Cyrus Farivar

But Wednesday, a new study from Nart Villeneuve and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab made a stunning revelation that the U.S.-owned and Estonia-based VoIP company Skype appears to be colluding with the Chinese government to monitor chat messages sent on the Chinese version of Skype, known as Tom-Skype.

Villeneuve and his team were able to access massive numbers of messages that were not delivered to their recipients because they contained certain key words including “earthquake,” “milk powder,” “democracy,” “Taiwan independence” and others. In two months of studying this system, the team was able to retrieve over 166,000 messages, including messages sent from Skype users outside China to Chinese Skype users.

Villeneuve told me in an e-mail that there may be as many as a million people whose identities have been captured by this system: “I downloaded logs that had captured messages from 71,237 unique IP addresses and 44,254 unique usernames. I have not counted the usernames in the call info logs; I estimate it’s over a million. The call info logs go back to August 2007, whereas the content filter logs, only to August 2008.”

As if that weren’t bad enough, those text-based chat messages (as opposed to voice messages) were available — inadvertently — on a publicly accessible Web server in China. Villeneuve was able to download the files, which were encrypted, managed to find the decryption key as well on that same server, and was startled to find a treasure-trove of personal information, including “e-mail addresses, passwords, phone numbers, package tracking numbers and bank card numbers.”

But here’s the most chilling part:

Our analysis suggests that the surveillance is not solely keyword-driven. Many of the captured messages contain words that are too common for extensive logging, suggesting that there may be criteria, such as specific usernames, that determine whether messages are captured by the system.

The clearly demonstrated filtering and surveillance are in direct violation of Skype’s own statements from 2006. At the time, the company said in a statement that its Tom-Skype version did filter out certain words, but that those messages were simply discarded and not recorded. It’s disgraceful and morally wrong that Skype allowed this to happen. But worst of all, this is a company whose Estonian roots should have provided the historical context, knowledge and experience as to what the consequences of feeding a repressive regime are.

But Skype may not be the only American company that is getting involved with China. Longtime China watcher Rebecca MacKinnon pointed out Wednesday that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales recently sat down with Cai Mingzhao, the vice director of China’s State Council Information Office, and Liu Zhengrong of the Fifth Division — China’s top Internet cops.

In an e-mail, Wales confirmed the encounter to MacKinnon and described it as a “friendly meeting.” He added that he looked forward to an improved relationship with the Chinese Internet authorities, but noted:

I am not cool with any censorship of Wikipedia. However, I do think it is much better for a few politically sensitive pages to be blocked than for everything to be blocked. And we will never cooperate with any blocking or censorship of neutral encyclopedic content.

MacKinnon smartly asks the question:

Will China change Wikipedia or will Wikipedia change China? Or will they both change each other? So far, Western Internet companies working in China, and engaging with Chinese regulators, have inevitably seen themselves changed by the experience. Will a non-profit grassroots citizen media organization be able to maintain a higher moral ground and get Chinese government officials to engage in a public discussion about censorship?

Given the West’s bad track record vis-à-vis China, I’d bet against Wikipedia. That said, I’d love to be surprised. Your move, Jimmy.

But there were also a few troubling episodes on the technological front, with text messages and e-mails being used as a way to perpetuate false information.

Wired reported late last night that voters in Florida and New Mexico received a fake text message from 505-507-6041 that says things like: “Due to long lines if you are voting for Barack Obama you can vote tomorrow,” or “Due to the long lines today, all Obama voters are asked to vote on Wednesday.”

The AP adds that there have been reports of similar “robo-calls” and fake texts in Missouri and that the Missouri secretary of state and U.S. Attorney’s Office have been notified. I’m glad that this wasn’t widespread enough to have made a difference, but it’s still a troubling development.

But that’s not all. Thousands of students at George Mason University received an e-mail spoofed to look like it was from Provost Peter N. Stearns saying that “election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.” Apparently the FBI is on the case.

And finally, while the outcome of the election was by a pretty overwhelming margin, there were still problems with electronic voting in numerous states, although not enough to have any sort of real impact.

Still,  we as a country really need to have a single standard for federal elections, get rid of these awful e-voting machines, and streamline this whole process so we don’t have to deal with this kind of crap anymore.

On a more personal and professional note, I share with you the news that this is my last post in Machinist, which is going on hiatus beginning tomorrow.

I thank all of you for reading and for your thoughtful and critical comments. If you’d like to follow me and/or any of my other work on public radio or elsewhere, you can do so on my blog: cyrusfarivar.com (where I’ll be announcing the result of our little trial voter-verified election), and/or you can email me at cfarivar [at] cfarivar [dot] org.

Cheers!

CNN will have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed. Images are processed and projected by computers and cameras in New York. There’ll also be plasma TVs in Chicago and Phoenix that will let the people being interviewed see Blitzer and other CNN correspondents. Bohrman says the network can project two different views from each city so Blitzer can appear to be in the studio with two holograms.

Jessica Yellin was the first CNN reporter to be “beamed” to the New York newsroom, where Wolf Blitzer interviewed her — and she reported that there were only 35 cameras pointed at her, and that “talk to the cameras in New York.” Apparently representatives in the Obama campaign in Chicago and the McCain campaign in Phoenix will be interviewed as holograms later in the evening.

It’s still unclear who makes this hologram technology, nor how much it costs, nor how exactly it works — nor when I’m going to get it in my house. Man, and I was just getting used to Skype video chat. Still, scope out the video below.

This is without a doubt the best Obama song that I’ve seen so far. It’s got catchy lyrics — Viva Obama! — snappy outfits, a line about healthcare, and that female violin player? Muy caliente!

2) Extra Golden – Obama

This half Kenyan band (just like Obama!) rock out on this chillaxed benga track. Great guitar riffs.

3) Cocoa Tea – Barack Obama

Jamaican reggae star Coco Tea recorded this tune earlier this year, earning a small writeup in the Jamaica Observer at the time.

As he told the newspaper:

“If you notice, Obama is getting a lot of support from the young people, and when the younger generation begin to call for change, it usually comes, as they and the future, and Obama’s future is in their hands. Support for Obama is also coming from other quarters including the Kennedy family, as he is seen as the man with a plan, therefore I was guided by Jah on this one.”

How can you argue with Jah?

4) Docta Musica WashiWara – Barack Obama

This tune comes to us from Cameroon, and if you believe what the Docta says on his Web site: “The video has quickly becomed a big hit on Youtube.” Indeed.

5) crbballgal – BARACK THE VOTE!

How can I deny two fly girls, an ’80s-style synth, and rapping in front of a bathroom mirror? Well done, ladies.

6) Mighty Sparrow – Barack the Magnificent

Mighty Sparrow is the world’s leading calypso singer, hailing from the island of Grenada. Cop a read on the lyrics over here — I’m sure this is the first time that the phrase “Foreign Relations Committee” has worked its way into a calypso song.

7) Obama Song Spanish Reggaeton

I’m not sure who wrote this song, but nothing makes me want to sing “Si se puede!” louder than this reggaeton tune.

Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream

This song debuted just two days ago at a rally in Cleveland, so if you drop this joint at your fiesta, you’ll definitely be about 75 percent as cool as the Boss himself.

9) Barackapella – Yes We Can

Although college a capella may get mocked on Stuff White People Like, this cover of the famed will.i.am song is perfectly pulled off by Barackapella, a group from Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. (Also, don’t forget the parody, by john.he.is!)

10) Guru – Obama dance mix

I really, really hope that this is the first song that the Obamas dance to at the inagural ball. Or at least at the party in Chicago tonight.