Amazing Open Source Tools

Ever need free solutions to the many problems of computing? Or how about free software that can compete with those expensive corporate versions? Welcome to The Internet, where like minded individuals noticed such a need, and developed tools for the good of humanity and advancement in general. These are known as open source projects, and are completely free to use, distribute, and modify. For starters, there is the wiki of open source, which provides amazing projects for math, finance, speech, data Storage, networking, and even file servers. But the real gold mine of open source is OSINT, or Open Source Intelligence, which can help you locate valuable resources all over the web. But if you only ever try one open source program, it has to be TrueCrypt, the industry standard on freely available encryption. TrueCrypt can encrypt virtual files, hard disk partitions, entire devices, and even allows for real-time encryption of communications. And who said nothing is free nowadays?

Keep The Internet Decentrelized

The State of The Internet

The State of The Internet has tons of amazing infographs that really applied the data to physical locations for me. For example,"While 71% of the people in developed countries are online, only 21% of those in developing countries have access so far. In spite of such regional disparities, the Internet continues to become faster and more affordable overall. As the number of users increases, so does the sheer amount of money, information and opinions exchanged online. When it comes to the Internet's future, most specialists are optimistic: 64% of them believe the flow of information online will remain mostly free rather than falling under the control of powerful institutions and 81% believe the Internet will enhance human intelligence."
The State of The Internet has also provided me with other interesting facts, such as the locations of 3 major Internet backbones: DE-CIX The Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange in Frankfurt, TAT-14 an underwater cable connecting New Jersey and much of Europe, and the VSNL Tata Communications Limited in Mumbai. These Internet backbones are critical to infrastructure, for example, ex-president Mubarak leveraged a backbone in Egypt to cut off Internet to the entire country. Speaking of which, The State of The Internet also has a nice infograph showing which countries censor their citizens Internet access (China is excluded for some reason). For example, both Saudi Arabia and Burma heavily censor their sites, only allowing traffic for government approvied sites, which greatly hurts the global economy. Other places like Syria, totally shut down access to the web in a blatant violation to human rights. This is where I'm concerned. As a whole, as one Internet, we need make the world aware of these censorship actions. The State of The Internet is doing it's part, what are you doing to spread awareness and fight censorship?

Internet Access Is a Human Right

Friday June 3rd, 2011, The United Nations declared that preventing people from connecting to the Internet is a violation of human rights and against international law. The act was initially in response to France and The United Kingdom who were shutting down Internet access over copyright disputes. Although this act does much more for civil rights, and easily extends to dictators who try to put information blockades on their own people.

"While blocking and filtering measures deny users access to specific content on the Internet, states have also taken measures to cut off access to the Internet entirely. The Special Rapporteur considers cutting off users from internet access, regardless of the justification provided, including on the grounds of violating intellectual property rights law, to be disproportionate and thus a violation of article 19, paragraph 3, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

Stop Internet Censorship: Stop "Protect IP Bill"

Despite it's name, The Protect IP Bill, is a dangerous legislation that would give government the power to censor and block web sites it deemed 'controversial'. The bill has mad massive reworkings since it's inception as COICA, but still remains as maleficent and blatant censorship. It has had numerous opponents: Google stood up against the bill, Senator Ron Wyden saw through it, Anonymous attacked it, and recently, over 90 professors of law at major universities signed AGAINST this bill. So why is this bill so evil? The Protect IP Bill would force Internet providers, search engines, and credit card companies actively cut service to any party the government decided to black list. Freedom of information is important, and people are actively trying to encroach on our freedoms all the time. We all have to take a stand, before our freedoms are taken from us. The best way to fight censorship is simple: spread awareness!

Originally posted on Lockboxx.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a revolutionary form of digital currency, invented by Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin, or BTC, is genius in it's design, due to it's grass-roots distribution style, as well as it's advanced application of cryptography techniques. This mathematical backing and lack of central control makes the Bitcoin market a very fair playing field, and thus very attractive.

The official website: http://bitcoin.org/

"Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally
controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks
like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.."
--Satoshi Nakamoto

Bitcoin is the future.

Independent Cyber News

With all the news media recently about hacking, and so many different perspectives floating around, I thought it was extremely important to get a professional, independent perspective. Freedom of information is a valuable concept, and can only truly come about when grass-roots individuals, who are unswayed by political or corporate agenda, give honest opinions and research. Blogging is a fantastic channel for this, as anyone can create an account and publish their works instantly. Unfortunately, this creates the problem of telling the quality works apart from "run-of-the-mill reporting", which is where search engine optimization comes in. These 'stand alone' blogs don't get the same indexing as blogs with corporate backings, or hack news sights that irresponsibly chase the latest release. No, these quality works must be sought after if you want to attain the real story. Thats where I come in. I believe the independent thinkers of our day should have an equal voice, not drowned out by the major news organizations. Here I attempt to bring a digest of well researched information, that links to other independent research across the web. Freedom of information needs a pure future, without the corruption and political sway of major governments. Help support the cause by spreading the word, following the blog, and learning every day.

Originally, posted on Lockboxx.