Author: jon
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Imagine this … (DRAFT!)
DRAFT !!!! Â Revised version published on I Will Opt Out as What Just Happened? For more discussion of Opt Out Day and what’s next, please see We Won’t Fly, Fly With Dignity, I Will Opt Out, and FlyerTalk
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Resources for National Opt Out Day
Wednesday, November 24, is National Opt Out Day. We Won’t Fly, a grassroots organization that’s taken the lead in organizing, describes the goals The goal of National Opt Out Day is (1) to educate the traveling public about airport naked-body scanners and the new “enhanced†TSA groping so they can make an informed decision; (2)…
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Security alert: bots using Facebook chat
If somebody starts chatting with you and asks you to try a link, be wary … No, I didn’t click on the link. I do my best to keep up with security patches, but why take the chance of visiting a site that’s likely to be filled with malware?
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Dinner with D (part 0 of g0ddesses.net)
“Hellrazr and Nemesis is working with a startup for an interim interim CEO. Are you interested? If so, I’m going to be in Seattle Saturday night. Are you free for dinner?†Interim interim CEO didn’t seem like a particularly empowered job so my first reaction was that I probably wasn’t interested … but hey, never…
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Happy Halloween!
18 years … wow … and they said it wouldn’t last … Actually, nobody said it wouldn’t last. But if they had, they’d have been wrong.
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“Tissue turgor” and pink elephants: about Y Combinator (DRAFT)
DRAFT! Work in progress! Feedback welcome One advantage startups have over established companies is that there are no discrimination laws about starting businesses. For example, I would be reluctant to start a startup with a woman who had small children, or was likely to have them soon. But you’re not allowed to ask prospective employees…
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g0ddesses.net: org chart and cap table
My novel g0ddesses.net is set in the Silicon Valley startup scene and there is a some corporate drama behind it, so I want to make sure that the organization and ownership stakes make sense. Here’s what I’m currently thinking … feedback welcome!
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Notes from underground: Electro-convulsive therapy (Mad Maxx and Space Tribe at Geomagnetic.tv’s Phantasmagoria)
Olli Wisdom was good, Mad Maxx was better, and Saturnia, Witchdokta, Michael Liu, Sausee and of course Spook all rocked. It wasn’t real crowded so the density on the dancefloor was perfect all night long. My glow-in-the-dark nails got rave reviews and my brand new pink Golas proved quite comfortable for dancing. Yay! The first…
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WiseDame: Now *that’s* what I call disruptive (part 6 of TechCrunch, disrupted)
Is it just me, or does WiseDame seem far more disruptive than most of the startups pitching location-based ideas? — Jon Pincus, on WiseDame’s just-relaunched site; originally from A celebration of disruptive women J’aime Ohm won the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon as a solo hacker with a personal safety iPhone app. WiseDame’s tag line is “making…
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If She Ran the Ward: Oni Joseph, the Haitian Sensation
“There are roughly 900,000 people living in Ottawa. A good five per cent are living in a marginalized way. It’s disgusting. It’s a shame. I love my city, I love Ottawa, but we can do better. We have to take care of that five per cent. And I would say three out of that five…
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What Diaspora can learn about security from Microsoft
Back in April, four NYU students decided to raise money to spend the summer hacking on their project: a privacy-friendly open source social network. They put up a page on Kickstarter, a crowdsourced funding site. Talk about being in the right place at the right time: after a great article Four nerds and a cry…
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What can Diaspora learn about security from Microsoft? (REVISED DRAFT)
It’s counter-intuitive to think of Microsoft as a poster child for security — or as a role model for Diaspora, the “privacy-aware, personally-controlled, open-source, do-it-all social networkâ€. But the security mess Microsoft created back in the 1990s, the progress they’ve made since 2001, and the challenges they continue to face all provide some interesting lessons…
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What can Diaspora learn about security from Microsoft? (FIRST DRAFT)
It’s counter-intuitive to think of Microsoft as a poster child for security. But the progress they’ve made since 2001 along with the challenges they continue to face have a lot of lessons for anybody in this space — including Diaspora, the “privacy-aware, personally-controlled, open-source, do-it-all social networkâ€.
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Is Facebook subject to breach notification laws for revealing phone numbers?
Security warning: If you don’t intend to share your phone number on Facebook, ask a friend to check their Phonebookand see if it’s there. And it’s a good time to check to your privacy settings — my brother Greg has instructions on The Happy Accident. Update, October 7: See the Twitter discussion in the first…
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A celebration of disruptive women (“Techcrunch, disrupted” part 4)
TechCrunch Disrupt wasn’t the only conference happening this week. The tenth Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is currently going on in Atlanta, and this year’s theme is Collaborating across Boundaries. There’s no streaming video, alas, but things have been hopping on Twitter. Since it’s Follow Friday on Twitter, I figured I’d mirror the…
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A public service announcement (part 3 of “TechCrunch, disrupted”)
One of the few areas of consensus of the panelists at yesterday’s trainwreck at TechCrunch Disrupted is that it would be better if there were more women involved with technology and tech startups. And everybody on the panel does a lot as individuals to help: mentoring, encouragement, being on unpleasant panels. I saw at least…