Anyone who uses Skype has consented to the company reading everything they write. The H‘s associates in Germany at heise Security have now discovered that the Microsoft subsidiary does in fact make use of this privilege in practice. Shortly after sending HTTPS URLs over the instant messaging service, those URLs receive an unannounced visit from Microsoft HQ in Redmond.

…

In response to an enquiry from heise Security, Skype referred them to a passage from its data protection policy:

“Skype may use automated scanning within Instant Messages and SMS to (a) identify suspected spam and/or (b) identify URLs that have been previously flagged as spam, fraud, or phishing links.”\

Read the full article @ h-online.com.

As I was testing Google Glass, my two-year-old wanted to know what I was doing (almost as much as he wanted some juice). So, I indulged him. The result was really pretty cute, so here we are, fetching apple juice and looking at toys.

Surveillance cameras near the site of the Boston bombings helped authorities quickly identify and find the suspects. Those events have sparked a push in cities nationwide to increase their use of cameras. NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels reports from San Francisco on how police are utilizing surveillance as prevention.

To upload books manually to Google Play Books, you’ll have to hit up the web interface. The service only supports DRM-free EPUB files, which should account for many popular eBook services.

Read the full article @ MobileSyrup.com.

Now that we all have seen Google Glass we tried to think beyond version one. We wanted to visualize how heads up displays can affect our interactions with information, each other and the world. For more information check out http://playgroundinc.com/blog/the-future-of-google-glass/

Three cheers for Miskatonic University! That’s the rallying cry of the La Vista Public Library (NE)’s teen advisory board—who, under the exuberant guidance of youth librarian and advisor Lindsey Tomsu, a 2013 Library Journal Mover & Shaker—turned its 2012 Teen Read Week into a massive celebration of the works of H. P. Lovecraft, complete with crafts, workshops, and a life-sized version of the complex, cooperative Arkham Horror board game based on the Cthulhu Mythos. The event was so successful and engaging that the teens hope to repeat it every year.

“I like complex board games for teens because they teach a variety of different skills in a fun setting,” Tomsu tells School Library Journal.  “Arkham involves teamwork (since it is players versus the board), lots of reading, mathematical skills, and critical thinking.”

In Arkham Horror, up to eight players take on the roles of investigators in 1920s Prohibition-era Arkham, MA, the fictional town where Lovecraft set many of his stories, Tomsu explains. Each investigator has a special occupation—such as chef, archeologist, explorer, and librarian—and his or her own special abilities and talents. “The goal of the game,” Tomsu says, “is for the players to work together to kill monsters and stop gates to other dimensions from opening. If they fail, the Ancient One (a super tough monster) will awaken and attempt to take over the world.”

Says teen advisory board member Keyahna Wood, “I like that we work as a team to win,” while Mary Bragg says, “It is more complex than most normal board games and a lot more challenging.” Huyen-Yen Hoang agrees: “It’s awesome. It is fun and complex but in an easy-to-understand way.”

Read the full article (especially to check out the foul Hounds of Tindalos,) @ SchoolLibraryJournal.

This morning, The New Yorker launched Strongbox, an online place where people can send documents and messages to the magazine, and we, in turn, can offer them a reasonable amount of anonymity. It was put together by Aaron Swartz, who died in January, and Kevin Poulsen. Kevin explains some of the background in his own post, including Swartz’s role and his survivors’ feelings about the project. (They approve, something that was important for us here to know.) The underlying code, given the name DeadDrop, will be open-source, and we are very glad to be the first to bring it out into the world, fully implemented.

Read the full article @ The New Yorker.

Both the publishers and Apple have denied any collusion, but a newly uncovered e-mail from late Apple co-founder and turtlenecked figurehead Steve Jobs to James Murdoch of News Corp (parent company of HarperCollins, one of the sued publishers and a former employer of yours truly) seems to indicate that its Jobs who came up with the pricing scheme.

“Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99,” wrote Jobs.

Two days later, HarperCollins signed a deal with Apple that made agency pricing its standard model for all e-book sellers.

The DOJ also alleges that when Random House resisted the shift to the agency model, Jobs threatened to block the publisher’s e-book application from being distributed through the Apple app store. After Random House gave in, the Apple exec in charge of its e-books deals wrote to Jobs saying that part of the reason the publisher ultimately agreed was “the fact that I prevented an app from Random House from going live in the app store.”

Another document uncovered by the DOJ shows Random House’s top executive saying his company had been counseled by Apple to withhold e-books from Amazon in order to get the company to accept agency pricing.

Read the full article on The Consumerist.

In conjunction with our very special June 2013 issue, Beastie Boys: A Visual History + Tribute to MCA, we bring you excerpts from some our interviews with Beastie album cover artists from Polly Wog Stew to Hot Sauce Committee Part Two!

We find the inside stories of how each album came to fruition through the experiences and artwork of each artist that is now part of the Beastie Boys canon. The issue was curated and compiled by our contributing editor-at-large, Joey Garfield.

We speak to Cey Adams, Haze, Arabella Field, World B Omes, Glen E Friedman, Ricky Powell, Todd James, Mike Mills, Matteo Pericoli, Bill McMullen, Bruce Davidson, Alex Grey, Kiino Villand, Sunny Bak… and, we interview Adrock of the Beastie Boys as he gave us the inside story and behind-the-scenes look at how each album cover was selected, from inside the band.

On Newsstands May 14th, 2013!