Wiki

And the saga continues...Anonymous and Wikileaks got into a public tit-for-tat over Twitter yesterday about a donation overlay page that Wikileaks posted on its Global Intelligence Files. Anonymous called the donation page a paywall -- since it cannot be closed unless a donation is made or the Javascript is disabled -- and demanded it be taken down.

The page was taken down for a couple of hours in the evening and it looked like Anonymous had won the battle. But then, Wikileaks put it back up. And this time it's not only on the site's Global Intelligence … Read more

When I last spoke with Cody Wilson, Defense Distributed had just met its $20,000 funding goal, and he had taken delivery of his Stratasys uPrint SE 3D printer. Fast forward nine days and the outlook for his 3D printed firearm project looks less positive.

As reported here in September, Defense Distributed, a group headed by University of Texas graduate student Wilson, began navigating the uncharted material and regulatory waters around designing a gun to be printed from common plastic on a relatively low-cost 3D printer like the MakerBot Replicator.

Now, Wired's Robert Beckhusen reports that Stratasys has voided … Read more

Welcome to the dark side of 3D printing.

The hobby is best known for creating colorful toys and trinkets, but some enthusiasts are working on design files that would allow anyone to print a working gun. These don't exist yet, but some believe it's only a matter of time.

Why would a 3D-printed gun be appealing? For one, it could potentially be cheap. You can buy a preassembled 3D printer for about $500. A spool of ABS plastic to print with goes for $50. Depending on where you shop, you can buy .38 Special ammunition for 30 cents a round. The plans will undoubted be distributed free like so many MP3s. … Read more

Upstart indie game company Ouya has made serious waves with its self-titled game console. The under-development system wants to be an open gaming platform, built around freemium games running on Nvidia's Tegra3 platform. According to the project's popular Kickstarter page, the Ouya will cost $99, but won't be ready until at least March 2013.

Despite the hype, however, there are some serious questions about whether the game industry can support another living room console, and whether gamers are looking for more set-top boxes to plug into their TVs.

… Read more

An opinion piece that appears to be by former New York Times editor Bill Keller on what appears to be the New York Times Web site is a fake.

The editorial urges Visa, Mastercard, and American Express to take a "stand against the use of financial embargos to prohibit supporters from contributing or subscribing to media organizations protected by the First Amendment and free speech laws." The fake op-ed was drafted as a follow up to a February 2012 op-ed by Keller titled "Wikileaks, A Postscript."

The URL for the fake column was a giveaway to … Read more

Following a concerted effort to starve Wikileaks of cash by cutting off its sources of funding, the controversial publisher of government and corporate secrets has found a way to once again accept donations via credit cards.

WikiLeaks yesterday announced that it has launched "a new payment gateway" that relies upon the French credit card system Carte Bleue. That system, which works globally with the Visa/MasterCard system that's currently blockading WikiLeaks, is "contractually barred from directly cutting off merchants," according to the organization. A French not-for-profit has taken advantage of that loophole and helped WikiLeaks … Read more

A group of hackers has posted to the Web today data that appears to include Comcast employee names, ages and salaries, as well as e-mails and passwords associated with AT&T VoIP service accounts.

Proclaiming the kickoff of "#WikiBoatWednesday...when all the members from @TheWikiBoat fight corruption, leak data, and bring down websites," the hackers released the data in two different posts to the Pastebin Web site. Several of the Twitter handles used by the group, including @AnonymousWiki, referenced the Anonymous online activist group, but the connection to the larger, decentralized collective is unclear.

"The first … Read more

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden to face questioning about allegations that he committed sex crimes, the U.K. Supreme Court has ruled.

Six law lords today said that the WikiLeaks editor can be extradited to Sweden under a European arrest warrant, as requested by Swedish prosecutors. Assange was not present to hear the London court's ruling.

"The request for Mr. Assange's extradition has been lawfully made, and his appeal has been dismissed," said Supreme Court president Lord Phillips as he handed down the court's decision.

The decision was not unanimous, with … Read more

The new TV show from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to air April 17 on the RT network and be released online the same day, according to WikiLeaks.

"The World Tomorrow" (trailer embedded below) will feature Assange interviewing "an eclectic range of guests, who are stamping their mark on the future: politicians, revolutionaries, intellectuals, artists, and visionaries," the document-dump site said in an online announcement at worldtomorrow.wikileaks.org. WikiLeaks said a dozen 26-minute episodes of the program have been completed.

The organization said the programs and transcripts will be made available online and that &… Read more