Rob Beschizza at 12:06 am Fri, Nov 29, 2013 •
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Welcome to this year’s Boing Boing Gift Guide, a piling-high of our most loved stuff from 2013 and beyond. There are books, gadgets, toys, music and much else besides: click the categories at the top to filter what you’re most interested in—and offer your own suggestions and links!
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Cory Doctorow at 7:34 pm Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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Silvio Berlusconi's scandal-haunted political career has suffered a potentially killing blow: following his conviction for tax fraud, the upper house of the Italian parliament has tossed him out, stripping him of his seat. Berlusconi insists that he will be exonerated by new evidence, and has called upon the president of Italy to pardon him (though he will not formally petition for a pardon, insisting that it should be forthcoming as a matter of course). Assuming the pardon is not forthcoming, he will go to prison in 2014.
See also: Berlusconi's "decadenza"
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Cory Doctorow at 6:23 pm Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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From "Habitat," a 2010 installation in the Luchtbal district of Antwerp, UNFOLD's "Felis Domesticus." It's a 3.5 meter soft sculpture of a sleeping cat that visitors can lounge upon (finally, the lap-sitting tables are turned!). Pity this never went into production as a piece of furniture; it'd make a fabulous beanbag alternative.
Habitat: Felis Domesticus
(via Geekologie)
Cory Doctorow at 3:18 pm Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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A Symantec researcher has discovered a worm that runs on embedded Linux systems, like those found in set-top boxes and routers. It's common for owners of these devices to forget about them, letting them run in the background for so long as they don't misbehave -- and as a result, they are often out of date. The worm, called Linux.Darlloz, attacks out-of-date Linux installations running on Intel hardware (a small minority in the embedded systems world), but it would not be hard to modify it to attack embedded linuces on other chips.
In addition to being out-of-date, many of these systems have "forever day" bugs that will never be patched by their vendors, making them especially hard to secure. The anonymously authored "Internet Census 2012: Port scanning /0 using insecure embedded devices" showed that a dedicated attacker could compromise well over a million devices without much work, recruiting them to run unprecedented denial of service attacks (I wonder if anyone's thought of using this method for mining Bitcoins?).
As the researcher Ang Cui has demonstrated, embedded systems attacks are especially pernicious because it's difficult to boot them from known-good sources. Once an attacker compromises your router, printer, or set-top box, she can reprogram it to give the appearance of accepting updates without actually installing them, meaning that the system can never be provably restored to your control.
The details of the Linux.Darlloz show a much more primitive and unambitious attack, but it hints at a pretty frightening future for the compromised Internet-of-Things (I wrote a short story about this, called "The Brave Little Toaster").
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Glenn Fleishman at 2:38 pm Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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Jonathan Mann has posted a song every day. Not five days a week: seven days a week. There is no rest for the wickedly productive. While he makes his living by writing and performing bespoke songs for organizations, Jonathan never stops creating for himself — and his fans.
The New Disruptors: RSS | iTunes | Download this episode | Listen on Stitcher
This episode is sponsored by The Magazine, which is crowdfunding a hardcover book, beautifully designed and illustrated, of its most powerful, funny, and quirky stories from its first year of publication. (It's also available as a DRM-free ebook.) Pledge to get a copy and more!
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Cory Doctorow at 2:14 pm Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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The Blue Kraken's circuit board jewelry is lovely to a piece, but the main event is definitely the dragons, which integrate opals and other stones.
theBlueKraken
(via Tor Books)
Cory Doctorow at 12:55 pm Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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Michael from Sparrows Lockpicks writes, "Specifically designed to feed your lock picking addiction The MONSTRUM features ten new lock picks and four wrenches. No Doubles, No Garbage. If you are looking for your first lock pick set grab something else. This one's not for you. The MONSTRUM set is a collection of truly exotic lock picks but it does not have the basics that any lock picker no matter what their skill level needs in their arsenal."
These are the nice folks behind the lockpick handcuffs from last year.
Monstrum Lockpicks
(Thanks, Michael!)
Cory Doctorow at 11:59 am Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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Jessica sez, "Kinematics is a system for 4D printing that creates complex, foldable forms composed of articulated modules. The system provides a way to turn any three-dimensional shape into a flexible structure using 3D printing. Kinematics combines computational geometry techniques with rigid body physics and customization. Practically, Kinematics allows us to take large objects and compress them down for 3D printing through simulation. It also enables the production of intricately patterned wearables that conform flexibly to the body."
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Cory Doctorow at 10:46 am Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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In a new Evangelii Gadium, Pope Francis has condemned doctrinaire capitalism, "deified markets," trickle-down economics, and the finance industry. He decried the growing gap between the rich and the poor, tax evasion by the wealthy, and characterized ruthless free-market economics as a killer that was inherently sinful.
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Cory Doctorow at 9:48 am Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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One year ago today
TVShack owner will not be extradited to America: Richard O'Dwyer, the young British man who ran the TVShack linksite (which allowed users to post links to legal and illegal places to watch TV online) will not be extradited to the USA after all.
Five years ago today
Douglas Repetto's Squirrel Cages: These cages are quite beautiful constructions, made out of wood with the assistance of a laser cutter.
Ten years ago today
Big Mouth Billy Bass runs Linux, does impressions: Now that the antimated talking fish doll Big Mouth Billy Bass is out of fashion and can be had at pennies on the dollar, why not try your hand at installing Linux on it and getting it to lipsynch funny Simpsons quotes or act as the phyical avatar for someone at the other end of a teleconference line?
Cory Doctorow at 9:45 am Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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A British teacher and artist named Guy Tarrant has assembled two cases' worth of toys confiscated from London schoolchildren, soliciting them from fellow teachers. The collection represents items from 150 schools and 30 years, and is on display at the excellent Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. The Childhood Museum is very close to my home, and it's one of my favourite London museums -- I like it better, even, than its enormous parent institution, the V&A down in South Kensington.
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David Pescovitz at 8:39 am Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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Uncle Bill, won't you please lead us in A Thanksgiving Prayer?
Jason Weisberger at 7:11 am Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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My daughter loves dolphins, it is a multi-year fascination that appears to know no end. Marty Crisp's book Everything Dolphin is a treasure trove of information and truly lives up to its sub-title "What kids really want to know about dolphins."
Answering many, many of the questions a kid will have about these beautiful marine mammals from "How many teeth do dolphins have?" to "Can people ride dolphins?" this book feeds her curiosity and gives us a lot to discuss. The images are lovely and even though the reading level is above that of a 6 year old, my kid spends ages thumbing through the book when I'm too busy to read it to her.
If your kid is fascinated by these beautiful co-habitants of the Earth this book can't miss!
Everything Dolphin by Marty Crisp
Xeni Jardin at 6:55 am Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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Jasmina Tesanovic at 6:49 am Thu, Nov 28, 2013 •
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Silvio Berlusconi, 77, speaking to supporters in Rome on Wednesday. Tony Gentile/Reuters.
[Editor's Note: Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been expelled from Italy's senate after two decades in government.]
My American friend wrote me this morning: How does it feel to live, free of Berlusconi? Are the people of Italy rejoicing in the streets?
Here in Turin, the news was hardly noticed, because although it is good news, it is also old news. It was expected, a fully foreseen turn of events, part of the long goodbye of an Italian ruler who came in power in distant 1994 and is still clinging to authority with all his histrionic might.
Italian politics have never lacked for stage histrionics, but Berlusconi is very likely the most ridiculous Italian state leader ever. Beppe Grillo, the leader of the opposition Five Star Movement, is a television comedian, but Grillo is the picture of sobriety and decency compared to Berlusconi. Read the rest
