"I ought to be jealous of the tower. She is more famous than I am." -- Gustave Eiffel

Berlin Approves New Expansion of Police Surveillance Powers #privacy

Berlin’s regional parliament has passed a far-reaching overhaul of its “security” law, giving police new authority to conduct both digital and physical surveillance.

The CDU-SPD coalition, supported by AfD votes, approved the reform of the General Security and Public Order Act (ASOG), changing the limits that once protected Berliners from intrusive policing.

Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) argued that the legislation modernizes police work for an era of encrypted communication, terrorism, and cybercrime. But it undermines core civil liberties and reshapes the relationship between citizens and the state.

One of the most controversial elements is the expansion of police powers under paragraphs 26a and 26b. These allow investigators to hack into computers and smartphones under the banner of “source telecommunications surveillance” and “online searches.”

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2002: Last.fm and Audioscrobbler Herald the Social Web | Cybercultural #media #internet #history #socialnetworks #copyrights

What we now know as the “social web” — or Web 2.0 — didn’t arrive until around 2004. But the first inklings of it were emerging a couple of years before. As usual, music was the harbinger.

Last.fm was founded in 2002 by a group of four Austrian and German students from Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication in London. It was fashioned as an internet radio station that allowed a user to build a listening profile and share it with others. The year of its launch, Last.fm won a young talent award at the Europrix, a multimedia awards show based in Vienna. This was how the product was described in a showcase video (embedded below) leading up to the awards ceremony:

“After repeated use, the system builds a listening profile that increasingly reflects the user's preferences. The sum of all profiles is visualized in the ‘Map of Music,’ a presentation of musical connections and genres determined only by the collaborative effort of Last.fm users.”

How to block all online ads #internet #computers

In 2025, I thought a lot about the things I want to say to my boss #career #psychology

They Droned Back - Digital Digging with Henk van Ess #security

Seven German journalism students tracked Russian-crewed freighters lurking off the Dutch and German coast—and connected them to drone swarms over military bases.

Rediscover mazda suitcase car, a portable three-wheeled vehicle #technology #history #interesting

Back in the early 1990s, Mazda built a suitcase car, a portable three-wheeled vehicle for airports that fits inside hard-shell luggage. A project coming from an internal contest called Fantasyard between 1989 and 1991, the concept automobile was built by seven of the company’s engineers from their manual transmission testing and research unit. They wanted a vehicle to move around airports faster, so the team bought a pocket bike and the largest hard-shell Samsonite suitcase, size 57 cm by 75 cm. They used parts from the pocket bike, including its 33.6 cc two-stroke engine that produces 1.7 PS. The handlebars went inside the suitcase, the rear wheels attached to the outside of the case, and the front wheel came through a removable hatch in the front.

Modern Walkmans ▶ Walkman.land #hardware #music #history

CASSETTE PLAYERS FOR THE MODERN DIGITAL AGE

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