's long history of public drunkenness and brawling

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 22:27:17 +0000

Two weeks ago, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was accused of drunkenly groping and propositioning former mayoral race rival Sarah Thomson at a Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee charity event. He denied it, and smeared Thomson on his radio show.

Now, many people have come forward to say that Ford had become drunk and disorderly at military charity event called the Garrison Ball. These are just the latest in a series of incidents of public drunkenness for the mayor, who is a horrible embarrassment to the city of my birth.

The Toronto Star has a long account of Ford's frequent bouts of public drunkenness and brawling, including events that he lied about at the time and later had to apologise for.

However, over the next hour, people in attendance noticed that the mayor seemed impaired. According to interviews, he was “incoherent,” “stumbling,” “rambling,” “intoxicated,” “slurring,” “seemed to be drunk,” “was nervous, excited, sweaty, out of it.”
Military guests were offended at the mayor’s behaviour, according to guests interviewed by the Star. “It felt disrespectful to the event,” said one organizer.
The six guests who provided accounts of the mayor’s condition spoke on condition of anonymity. The Star found that while these guests were concerned with the mayor’s condition, they did not want to be identified for two reasons. First, they did not want to be linked to a story that would cast a poor light on the annual Garrison Ball, which raises money for Wounded Warriors, a federally registered charity. Second, these guests, who all have prominent positions in the community, feared they would somehow be blacklisted for speaking out about the mayor.

Rob Ford: ‘Intoxicated’ Toronto mayor asked to leave military ball [Toronto Star/Robyn Doolittle & Kevin Donovan]

Song about Torontonians' dismal obsession with Canada Goose parkas

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 01:00:12 +0000

Torontonians are actually pretty well-dressed, but not in winter. In winter, everyone wears awful, identical Canada Goose parkas. This has made John R. so mentally distressed that he's actually made a rap video about the dismal state of affairs, with a video illustrating the problem:

Everyone in T-Dot wears the same damn coat
Is it cheap? Nope!
800 bucks, it’s Canuck
Goose Goose Goose Goose Goose Goose Duck
It’s a shopping spree
on the TTC
newscasters on TV
Why you asking me
if this coat was free?
I need it for extreme conditions in my SUV
Heat only goes to 3
This setting takes forever to warm my knees.

Everyone in Toronto Wears the Same Damn Coat

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford accused of grabassing, letching on former election rival

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:22:12 +0000

Toronto's living shitshow of a mayor, Rob "Laughable Bumblefuck" Ford, is back in the headlines. Sarah Thomson, the publisher of The Women's Post, who ran against Ford in the last election, claims that he came onto her at a Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee affair, grabbing her ass and saying, "[she] should have been in Florida with him last week because his wife wasn't there." According to Thomson, Ford was drunk and "out of it." He appears worse for wear in a soon-to-be-infamous photo with Thomson, in which he sports a stained shirt and a rather unflattering expression.

"He grabbed my ass and I'm thinking what the heck is going on with him? I was so mad about it because this is somebody who knows how much I do for this city," Thomson told radio host John Moore.
She said she told Ford's staff to remove him from the room.
"I went to his handlers and said, 'Get him out of here,'" she said.
Thomson said Ford "completely crossed the line" Thursday night.
"He needs help if he's doing that to someone like me," she said.
"What he said to me and what he did is wrong."

Rob Ford blasted by Sarah Thomson for alleged crude comment [Don Peat/Toronto Sun]

A visit to Makerkids, Toronto's makerspace for kids

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 13:31:25 +0000

I'm in Toronto visiting my family with my daughter, Poesy. I was intrigued by Makerkids, a makerspace for children that does after-school and summer programs for kids who want to hack toys, use the woodshop, learn Arduino and electronics, use Minecraft to product Printcraft 3D prints on the Makerbot Replicator, and more. Andy Forest, the space's co-founder, was gracious enough to show us around and to get Poesy started on hacking a robot, and to get her cousin Jaxon working on disassembling a Wall-E robot and changing its arms and such. It was a great day -- and it's a great space -- and Andy has put up a blog post about the day.

My daughter Zhen figured out how to make candy flowers, and kept us well fed with sugar.
Next to arrive, Alex brought with him a huge box of speakers. He loves taking things apart, so he brought the parts in to see what he could make. He ended up making a speaker box out of wood and wiring it up to our stereo!
Audrey arrived with her brother Wilder and a plan – she didn’t want to slip on the ice any more! So after designing some strap-on ice cleats on the whiteboard, she got right to work. Next, she moved to the wood shop. She mastered the jigsaw to cut out some plywood soles and drilled holes in it for the ice-cleat screws. She’s coming back next week to finish it off.
First time visitor Arbor produced a huge list of crazy ideas and narrowed down to making a light-up head. She learned to solder and wired up LEDs, batteries, resistors and switches like a champ!
We also had a maker kid creating a video game with the Alice software. I peered over his shoulder and it looked interesting!

Friday Open Shop

Why Mayor Rob Ford belongs on Toronto's shitlist. Again.

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:15:49 +0000

Torontoist's Christopher Bird explains perfectly why Mayor Rob "Laughable Bumblefuck" Ford belongs on Villain of the Year list for 2012, after appearing on so many such lists in years gone by:

Rob Ford is a pathetic joke of a mayor, easily the worst mayor this city has ever had. He is a coward, a liar, a bully, and frankly an entitled, spoiled brat of a politician who throws tantrums whenever he does not get his way, which is now often, thanks to his utter inability to work with people who refuse to be his supplicants. He makes it clear on a daily basis that he is not smart enough to be mayor: he does not understand the job or what it entails, let alone the nuances of politics and law that a mayor must know in order to be minimally competent. He is a national joke approaching international joke status, if he is not there already. As long as Rob Ford continues to be the worst element of Toronto municipal politics, then he deserves to be a Villain. It’s just that simple. If this means he’ll have a record-breaking streak of appearances, then that’s his problem, not ours.
If you disagree with that… well, let’s take a deep breath and see if we can get out everything Rob Ford did this year that was stupid, selfish, dishonest, or simply mean-spirited in one sentence: Rob Ford became irrelevant to the 2013 budget debate, then to the city’s transit strategy; during the transit debate Ford misrepresented expert opinions, went on the subway to whine at regular people, and played politically divisive games by trying to pit Toronto’s downtown against its suburbs; after that meeting he got Gary Webster fired (which cost the City over half a million dollars and did untold damage to staff morale); he had to be extensively pressured to attend even a PFLAG flag raising, and of course refused to participate in Pride at all; he threatened to attack a Toronto Star reporter (and then threatened a media blackout if said reporter was not removed from the City Hall beat); he repeatedly skipped out of city council meetings to go coach his football team and had his staff do so as well; his office may have improperly influenced the appointment of city officials; he repeatedly attacked the City’s ombudsman and integrity commissioner; he got special treatment from the City for his private company; he demonstrated that he didn’t know what a public/private partnership is; promised at Ford Fest that his next mayoral campaign, over two years away, had just begun; he was caught reading while driving on the Gardiner and passing open streetcar doors in his car; he explained, in the wake of gun violence, that “no one helps youth more than I do” when asked why he voted against federal anti-gang funding and community development; he was generally not around at City Hall doing his job; got sued for libel; and oh, throughout the year he acted like an ass with his brother on their radio show, which he used to slag his political opponents, violate the City’s Code of Conduct by attacking the City’s medical officer of health, and suggest that we use immigration laws to cut down on gun crime. Also he fell down while trying to play football.

2012 Villain: Rob Ford

(Image: Worst mayor ever, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from 26263283@N00's photostream)

Monkey in a smart coat visits suburban Ikea

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:06:17 +0000

A monkey in a nice coat escaped from a cage inside its owner's car, opened the car door, and strolled into an Ikea in North York, a suburb of Toronto. The monkey was removed shortly thereafter. I have been stuck in that Ikea and I can testify that whatever your feelings about the ethics of keeping a pet monkey (or sticking it in a cage in your car), it is certainly a mercy to remove the monkey from that Ikea.

in the future, humour = twitter account creation
— Ikea Monkey (@IKEAmonkey) December 9, 2012

The incident spawned two parody Twitter accounts: @IKEAmonkey and @Ikea_Monkey, the former being more prolific (and having made overtures of peace and cooperation to the latter, without, it seems, any success).

At around 3 p.m. ET, the diminutive primate was spotted in the store’s upper parking lot, where it was cornered by several Ikea staff members, who also called animal control to come retrieve the monkey.

Mysterious monkey in posh miniature winter coat found alone at Toronto Ikea [National Post] (via MeFi)

(Image: Umm saw a monkey in the #ikea parking lot. by #broniewyn)

How many seconds until Rob Ford is gone?

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:41:47 +0000

Now that Toronto's scumbag mayor Rob Ford is out on his ass, the city is celebrating. Here's a countdown calculator that tells you how many more seconds the deplorable oaf has in office before he's banished to the scrapheap of history.

Ford Countdown - Mayor Rob Ford Countdown Clock (Thanks, Dan!)

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford demonstrates his governance style

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:17:20 +0000

Toronto mayor Rob Ford is a dick. He rips out bike lanes. Violates municipal conflict of interest rules by participating in votes to censure him for unethical fundraising. Closed a library and threatened others Skips council meetings to coach high school football (to which he diverts city resources), then hijacks a city bus to drive his team around. Calls the cops in a panic when journalists come to his house to ask him questions, and boycotts the most-read paper in the country because of their investigative reporting on him, and freaks out they sent out a reporter to check on reports that he was thinking of annexing some public land near his home.

He's ill-spoken, absurd, and hateful. In short, he is a laughable bumblefuck.

For evidence, I present to you this animated GIF of Mayor Laughable Bumblefuck demonstrating his governance style to the world.

(Thanks to Dave Nickle for fact-checking my ass!)

Bibliomat: a vending machine for random rare and antiquarian books (with satisfying clunk)

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:45:20 +0000

Craig sez, "The Biblio-Mat is a random book dispenser built by Craig Small for The Monkey's Paw, an idiosyncratic antiquarian bookshop in Toronto. Biblio-Mat books, which vary widely in size and subject matter, cost two dollars. The machine was conceived as an artful alternative to the ubiquitous and often ignored discount sidewalk bin. When a customer puts coins into it, the Biblio-Mat dramatically whirrs and vibrates as the machine is set in motion. The ring of an old telephone bell enhances the thrill when the customer's mystery book is delivered with a satisfying clunk into the receptacle below."

The BIBLIO-MAT (Thanks, Craig!)

➚ Trevor sez, "Friday and Saturday night, design collective The Mission Business transforms Toronto's Evergreen Brick Works into an end of the world evacuation facility run by the (fictional) leader in 'lifestyle biotech', ByoLogyc." [zed.to]

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:48:07 +0000

Trevor sez, "Friday and Saturday night, design collective The Mission Business transforms Toronto's Evergreen Brick Works into an end of the world evacuation facility run by the (fictional) leader in 'lifestyle biotech', ByoLogyc."

Knuckles that promote literacy

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 04:09:02 +0000

Spotted today at a Toronto restaurant: a great, pro-literacy set of knuckle-tatts.

Cory in Toronto today, Boston tomorrow

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:00:35 +0000

Hey, Toronto! It's my last night in town -- I'll be at Harbourfront's International Festival of Authors doing a double-act with China Mieville (there's still some tickets available). Tomorrow I'm off to the Boston Book Festival for the very last stop of the Pirate Cinema tour -- come on out and watch me attempt to stand upright (it's at 415PM, and it's free, but you need tickets). Here's the details.

Cory in Toronto today, tomorrow (then Boston!)

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:00:40 +0000

Hey, Toronto! I'll be at the Harbourfront International Festival of Authors tonight and tomorrow night (tonight it's a joint appearance with Larissa Andrusyshyn, Stuart Clark, Corey Redekop and Robert J. Sawyer; tomorrow, it's a twofer with China Mieville). Then I head to Boston for the last engagement in my Pirate Cinema tour, a free, ticketed event at the Boston Book Festival. Be there or be oblong! Full details at the Pirate Cinema tour schedule.

Cory coming to Toronto, Boston

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:05:37 +0000

Hey, Toronto! I'll be at the Harbourfront International Festival of Authors on Thursday and Friday nights, both times at 8PM. On Thursday, I'm reading with Larissa Andrusyshyn, Stuart Clark, Corey Redekop and Robert J. Sawyer; on Friday, I'm doing a double-act with China Mieville. From there, I head to Boston for the final appearance of my Pirate Cinema tour: an appearance at the Boston Book Festival at 415PM. Hope to see you! Here's the full schedule.

Internet governance and cyber-security conference in Toronto

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 17:00:05 +0000

Robin Gross from IP Justice sez, "Public interest groups involved in ICANN will gather for the event, 'ICANN & Internet Governance: Security & Freedom in a Connected World' on Friday 12 October at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Canada. Sponsored by the Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC), the voice of civil society in ICANN, the policy conference will focus on key ICANN policy issues like the need to promote both cyber-security and human rights in the development of global Internet policies. The event kicks-off with a morning address from cyber-security expert Ron Deibert, Director of the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies and The Citizen Lab, an inter-disciplinary research and development hothouse at the University of Toronto. Deibert will address the need to establish a cyber-security strategy for global civil society."

NCUC's policy conference will discuss the promotion of cyber-security and human rights on the Internet, multi-stakeholderism and the role of governments, and key policy issues surrounding new top-level domains such as freedom of expression and intellectual property rights. The conference subtitle "Security & Freedom in a Connected World" recognizes society's shared twin goals of security and freedom, and questions to what extent must society sacrifice one for the other.
Cyber-security expert Ron Deibert from The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto will address the conference in the morning and ICANN's new CEO Fadi Chehade will deliver welcoming remarks to the group right after lunch. Other confirmed speakers include governmental representatives, members of ICANN's board of directors and senior staff, civil society and Internet business leaders.

NCUC Policy Conference: ICANN & Internet Governance: Security & Freedom in a Connected World

Art textbook with no art: school trying to fix it

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:00:50 +0000

Earlier this week, I wrote about a custom textbook for a course in art history from prehistory to 1800 that had been assigned to students at the Ontario College of Art and Design at a price of $180, which was to be delivered without any artwork in it, thanks to a dispute over copyright clearances.

After an uproar from students and parents, the school met with students and is revisiting its decision to publish and require this book. Sarah Mulholland from OCAD writes that "Dean Shailer has sent an update letter to students this morning with some very good news as a result of her meeting with the publisher yesterday afternoon, which followed the student forum discussion."

The dean's letter is on the school's website (PDF). Here's an excerpt:

I met later in the afternoon with reps from Pearson – including the President of the Higher Education Division of Pearson Canada, Steve O’Hearn – and from the U of T/OCADU Bookstore, as well as a number of other OCAD U faculty and staff. We laid out the concerns and asked for solutions. Pearson was highly responsive and proposed offering:
• Guaranteed end-of-term buy-back of the custom text (dollar amount to be announced next week); they want to take it out of circulation.
• Provision (free) of print copies of the Stokstad text (which contains the vast majority of missing images) to all students who have purchased the reader, to use as a print-based cross-reference; these would be the relevant volumes of the portable version of Stokstad (much easier to carry) – details on how this will roll out next week.
For next semester (LBST 1B05), we will have two possible scenarios that we’d like to poll students on. In any case there will be NO EMPTY BLOCKS OF WHITE SPACE. And for future offerings (next year and beyond): we will wait until March and further feedback from all of you before making any decisions. We’d like to present all this to interested students as soon as possible and are scheduling a second meeting for next Tuesday afternoon. If you cannot attend, please get in touch and let me know your thoughts.

Here's the notice of the followup meeting.

(Thanks, Sarah!)

Munson typewriter, a beauty from 1890

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 21:56:15 +0000

The Martin Howard Typewriter Collection has a new treasure to show off: a Munson typewriter, with horizontal rods that control a hammer that strikes the page from behind:

The Munson typewriter is a remarkable piece of engineering, with a complex and original mechanical design packed into a small frame. Its inner workings are largely exposed, so the machine comes to life with moving rods and levers when being used.
The Munson does not have type-bars but uses a horizontal type-cylinder (about the size of ones finger) that slides from side-to-side and rotates to have the correct character move into place. Then a hammer strikes the paper from behind, pushing the paper against the ribbon and type-cylinder. Type-cylinders with different fonts were available.
With two shift keys, uppercase and figures, only three rows of keys are required.
The Munson was introduced in 1890 and did quite well on the market; however, today it is hard to find. The Munson became the Chicago in 1898 when the enterprise was bought and the typewriters were manufactured by The Chicago Writing Machine Co.

Munson 1 (Thanks Martin!)

Glenn Gould Variations: a two-day event in Toronto inspired by Gould's awesomeness

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:20:16 +0000

The Glenn Gould Variations is a new conference/event in Toronto mounted by the ~~Glenn Gould Foundation~~ Glenn Gould Estate, dedicated to the kind of odd, creative, quirky and thoughtful ideas that Gould was known for. The inaugural event, called "DREAMERS RENEGADES VISIONARIES," will be held in Toronto on Sept 22/23 at the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall. There are over 50 presenters, performers and speakers (including me!), and it promises to be quite an event.

Update: Ron Davis from the Foundation sez, "Dreamers, Renegades, Visionaries: The Glenn Gould Variations is presented by U of T in association with the Glenn Gould Estate. The Foundation is one of several supporters of our event. But the Foundation is independent of it."

Filmmakers, dancers, choreographers, voices, music makers, DJs, visual artists and music producers, mix it up with philosophers, futurists, journalists, media mavens, historians, and provocateurs who defy description!
The "immersive experience" of DREAMERS RENEGADES VISIONARIES: The Glenn Gould Variations is accessible and affordable (a first for Toronto!) for everybody, inspiring and provoking creativity in thought, word and deed with no boundaries…just like Gould himself.
This provocative mix of performance and talk is inspired by Canadian icon and multi-media innovator Glenn Gould, and part of the celebrations marking the 80th year of Gould's birth.

DREAMERS RENEGADES VISIONARIES - The Glenn Gould Variations

(Disclosure: I am a volunteer member of the Glenn Gould Foundation's advisory board)

Win tickets to see David Byrne and Cory in Toronto, Sept 19

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 19:14:18 +0000

Yesterday, I reviewed the new David Byrne book, How Music Works and mentioned that I'd be interviewing Byrne about it live on stage in Toronto on Sept 19, as part of the Harbourfront International Festival of Authors.

The IFA folks have made a pair of tickets for the event available to Boing Boing readers. To win, answer the following question:

What is David Byrne's favourite mode of transportation?

And send us your answer by midnight eastern on September 16 to authorsmedia@harbourfrontcentre.com with the subject line "BYRNE TIX." One winner will be notified September 17.

The event is called "David Byrne and Cory Doctorow: Wassup Internet?!—Music in the Digital Landscape," and it'll be held at 7:30pm on Sept 19 at the Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay West.

Toronto to host real-life flamethrower game based on Street Fighter II

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:00:37 +0000

Joey sez, "Super Street Fire is a creation of a group at Toronto's Site3 coLaboratory hackerspace that lets two people fight 'Street Fighter II' style, with real punches and real fire. Players stand in a special ring with computer-controlled flamethrowers that simulate thrown fireballs; their punches are detected with motion-sensing gloves. They're going to Burning Man at the end of the month, and they're demonstrating their rig in Toronto this Saturday."

The flame effect heads are propane-fed devices that emit a column of fire, or fireball, high into the air. They also dynamically change the colour of the flame so it’s obvious who dealt the blow and who stood there and took it. Flame effects are expressed as two rails, each comprised of eight computer controlled flame effect heads—one rail for the right hand gestures and one for the left. As well as the two rails between the players, there is an outer ring of sixteen flame effects that are triggered by special player move combinations and also controlled by the Master of Games for crowd engagement. The game system is computer hardware and software with an Arduino microcontroller that interfaces with the flame effect head solenoids to regulate both the intensity and duration of the flame.

Site3 is one of Toronto's more amazing hackspaces, quite an achievement in a city that's blessed with an abundance of such facilities.

Super Street Fire: This Saturday in Toronto! (Thanks, Joey!)

Toronto subway system map, Mario style

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:59:36 +0000

Dave created a quite fab Super Mario 3-style map for the Toronto subway system. Delighted with the popular interest in the design, he's offered it for sale as a poster.

Toronto TTC Subway/RT Map – Super Mario 3 Style (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)