Last week in Chicago, I sat down with Jason Pettus of the CCLaP Podcast podcast for a wide-ranging interview that covered a lot of ground that doesn’t usually show up in my interviews. It’s online now!
Here’s the final installment in the amazing Instructables series of HOWTOs inspired by my young adult novel Little Brother. This week, it’s a HOWTO on TOR, The Onion Router, a technology for increasing your privacy and anonymity when you look at the web, and for getting around censorwalls.
The Instructables folks did an amazing job with this — and the response has been great!
When you go online, you leave tracks all over the place. You could be hanging out with friends on IM, checking out websites, or downloading music. If you live in a country where snoops are prying into what ordinary citizens do online (lke, um, the US) you want a way to cover those tracks.If you’re in school, though, then it’s even worse. No matter what country you’re in, chances are that your access to the internets is as snooped-on as any police state in the world.
So, how do we escape our little virtual prisons? In this Instructable, I’ll tell you about something called Tor (The Onion Router.) I’ll tell you how it works, and then offer some simple instructions on how to get your web browser hooked up. No more getting snooped!
ZOMG — Writing in the comment section of Making Light, Abi Sutherland penned this Little Brother ditty, to be sung to the tune of How Can I Keep From Singing?:
My high school days were simple once
But now that time is ending.
I’ve learned how much I have to lose
And what is worth defending.
My freedom and my privacy
Depend on one another.
And those who threaten either one
Will deal with Little Brother.Encryption guards my web of trust
Against the infiltration
Of DHS officials who
Would pry for information.
The Xnet grows with leaps and bounds
No outside force can smother
The message spreads from peer to peer:
We all are Little Brother.The army trucks and prison cells
That caught us and confined us
Stripped all the innocence away
That we had thought defined us.
But now we know how strong we are
When we work with each other
So anyone who’s watching us:
Watch out for Little Brother.
Boing Boing and I get another nice nod today in XKCD, Randall Munroe’s fantastic geeky comic. I’m really looking forward to meeting Randall in person for the first time at 3PiCon in Massachusetts this summer where we’ll both be guests of honor.
(Thanks to everyone who suggested this!)
Today, I’ll be winding up this phase of my book tour for my young adult novel Little Brother (now in its second week on the NYT bestseller list!) with an appearance at Books of Wonder in midtown Manhattan, near Union Square, from 5-7PM. I’ll be speaking, reading and signing (there are free cupcakes!) — can’t wait to see you there!
Monday, May 26, 2008
5-7 pmBooks of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 989-3270
I’ll be back in New York for one final Little Brother event, the postponed Comic Book Legal Defense Fund benefit, in August.
Today, I’ll be winding up this phase of my book tour for my young adult novel Little Brother (now in its second week on the NYT bestseller list!) with an appearance at Books of Wonder in midtown Manhattan, near Union Square, from 5-7PM. I’ll be speaking, reading and signing (there are free cupcakes!) — can’t wait to see you there!
Monday, May 26, 2008
5-7 pmBooks of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 989-3270
I’ll be back in New York for one final Little Brother event, the postponed Comic Book Legal Defense Fund benefit, in August.
Rachel Goldeen’s just posted the video of my ~hour-long appearance at the Los Altos Public Library to YouTube, in seven parts. Thanks, Rachel!
Bugger. One of the people involved in my Comic Book Legal Defense Fund benefit event in NYC this Sunday has taken ill and we’ve had to postpone the event until August. Sorry everyone — hope I’ll get to see you Monday at 5PM at Books of Wonder near Union Square. All advance ticket holders will
have their ticket donation refunded.
Bugger. One of the people involved in my Comic Book Legal Defense Fund benefit event in NYC this Sunday has taken ill and we’ve had to postpone the event until August. Sorry everyone — hope I’ll get to see you Monday at 5PM at Books of Wonder near Union Square. All advance ticket holders will
have their ticket donation refunded.
I did a quick interview with The Command Line last week from my hotel room and he’s just posted it!
