Indie/Hack Real life, tech, and obscure music.

Riverfield kids, heads up! Your computers might be used against you.

So, have you heard the news about the high school in Pennsylvania that bought their students MacBooks, completely free of charge? Sounds awesome! Who wouldn’t want a free MacBook? In this case, I don’t know a single person who would want these laptops.

The laptops were distributed to students at Harrington High, but little did they know that the school administrators were abusing their power and spying on their students through their webcams. Not just during school hours, either. One student was punished because school officials took a snapshot of the student doing something “inappropriate” in his own home. Not only is this a violation of privacy, but are public schools even allowed to take disciplinary action against their students for things off of school property? Nevermind all the personal business a teenager could be doing while the webcam was enabled.

And then it takes a strange and rather corrupt turn. Mike Perbix is a network tech for LMSD, who also did a promotional video for the software, called LANRev. (The video can be found here) In it, Mike talks about its glorious usage for spying”

“you’re controlling someone’s machine, you don’t want them to know what you’re doing”

Creepy! And that’s not all. LANRev has something called “Theft Mode”, in which itsends the location and webcam screenshots directly to the school. So, let’s say we have a student, who might be doing something Harrington High frowns upon. Not only do they know exactly what he or she is doing, they can go directly to where they are and “deal with the problem”.

In addition, there are methods in place to PREVENT the students from accessing the program to monitor their own webcams, and, presumably, to disable the software. Mike also wrote on how to disable the internal use of the webcam, meaning students could not use the built-in iSight, but “outside sources” could. A blogger put this into context: “What’s the purpose of shutting down a camera for the user of the laptop but still making it available to network administrators? Ask yourself: if you wanted to convince someone that a webcam blinking was a glitch, would disabling the cameras help make your case?”

If you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking the same thing I was when I first found this out: “Why can’t you just opt out of using the laptop? This is only a problem if you’re gullible enough to use it.” It’s not that simple, apparently. Other students have enlightened the angry internet mob to this disaster:

• Students were told that the blinking webcam light, which comes on when in use, was “only a glitch”. Read: there is no problem here, I think you’re just confused, the webcam *never* comes on by itself.
• The Macbook was REQUIRED for class.
• Computers OTHER than the bugged Macbook were prohibited and would be confiscated.
• There was no way to disable the camera.
• If you decided to be ballsy and hack into LANRev, you face the penalty ofexpulsion.

Here’s an anecdote from a student:

“[I] had brought in my own personal computer to work on a project for school one day. I was doing a presentation involving programs not available on the regular computers, only in specific labs. I happened to have a copy of my own. My personal property was confiscated from me in a study hall when I was working on a school assignment because it was against the schools ‘code of conduct’.”

Code of conduct? Yes, because if you dare go against the iron will of The School, you must face The Consequences. This is not the first time this has happened. Kutztown University (isn’t higher ed supposed to be above this? Apologies for the pun), presumably running a simulation on what it would be like in Mainland China, apparently filed felony charges against students trying access the administrative program which prevents students from doing things from instant messaging to accessing “inappropriate” websites. Inappropriate websites, like Google, Free Tibet and Amnesty International?

What’s depressing is that many students and even their parents think this is acceptable, that this is something you just have to deal with to be safe. You’re being spied on, in your own home, without your consent. You’re using a bugged laptop that you’re forced to own, without any choice whatsoever. How is this acceptable?

We as Americans and as global citizens are having our privacy stripped away in the name of “security” or even “convenience”. And we’re being told to accept it by those in power, and even by our friends, because there is nothing we can do about it. We have to submit ourselves and our information to Big Brother, because if we don’t, we’ll be punished severely. Where is the outrage here? Where are the protests, the riots? What are we doing about this?

If we don’t speak up, I swear on my life that in the next few decades we will have RFID chips in our bodies and cameras in our homes.

As for the lawsuit, subpoenas are out and the FBI is involved. Good things, right? Nope:

“The greatest threat to this investigation now is the possibility that the highly trained technical staff at LMSD could issue a LANRev script to wipe digital forensic evidence off all the laptops.”

Ask questions. Demand answers. Know your rights. Never for a second believe your privacy is safe. And for the love of Jobs, BUY YOUR OWN COMPUTER!

Sources (must reads):
Stryde Hax, which features in-depth research on the program.
Gizmodo

March was a really long time ago. It was also when my last post was. I’m sure you’ve been diligently F5′ing the entire time, so allow me to extend a heartfelt apology. You may now rest your itchy fingers.

Almost every person on the internet will excuse an absence by claiming that they’ve “just been really busy lately”. I haven’t. I’ve just had nothing to write about. Sure, I watched Eden of the East earlier this year and enjoyed it, but could not bring myself to compose a detailed (or not so detailed) critical review. This isn’t like Wall-E, which was so universally praised that I just had to speak out; Eden was good, and many people agree with that. The end. Whatever.

Of course, there were other things this summer, and not a WoW redux. I got attacked by chiggers for the very first time (and quite literally have the scars to prove it); I attended my first serious art intensive over the span of two weeks and got more out of it than I expected; I kayaked seven miles on the Illinois River and felt physically horrible, mentally awesome; and, I attended my very first concert/music festival all while Riding In Cars With Boys.

This isn’t a lot for something over the span of two months, but it is better than most, if not all of my summers combined. It’s not saying much, but it’s a start.

As far as sea changes go, well, there were none. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t any big things. I’m a choir kid now, which is as much of a departure as possible without me singing in the Metropolitan Opera. I’m applying for Early Admission into Reed, something my conventional high school counterparts are baffled by. It’s all good, but I wish I could find out if I was accepted early enough to participate in the ASUC Senior program. I’m a member of the Art Directors’ Club of Tulsa, which has so far provided me with six posters, each for a featured speaker, the estimated total price of which well exceeds the $60 registration fee.

Things are different now, but alas, not everything. Wiki still keeps me company when there is no one to take up the task, which admittedly is quite often. I’m still intolerant to 75% of Teen Food, which makes people wonder if I’m secretly anorexic (”she never eats anything!”).

And despite the last few paragraphs of change, despite everything I’ve done, I’m still a meek introvert.

I guess some things never change.

Tonight, my family and I watched that little Pixar film called Wall-E. We don’t typically watch movies, but my mother has taken a proactive effort to family bonding through family movies. In other words, that means I get to catch up with films that have otherwise passed me by.

Thus bringing us to the title at hand.

I honestly came into this thinking I would love it (however hesitantly, as Pixar is owned by Disney). A tale of a lone robot discovering sentience without the aid of outside forces, why not? The penultimate posthumanist space opera! Robot existentialism is a favorite of mine (see: Ghost in the Shell), and coupled with a post-apocalyptic future, it makes for solid gold (see: Ergo Proxy). But then, Disney had to go and screw it all up, didn’t they?

First problem: The relationship between Eve and Wall-e. Girl meets boy. Wait, what? As far as I know, no robot, as advanced as they are, can discern gender. Gender is, for all means, a distinctively natural quality (though more human than anything, transgenderism comes to mind). What purpose does it serve to an AI, really? Tachikomas refer to each other as “that one” or “them”, opting for non-gender-specific pronouns, although not when speaking with normal humans, or androids with assigned genders.

Love, too, is distinctly human. So why include it? It’s very simple. Think about who bankrolled it, then about it’s target audience. Got that? Disney for kids. A science-fiction childrens’ movie? Say it ain’t so!

There were many, many points where I thought Pixar’s writers seriously flunked basic science class. Remember when Wall-e held onto Eve’s spacecraft as it left Earth? How is that at all possible? This would not fly in a clockwork universe, no pun intended.

Naturally, the animation was top notch, flawless in every aspect. It’s the only field where I have no complaints. Pixar truly has a reputation for gourgeous CG.

But I’m not here to talk about CG, am I.

It’s a shame that such a technically advanced studio has to be constrained by a company that has a vested interest in making things family-friendly in order to capitalize on as many fast-food tie-ins as possible. If they weren’t, don’t you think that they would finally make some real gems, instead of jam-packing Family Values™ into everything?

Family Values™ are not art. They are cognitive tools.

Is Wall-e a tool?

So, I don’t celebrate Chrsitmas. As a dyed-in-the-wool atheist and Scientist (meaning science as both a quasi-religion and way of life), December 25th is just any old day to me. Jesus may have had some good words to say on kindness, equality and love, but he’s no son of god. I’ve even gone the whole nine yards to where I don’t do that whole “presents” song and dance. I don’t expect anything. I don’t want anything.

But defying all of that, I ushered at this year’s Christmas service at All Souls’. Twice, even. And I enjoyed it. Not because of the “moving words” being spoken from the pulpit, but because there were friends there, and I was giving them papers and lighing their candles. But despite that, there wasn’t an epiphany. I shalt have no gods before the God Particle.

Lastly, a segue:

I have been really, really, really enjoying Voyager One’s album Monster Zero lately. It’s classified as shoegaze/dream-pop and I could not agree more. If Veil Veil Vanish’s All Hands In Prayer blew your mind straight out of your skull (dramatization, do not attemt), this is for you. Some songs teeter on ambient, while others (Bedbugs And Ballyhoo) make you wish you didn’t have such finicky, asleep neighbors.

In short, these guys are pro and you should lend them your ears for a while.

Merry Christmas.

Did you hear? Apple computers have hit the mainsteam. Yes, the dreaded word for indie scenesters such as myself. Just as the iPhone, once a coveted alpha-geek-exemplifying gadget of choice, has now become a status symbol of the quasi-rich (along with SUVs, flat-panel TVs, and massive, gaudy houses), OS X has become the system of choice for trend-hoppers.

How did this happen, anyway? Blame the Apple marketing machine. Before the iPod, Macintosh was only known to geeks and graphic artists, its sole but brand-loyal followers. Once Apple, and the aforementioned iPod turned into household names, people began looking into the other products of this “fruit company”, to paraphrase Forrest Gump. Coupled with the iPhone, it was all downhill from there.

At the time of writing, Macs are the computer of choice for the Armchair Scenester; that is, those who claim to be ‘indie’, but only listen to readily available, popular, trendy music. Do Death Cab for Cutie, Sufjan Stevens, the Strokes, or Muse ring a bell? These groups have long since abandoned the ‘indie’ title (DCFC is on a major label), and at best could be described as ‘alternative’. How can something be considered ‘indie’ if almost everyone has heard of it?

And so we have a MacBook in the hands of those who want to be cool without even trying. Although honestly it’s not just pure trendiness that’s driving the Apple popularity, it’s justified by the supposed ease-of-use, crashless OS and resistance to malware. There is one major flaw in that most popular argument: as soon as idiots (by that I mean everyone) start using them, they go away.

Ease-of-use is the first to go away. Mac OS X is not “Win XP, but better”, it’s something wholly different, and I don’t mean the taskbar being on the top of the display. You can’t play Windows games on a Mac, and that’s not something you should call tech support to complain about.

Crashless OS is something that I doubt will go away easily, but when you take into account the the “resistance to malware” argument is dwindling as you read this, it becomes apparent. Windows has tons of malware, and for a reason. One, it’s easy to exploit. Two, 90% of computer users use a Win32 system. And when the idiots start flocking to the ‘alternative’ operating system, they’ll start putting in their passwords in places they shouldn’t and downloading files they shouldn’t. Cox (Oklahoma’s cable and internet provider) has teamed up with MacAfee for a antivirus package. One of it’s features is ‘anti-phishing’. Here’s an anti-phishing package, free of charge: Don’t put in your password on crap websites!

I dread seeing profile pictures on Facebook taken using the default filters on Photo Booth. I can genuinely see one point in the future where the ‘Pop-Art’ effect will be more ubiquitous than the cell-phone-camera-in-mirror picture. Personally, it’s distressing.

Now, don’t think of me as some curmudgeon who hates everything mainstream. It’s that I truly hate to see these machines used for internet browsing and instant messaging, nothing more. One doesn’t buy a Lamborghini just to drive it to the grocery store and back.

You see, I like good things. Things that work nicely. Macs are that. Although, if you want something better, follow me when I build myself a high-end machine running Linux. When I get money, at least. Unemployed artist stereotype, have at thee.