Tools of the Trade.

Folks:

I call this blog 'Tools of the Trade'. What I'll attempt to do here is to focus on the technologies behind the Wikileaks story. This could be hardware, software and even just concepts which, when wedded with technology, produce results the makers never conceived of. Let's look at secure networks, encryption, national and corporate censorship... as well as how folks circumvent it, smart phones, thumb drives and other ways of staying connected.

What are my qualifications? Well for starters, I failed computer studies twice in high school in the mid seventies but was pretty good with a soldering iron. In 1980 I built my first computer from a kit. The venerable Sinclair ZX-80. I soon learned that software was cheaper than hardware. All it took was time and electricity... and circuits didn't fry as often. So I hunkered down, learned programming for real and, as they say, never looked back. I spent over a decade programming computers at the machine level. I wrote utilities, business and educational software and pretty much pushed whatever machine I was working on to its limits. I've been on the internet since the late '80s and watched, amazed, as the net transformed into the World Wide Web. Well... that's not entirely true. I participated in my own small way too. Using the Web, I've helped beta test hundreds of pieces of software including Microsoft Windows OS and Linux Kernel. So, unless you are using a Mac or a smart phone, I can pretty much guarantee there's a little tiny bit of me in the computer you are using right now.

I'm mostly self taught. I've had my mentors over the years to help guide me along the way, some of them leaders in their fields. I like to think that I haven't been stifled by higher education but somehow still got the benefits of one.

This blog won't be about bits and bytes or chips and wires but more about the concepts of how and why technology works the way it does. The idea is to give you a framework with which to better understand the news and how it affects you. I don't want to stifle you with higher education: I'm here to give you driving lessons, not turn you into a mechanic. And, like a driving instructor, if I do my job right, I'll be able to safely send you on your way when you're done here.

Let's get started...

tinker

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Don't post this. It is just a setup piece. If you approve then my first 'story' will be on 'How Wikileaks Works'. In laypersons terms I will try to answer some simple questions:

What does Wikileaks offer?
How does Wikileaks work?
Is Wikileaks really safe for a whistle blower to utilize?

...and do that without without getting technical. I can't avoid technical place names for things but the rest can be translated into something most (and I'll shoot for all if I can) folks can understand. -t

Let me know at your convenience.