Free Republic

The Internet is a battlefield, the prize is your information, and bugs are the weapons Aaaron Portnoy started his hacking career when he was still in high school, at the Massachusetts Academy of Math & Science in Worcester, which not coincidentally was the institution he hacked. He did it as follows: Portnoy had a friend call one of the dorms, posing as tech support. The students were more than happy to give him their passwords. Hiding behind those borrowed accounts and routing his approach through proxies in various foreign countries, Portnoy wormed his way into the school’s network through a...

FERGUSON, Missouri — Before Michael Brown’s death, all Taurean Russell wanted was to finish college, teach history and coach high school football. But that changed August 9, when photos of Brown’s lifeless body, shot by a cop and left sprawled in the street, kept appearing on social media. “I saw a dead body on my timeline. It kept appearing hour after hour and somebody said ‘I hope somebody gets up and does something about it,” said Russell, 30. “Then I heard his mother on TV say, ‘Why did they kill my son.’” Those words triggered something in Russell. He rallied...

Progress in robotics, from drones to medical applications, is starting to come at a fast clip. Do you want your robot to cook your food, or just deliver it?The days of drones filling the sky and robots roaming in our streets are not far removed from reality anymore, and scenes from movies like Star Wars, Minority Report and I, Robot will be common soon. Just consider some of the ways that robots have started to permeate our lives. Start with Amazon, which is taking to drones in a big way. The online shopping giant started a new phase in high-tech...

“Support Daren Wilson.” These three words emblazoned at the top of the GoFundMe website in support of the Ferguson, Mo, cop who gunned down Michael Brown said it all. In the span of less than 48 hours, nearly 5,000 donations were received and the site got tens of thousands of Facebook looks and tweets. The fund’s beleaguered sponsors pleaded for patience while they tried to respond to the flood of emails that poured in supporting Wilson. The organizers announced triumphantly that they’d raised three times more than their goal. This was no surprise. The instant Wilson was fingered as the...

Well, this sounds interesting and probably sinister and open to manipulation: The federal government is spending nearly $1 million to create an online database that will track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter. The National Science Foundation is financing the creation of a web service that will monitor “suspicious memes” and what it considers “false and misleading ideas,” with a major focus on political activity online. The “Truthy” database, created by researchers at Indiana University, is designed to “detect political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, and other social pollution.” The university has received $919,917 so far for the project. “The project stands...

'Some of my best friends are black!' You're probably lying. Do you have friends of another race? Statistically speaking, probably not.With so much racial unrest going on in America these days, it can be hard for people to understand the "other" side. Maybe it's because white Americans never walked a mile in a black friend's shoes -- or maybe because they have no black friends to begin with. Public Religion Research Institute found that whites' social networks are 91 percent white. Even more alarming, 75 percent of whites have a totally white social network. For a nation that prides itself...

After Monday’s bombshell about the federal government’s system-wide email back-up system broke, there was yet another bombshell. The IRS “recycled” — destroyed — Lois Lerner’s hard drive in June 2011, just 10 days after Rep. Dave Camp had sent a letter to the IRS inquiring about the targeting of conservative groups that Lerner knew about and may have orchestrated. The IRS destroyed Lerner’s Blackberry device, too. Even though there is no suggestion that it ever “crashed,” as the agency claims about her hard drive. Even worse, the IRS destroyed Lerner’s Blackberry after it knew of the crash, and while the...

One organization is working to not only honor the achievements and legacy of the late Michael Brown, but to also help his younger siblings achieve what he didn't have the chance to. Brown, the unarmed black teen who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, earlier this month, was a recent high school graduate. He was scheduled to start classes at Vatterott College on Aug. 11, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but was killed two days prior. The Wisconsin Hope Lab -- a program that researches ways to minimize barriers for students of all backgrounds...

Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown earlier this month, has gone underground since the controversial shooting, but his backers have been coming out in droves and many are showing their support by donating cash online. Almost $400,000 has been raised on the fundraising site gofundme.com for the six-year police veteran. After the first fundraising drive reached its goal of $234,000, a second page was established and has brought in more than $153,000 in four days. More than 9,000 people combined have contributed to the two fundraising pages....

Kim Kardashian, Kendall and Kylie Jenner appeared to be texting and chatting during the Ferguson memorial at the 2014 VMAs, and fans are outraged. The famous sisters have caused a social media uproar for their insensitivity. Hollywood paid tribute to the town of Ferguson, Missouri, during the MTV Video Music Awards with the A-list audience observing a moment of silence for slain teenager Michael Brown, however Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Kendall Jenner appeared to be texting during the solemn moment. Read on to see the Twitter backlash, brought on by Kim, Kylie and Kendall. Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner &...

The Internet is proving to be a lifeline for those seeking information about the ongoing investigation into the officer-involved fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in an otherwise quiet suburban Missouri town. Unfortunately, the Internet is also serving as a reminder that will always be those who seek to make a dollar off the chaos and misfortune of others. The online merchant “TshirtLegend” is selling a “Justice for Mike Brown” t-shirt alongside other shirts that read “Let’s Get Nashty” and “I Want to Believe” on the online marketplace Etsy. Some online merchants have begun selling T-shirts and other merchandise...

Boca Raton-based Office Depot said Tuesday it would close 165 stores during 2014 — up from the 150 estimated earlier this year — but stuck with a total count of 400 store closures through 2016, the company said. The office-supply retailer, which merged with OfficeMax last year in a $1.2 billion transaction, said it has completed its analysis of which stores will be closed across the U.S. and Canada. Locally, the retailer has closed two OfficeMax stores, in Coral Springs and Deerfield Beach. The company also announced on a conference call following its second-quarter earnings announcement that it has settled...

The unbearable sadness of climate activism: Nicole Thornton remembers the exact moment her curious case of depression became too real to ignore. It was five years ago and the environmental scientist – a trained biologist and ecologist – was writing a rather dry PhD on responsible household water use. Fair enough. That would make anyone depressed. Thornton had always been easily upset by apathy towards, and denial of, environmental issues. But now she began to notice an oddly powerful personal reaction to "the small stuff" – like people littering, or neighbours chopping down an old tree. So, she's a bossy...

Building site of the first ever 3D printed estate in Gardiner, New York. New York City architect/contractor Adam Kushner begins construction of the first ever 3D printed estate, which features a 3D printed swimming pool, 4-bedroom, 2400 square foot home, and more. The 3D printer which will be a modified version of Enrico DiniÂ’s D-shape printer, will, if all goes as planned, eventually be able to automatically place rebar within the 3D printed house, as it prints. We have covered a lot of news concerning the 3D printing of houses, over the course of the last year or so. Whether...

I had been on the ground helping Al Jazeera America** cover the protests and unrest in Ferguson, Mo., since this all started last week. After what I saw last night, I will not be returning. The behavior and number of journalists there is so appalling, that I cannot in good conscience continue to be a part of the spectacle. **A clarification edit: I am not a full-time employee of any Al Jazeera branch or network. I am a freelance journalist who contributes to several media platforms. Things I’ve seen: -Cameramen yelling at residents in public meetings for standing in way...

An online fund created to raise money for the Ferguson, Mo., police officer who killed Michael Brown has amassed more than $150,000, outpacing a similar account for the slain man's family.. The GoFundMe.com account for Officer Darren Wilson reached that total in just three days, according to the website. About 3,900 people had donated $156,276 as of about 5 p.m. Central time on Thursday. The Brown fund, also on GoFundMe.com, has raised $133,783 in eight days from more than 4,900 people. The Wilson page's mission statement says: "We stand behind Officer Darren Wilson and his family during this trying time...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)What if we all just went home? What if we turned off the cameras? Would the protestors disappear—especially all the out-of-town agitators who have descended on the Missouri town just to make trouble? The answer is, probably, yes—and yet that can’t and won’t happen. I’m not suggesting for a second that the killing of Michael Brown and the eruption of anger and violence in Ferguson isn’t a hugely important story. But we all know how the massive media machine, once it clanks into action, changes the very thing on which it is reporting. The journalistic invasion of Ferguson is absolutely...

Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson has not yet been charged in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, and may never be. But just in case, there's already more than $30,800 raised in his name, "for any financial needs [Wilson and his family] may have including legal fees." In one day, the GoFundMe page "Support Officer Darren Wilson" has received more than 800 donations, well on its way to a fund-raising goal of $100,000. "He did his job correctly!" wrote Peter Ilica, who gave $100. "He needs the money now!" The page has become a virtual gathering space for those...

Islamic State supporters have taken to social media to encourage protesters in Ferguson to embrace radical Islam, the Daily Mail reports. “We have been fighting the oppressive, racist, US government FOR YOU for decades, yet you still call us terrorists! #Ferguson #ISISHERO,” tweeted @AmreekiWitness late Monday, whose account is “dedicated to raising awareness about the upcoming conquest of the Americas, and the benefits it has upon the American people.” Monday night’s riots were accompanied by a glut of pro-IS tweets decrying American injustice and calling on the black population to rise up and join them. “You were never free &...

I need to create a rather long,involved punch list for a volunteer event. I need to be able to add,move, and remove tasks. I need to be able to assign or re-assign tasks to individuals. Any suggestions on a simple software package for the not-so-computer-illiterate person ?