BBC betrays the public, demands DRM for HTML5

You may have heard that a group of batshit insane entertainment shills have asked the W3C (the standards body responsible for Web standards) to put "DRM" — magic beans anti-copying stuff — into HTML5. Shamefully, the BBC — a publicly funded organisation, chartered to act in the public interest — is one of the forces pushing for adding stuff to HTML that will make your browser hide things from you, disobey you, and say "I can't let you do that, Dave." Naturally, also requires a ban on free/open source software, because if your browser is open, you could just disable the "I can't let you do that, Dave," program.

Frontier, a terrible company, is going bankrupt Frontier is the bottom-rung of the top-tier of US ISPs, serving customers in 29 states. Despite enjoying monopoly control over its customers' online lives, and despite massive government handouts and a lackadaisical approach to maintenance, and despite out-and-out theft from customers, the company is filing for bankruptcy, having accumulated $16.3b in debt through mismanagement. READ THE REST

Schneier: "It's really too late to secure 5G networks" Bruce Schneier's Foreign Policy essay in 5G security argues that we're unduly focused on the possibility of Chinese manufacturers inserting backdoors or killswitches in 5G equipment, and not focused enough on intrinsic weakness in a badly defined, badly developed standard wherein "near-term corporate profits prevailed against broader social good." READ THE REST

This tough, weatherproof biometric lock pops open with just your fingerprint Biometric technology is doing more than opening your iPhone. In fact, the process of digitally identifying individuals from physical characteristics like fingerprints is opening up whole new areas of innovation. Earlier this month, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that it would start testing biometric recognition software to process air passengers faster. Meanwhile, the FBI […] READ THE REST

This triple headlamp can beam over 800 yards You can laugh all you want at someone wearing a headlamp when they're out hiking or camping or spelunking. Of course, the only thing sillier than wearing a headlamp is being stuck somewhere in the dark without one. The truth is that emergencies and other situations come up all the time when you're out and […] READ THE REST