Wired reports that Federal prosectors have added nine additional felony counts against coder, freedom of information activist, and early Reddit employee (or Reddit co-founder, depending on who you ask) Aaron Swartz. Last year, he was charged with breaking hacking laws "by downloading millions of academic articles from a subscription database via an open connection at MIT." Pay attention to this case. The outcome could set precedents that increase legal hazards for security researchers, activists, and online journalists who operate with perfectly good and lawful intentions.
Feds charge open data activist with 13 felonies for downloading academic articles
Crap gadgets reborn as "Dead Startup Toys"
Dead Startup Toys is selection of classic crap gadgets recreated in nonfunctional funsize form. There are adorable Juiceros and Jibos, internet-of-things drink coolers, the well-meaning but hell-bent One Laptop Per Child, and of course the greatest of them all, the Theranos blood assay Minilab that raised nearly a billion dollars and was for all intents… READ THE REST
Team Trump's new social media platform is called "Gettr" and it's recommending that I follow Hitler
Politico reports that a new social network app named "Gettr" is in fact developed by Team Trump. It's described as having been "quietly launched" by Trump's former spokesman Jason Miller, a charitable way of describing something so workaday and generic it's not clear if it's ready to be noticed. There are spelling errors in its… READ THE REST
Venture capitalists launch Future, an "optimistic" tech site
Future is a new online magazine from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz offering "optimistic" coverage of tech to counter everyone else's growing discomfort with it. Here's Sonal Chokshi, Editor in Chief: We are pro-tech, pro-future, pro-change. But we are also "informed optimists", not freewheeling futurists making predictions without any skin in the game. So even… READ THE REST
This highly-rated power strip is a must-have for your home office
Whether you work from home, are a gamer, or simply own a smart gadget or two, finding enough outlets to plug everything into feels a lot like hunting for the world's hottest toy at Christmas time. In other words, it's a little chaotic, to say the least. And while traditional power strips are an obvious… READ THE REST
Get the Apple MagSafe Duo Charger for over 30% off
iPhones, AirPods, Apple Watches, oh my! Okay, that may not be what Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, but if she lived in today's world, she very well may. While all these Apple gadgets have become a part of our daily lives, necessary for many of our routines and tasks, caring for them and… READ THE REST
These 10 VPN deals are all an extra 30% off right now
You've heard for years that you need to be using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to protect all of your activities online. But while it's become a vital layer of web protection, that doesn't mean it needs to cost you an arm and a leg for that coverage either. In fact, you can take advantage… READ THE REST
