This is a test
...because there's still so much that people don't know, but need to

Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference of 2008 - Coming Soon!

May 15th, 2008

I'm really jazzed about going to this conference. They've got some really cool events lined up like:

Hate Speech and Oppression in Cyberspace

Kids taunting classmates (with resulting emotional scars and even suicide); harassment, stalking, and death threats; and organized and race-, gender-, religion-based hate groups; prominent bloggers like Kathy Sierra and Blackamazon have take their blogs down after death threats or attacks … along with all its promise and power of cyberspace, the Internet also distributes words and images of hate that often lead to real-world violence.

And

Activism and Education Using Social Network

We plan on examining several different types of social networks. Some of these networks are geared toward sending out 'news blasts' to your network of friends, while others support having a much deeper conversation about the topic at hand. Protest groups on Facebook can quickly grow to over a million people– and lead to millions demonstrating in the real world. New technology such as "causes," now available both on Facebook and MySpace, allows for fundraising and eases recruiting. Easy sharing can increase the viral spread of videos and web pages. Innovative mashups like those promoted by Netsquared with their Mashup Challenge make information and calls to action more easily available to more people. We'll survey the available functionality and describe how to use the different variants for education and activism activities, as well as giving tips on how to become part of the particlar social network community that the participant is interested in.

The program is here, but you only have a few more days to sign up so get on it!


Article at Random

Computer Security

It only takes five pieces of free software to keep you safe from most types of hacking, spying, and worse. Installing and using them is only a matter of knowing what they are, knowing where to get them, and knowing a little about how to use them. The first one is a good browser...