Weekend Economists Examine (E)sc(h)atology January 24-26, 2014

[Demeter]

7. Tech Week That Was: The Mac Turns 30, More NSA Rumblings

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/01/24/265703368/tech-week-that-was-the-mac-turns-30-more-nsa-rumblings?ft=1&f=1001



Well, that's not good ... The blog took some time this week to look at the broader implications of the massive security breach at Target, Neiman Marcus and, potentially, other merchants. Elise Hu reports that this might finally force the U.S. to start using cards with encrypted chips because industry leaders know that current cards with magnetic stripes are outdated and easily exploitable. And Laura Sydell writes that the breach brought to light the inconsistent laws around the country concerning how quickly companies are required to alert customers that sensitive data were stolen.

You don't look a day over 29. The original Macintosh is celebrating an important birthday Friday: It's now old enough for run for U.S. senator. Steve Henn has a retrospective on its plucky beginnings. On the other side of the PC vs. Mac aisle, the once-acclaimed Windows XP just turned 12, and Microsoft wants the stragglers to switch over to an operating system that wasn't developed in the previous millennium. I found that it's proving harder than it seems — partly because mobile computing is getting so powerful. Alan Yu reports that your smartphone might soon be able to detect gamma radiation...

The Big Conversation

Even without a major revelation this week, the NSA has still been the subject of many in-depth analyses. An independent review board in the executive branch determined that the phone data collection system is illegal and called for it to end. WNYC's Brian Lehrer collected a list of the mass intelligence-gathering capabilities we know the NSA currently has. Columbia Journalism Review's Lauren Kirchner documented the FOIA fight over NSA-related documents...

...China's Web traffic mysteriously failed for several hours on Wednesday. Ever weirder, some of its traffic redirected to a website based in a Wyoming building that some think normally helps people get around the Chinese firewall. Weirder still, that building is home to several thousand companies. Odd all around.

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