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HOWTO spot a hidden camera

Instructables has just posted its latest installment in its collection of HOWTOs inspired by my new novel Little Brother, a young adult book about hacker kids who use technology to win back their civil liberties from the Department of Homeland Security.

This week, it's instructions for building a simple device that will let you spot hidden "pinhole" video cameras:

With one hand, hold up the toilet paper tube to your eye. With your other hand, hold up the flashlight at about eye level and point it away from you. With one eye, look through the tube and scan the room. If there are any small points of light bouncing back, inspect it further. It might be a camera.

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Little Brother tour schedule: Chicago, Milwaukee, Seattle, San Francisco, NYC

Sunday night, I fly to Chicago to kick off my three-week US book-tour for Little Brother, my new young adult novel. I'll be stopping in and around Chicago, Milwaukee, Seattle, San Francisco and (probably) New York. The schedule's still being firmed up, but Tor (my publisher) is keeping an up-to-the-minute schedule for each appearance. This is my first publisher-financed tour, and I'm incredibly excited! I hope to meet lots of you on the road!

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Little Brother in Macleans

Last week, Canada's Macleans Magazine ran a great piece on Little Brother -- you can get at it through this Lexis-Nexis gateway.

"No, no, Marcus is more aspirational than autobiographical," laughs Cory Doctorow about the 17-year-old hero of his newest science fiction novel, Little Brother (Fenn). Principled, literate, brave and, above all, technologically savvy, Marcus puts pebbles in his shoes to fool his school's "gait recognition" software, chats with friends on an IMParanoid messaging program, and takes on the Department of Homeland Security's Orwellian surveillance system in the name of liberty. "He's the teen we all would have liked to have been," says Doctorow, 36, who nevertheless bristles at the thought that Marcus is too unrealistic: "People have said, 'C'mon, no teenager reads Jane Jacobs'; I read Jane Jacobs when I was a teenager!"

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HOWTO make a chili mister

Instructables has just posted the latest installment in its series of HOWTOs inspired by my latest novel, Little Brother, a young adult novel about hacker kids who fight the DHS with technology in order to restore the Bill of Rights to America.

This week, it's HOWTO build a spice-mister, a low-intensity edible pepper-spray to douse your food with (one of the characters in the book is a serious capsaicin junkie). Being the kind of guy who'd brush his teeth with Tobasco if I could, I love this one.

Putting the spice mister together is not hard. Simply remove the pump, fill with your choice of hot sauce, and put the pump back in.

To add a quick burst of intense flavor to your food, hold the mister a few inches above the dish and spray. Repeat until desirable heat is reached.

Keep it away from your face, and never spray at anyone else - capsaicin in the eyes hurts like hell. Pepper spray is nasty, evil stuff and should never, ever be used on anything except food.

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Get a signed, inscribed copy shipped to your door

Borderlands Books, San Francisco's wonderful science fiction bookstore, has offered to free US shipping for signed, inscribed copies of Little Brother. Just order before my in-store appearance on May 22, and they'll take care of having me sign and personalize your copy. People outside of the US can order, too -- but there's a small charge for shipping, depending on where you live.

Borderlands Books 866 Valencia Ave, San Francisco CA USA 94110 +1 888 893 4008

HOWTO anonymize your digital photos

Instructables has just posted the latest installment in its ongoing series of HOWTOs inspired by my young adult novel Little Brother, which tells the story of a teen underground that uses technology to fight back against surveillance and control.

This week's HOWTO is "Avoiding Camera Noise Signatures" -- AKA, anonymizing your photos before you post them online:

If you take enough images with your digital camera, they can all be compared together and a unique signature can be determined. This means that even when you think that you are posting a photo anonymously to the internet, you are actually providing clues for the government to better tell who you are. The larger the sample size of images they have, the easier it is them to track down images coming from the same camera. Once they know all the images are coming from the same camera, all they then have to do is find that camera and take a picture to confirm it beyond a reasonable doubt.

It is important to remove this noise signature so that you cannot be tracked down. I cannot guarantee any of these methods will work beyond the shadow of a doubt because the woman doing research for the government on how to find the signature is very good. I can only promise that this will make their work more difficult.

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