Una riflessione per niente banale sul passato, di cui ci sentiamo proprietari. In questo caso, il discorso è declinato attorno ai troll, cosa che lo rende ancora più spettacolare a mio avviso. Bella lettura

Money quote: "Recently, I tweeted about the pervasive nature of trolling and how people have always excused online behavior that is largely inexcusable. Almost immediately, a professor in London chastised that idea. He insisted that there was indeed a golden age for trolling, especially “for those of us who can actually remember the “eternal September,” the month in 1993 when a huge influx of America Online users began to overwhelm the online culture and norms of Usenet.

Reader, I laughed. It is unsurprising for a distinguished professor to engage in this kind of “gatekeeper” behavior. After all, his esteem rests on the fact that he knows certain things that others do not. Like all gatekeeper behavior, it was ostensibly a check on the credibility of the target. Also like all gatekeeper behavior, it wasn’t really about whether or not someone passes the test, but rather the gatekeeper feeling like they can control what is true and not true about the subject. Alas for him, I was there in 1993, too, equal parts young, naïve, and shy, but so damn excited about the idea of suddenly communicating with people around the world. This was a new thing, after all. And I will never, ever forget my first reaction to dealing with strangers on the internet: “Why is everyone so mean?”"

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/12/17561768/dont-feed-the-trolls-online-harassment-abuse

Rivoluzione comunista in Unione Sovietica e sessualità femminile: uno spaccato interessante

Money quote: "For Kollontai, the sexual revolution was mainly about mentally liberating women from the expectations of monogamy and servitude to the family. Being able to decide when to have children, she argued, and secure in the knowledge that the state would provide for them, would allow women to study, work and involve themselves in public affairs. She hoped that these transformations would create ‘a new way of being/everyday life novy byt’ and a ‘Woman Human Being’."

https://aeon.co/essays/the-shining-moment-when-russian-revolutionary-women-reinvented-sex

Esercizi per aspiranti scrittori. Una serie di frasi vere o quasi vere, anarcoidi e caotiche, come si conviene a una vera lista non strutturata. Ma dopo scriverete, e anche meglio.

Money quote: "One common thing I learned at three in the morning: everyone lied to survive. Truth is a luxury we day-people take for granted."

https://medium.com/the-mission/the-ultimate-cheat-sheet-to-writing-your-first-book-4dbae9b28ace

Non parliamo molto di security qui su Mostly, nonostante sia uno dei temi dei quali scrivo abbastanza regolarmente. Beh, ecco qui un bell’attacco...

Money quote: “A few months ago, I began to follow a winding path of research into a 10 year-old network attack called DNS rebinding. Put simply, DNS rebinding allows a remote attacker to bypass a victim’s network firewall and use their web browser as a proxy to communicate directly with devices on their private home network. By following the wrong link, or being served a malicious banner advertisement, you could inadvertently provide an attacker with access to the thermostat that controls the temperature in your home”

https://medium.com/@brannondorsey/attacking-private-networks-from-the-internet-with-dns-rebinding-ea7098a2d325

La Lombardia ha corso verso il voto elettronico (fra parecchie polemiche) e vuole guidare il resto del Paese, ma non è la sola a scegliere il digitale. Gli Usa galoppano in quella direzione da tempo.

Tuttavia, l’effetto è aumentare i rischi di manipolazione, oltre a ridurre i costi e i tempi di voto. Non è una buona cosa.

Money quote: “Remote-access software and modems on election equipment 'is the worst decision for security short of leaving ballot boxes on a Moscow street corner.'“

https://motherboard.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/mb4ezy/top-voting-machine-vendor-admits-it-installed-remote-access-software-on-systems-sold-to-states

Bello il vinile, eh, ma adesso è arrivato il momento di ricordare quando una volta qui erano tutti CD...

Money quote: “If you visited Austin’s Waterloo Records recently, you might have noticed a construction project that was unthinkable not so long ago: The 36-year-old Austin music staple was replacing 24 feet of CD racks with space for more vinyl. “After 30 years of CDs, a lot of people are moving on from that format,” says Waterloo owner John Kunz. “Whether they’re going back to vinyl, or streaming, people are selling off those CDs.””

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/owning-music-buying-vinyl-cds-downloads-streaming-w521504

È Aristotle quello che aveva capito tutto. Meno male che ho fatto il classico! Però mi sento sempre di non sapere... troppo socratico?

Money quote: “so what can a guy who lived 23 centuries ago tell you about the pursuit of happiness today? “Aristotle did it first and better. So why not go to the source, the original brain that figured all of this out?” says Professor Edith Hall. “I think there is a comfort in ideas that people have held for thousands of years.””

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jun/17/how-aristotle-is-the-perfect-happiness-guru

Il rovescio della medaglia. I social media come strumenti di propaganda, disinformazione ed oppressione delle persone al servizio degli Stati.

Notevolissima inchiesta di Bloomberg con una grafica come al solito epica.

Money quote: “Only a few years after Twitter and Facebook were celebrated as the spark for democratic movements worldwide, states and their proxies are hatching new forms of digitally enabled suppression that were unthinkable before the age of the social media giants, according to evidence collected from computer sleuths, researchers and documents across more than a dozen countries.

Combining virtual hate mobs, surveillance, misinformation, anonymous threats, and the invasion of victims’ privacy, states and political parties around the globe have created an increasingly aggressive online playbook that is difficult for the platforms to detect or counter”

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-government-sponsored-cyber-militia-cookbook/

Nomadi digitali. Gente senza casa, dice il Guardian

Money quote: “As the working day winds on and such distractions – along with the necessity of meeting other footloose hotshots, and comparing “projects” – take up more of your time, a couple of questions might spring to mind: what is work, and what is leisure? And does the distinction even count for much any more?”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/18/digital-nomad-homeless-tech-work

Ricordi di una stagione spero lontana

Perché in estate, almeno io, leggo tanto 🦀 https://orizzontiblog.it/2018/07/19/libri-di-viaggio-per-lestate-2018/

Il momento in cui ho mollato.

Mi ero trasferito a Milano da un anno e mezzo ma quell'estate andavo a Genova, con gli altri giornalisti di Radio Popolare, per fare il mio lavoro: raccontare il G8 al resto d'Italia. Mi aveva chiamato Federico Bogazzi, sarebbero stati tre giorni incredibili. Quel movimento eterogeneo ed estremamente complesso che era nato come "popolo di Seattle" e stava cercando di intervenire dal basso nei processi di globalizzazione (vi ricordate almeno la punta dell'iceberg: No Logo di Naomi Klein, oppure le copertine di Internazionale?) stava per essere travolto dalla repressione di Stato. Sarebbe seguito l'11 settembre, che avrebbe resettato tutto, inclusa la protesta più o meno costruttiva, più o meno non-violenta, che era stata malmenata a Genova.

Il direttore di allora di Radio Popolare, Piero Scaramucci, la racconta molto meglio di me. Mi rendo conto, a tanti anni di distanza, che la scelta di smettere di occuparmi di politica estera e andarmi a nascondere nella tecnologia digitale e nell'innovazione (avrei iniziato a fine novembre di quell'anno a scriverne per il Sole 24 Ore) dipende anche e moltissimo da quel G8 di Genova. Forse è stato quello il momento in cui ho mollato: esattamente 17 anni fa.

Money quote: "La presenza di tanti stranieri, le cronache di tanti giornalisti (alcuni dei quali furono fisicamente menomati) consentirono che la stampa internazionale e non poca di quella italiana denunciassero gli orrori di Genova. E se ne parlò per mesi, con qualche ripercussione sugli equilibri di governo, almeno fino all’11 settembre quando l’attacco alle Torri Gemelle cambiò le priorità delle cronache".

http://www.radiopopolare.it/2016/07/g8-genova-cosa-e-stato-quel-luglio-2001/

E infatti: Alcaltel, la carica degli smartphone supereconomici e di qualità - il mio articolo per La Stampa

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/07/20/tecnologia/alcaltel-la-carica-degli-smartphone-supereconomici-e-di-qualit-TokV5hHWVVywDAFTpsAiWO/pagina.html

Il difficile, molto difficile rapporto di Elon Musk con la stampa raccontato dalle due parti in causa: Musk e la stampa.

Money quote: “In reaction, Musk has gone on the offensive, lashing out in public at his perceived enemies — largely in the press. “The holier-than-thou hypocrisy of big media companies who lay claim to the truth, but publish only enough to sugarcoat the lie, is why the public no longer respects them,” Musk said on Twitter last month during a spat of bad press, which he dismissed as the merely the result of a bankrupt media ecosystem. “Problem is journos are under constant pressure to get max clicks & earn advertising dollars or get fired,” he tweeted.”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/carolineodonovan/elon-musk-tesla-spacex-war-press-media

Ayn Rand è affascinante e al tempo stesso tossica, ma non per questo sarà il silenzio a farla dimenticare, visto che, quasi un secolo fa, aveva trovato la sua strada per entrare nella mente delle persone. Piuttosto, sarebbe arrivato il momento di mostrare chiaramente come e perché le sue idee non sono una buona cosa.

Money quote: “Rand is dangerous precisely because she appeals to the innocent and the ignorant using the trappings of philosophical argument as a rhetorical cloak under which she smuggles in her rather cruel prejudices. Her writing is persuasive to the vulnerable and the uncritical, and, apart from the overextended set-piece monologues, she tells a good story. It’s her novels that are the bestsellers, remember. Almost two-thirds of the thousands of reviewers on Amazon give Atlas Shrugged a five-star rating. People seem to be buying it for the story, and finding a convincing philosophy neatly packaged within, which they absorb almost without thinking. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine what people find admirable in her characters: Rand’s heroes are self-interested and uncaring, but they’re also great at what they choose to do, and they stick by their principles. It’s a prime example – and warning – of fiction’s influential power”

https://aeon.co/ideas/philosophy-shrugged-ignoring-ayn-rand-wont-make-her-go-away

C’è gente che piano piano lavora per creare quella fantascienza che da ragazzi ci faceva sognare.

Money quote: “The University of Michigan has bested IBM in tiny computing by producing the world's smallest computer that is just 0.3mm long.“

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5875871/Worlds-smallest-computer-revealed-Incredible-image-shows-tiny-machine-dwarfed-grain-rice.html

Che ci sia un problema di privacy e trattamento dei dati è cosa nota. Ma stranamente sembra che non ci importi, senza contare che non andiamo particolarmente in profondità quando ne parliamo.

Money quote: “How many of us are going to take the time to scroll through the new policies and change our data settings, though? We sign up to get the service, but we don’t give much thought to who might be storing our clicks or what they’re doing with our personal information. It is weird, at first, when our devices seem to “know” where we live or how old we are or what books we like or which brand of toothpaste we use. Then we grow to expect this familiarity, and even to like it. It makes the online world seem customized for us, and it cuts down on the time we need to map the route home or order something new to read. The machine anticipates what we want.”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/06/18/why-do-we-care-so-much-about-privacy/

Colpo grosso a Singapore: trafugate 1,5 milioni di cartelle cliniche digitali, inclusa quella del Primo Ministro - il mio articolo per La Stampa

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/07/21/tecnologia/colpo-grosso-a-singapore-trafugate-milioni-di-cartelle-cliniche-digitali-inclusa-quella-del-primo-ministro-3aY5AKqlfOunvI51log6ZM/pagina.html