Dan Jones

Screenshot: WIRED/Source: Tox

The web forum 4chan is known mostly as a place to share juvenile and, to put it mildly, politically incorrect images. But it’s also the birthplace of one of the latest attempts to subvert the NSA’s mass surveillance program.

When whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that full extent of the NSA’s activities last year, members of the site’s tech forum started talking about the need for a more secure alternative to Skype. Soon, they’d opened a chat room to discuss the project and created an account on the code hosting and collaboration site GitHub and began uploading code.

Eventually, they settled on the name Tox, and you can already download prototypes of the surprisingly easy-to-use tool. The tool is part of a widespread effort to create secure online communication tools that are controlled not only by any one company, but by the world at large—a continued reaction to the Snowden revelations. This includes everything from instant messaging tools to email services.

It’s too early to count on Tox to protect you from eavesdroppers and spies. Like so many other new tools, it’s still in the early stages of development and has yet to receive the scrutiny that other security tools, such as the instant messaging encryption plugin Off The Record has. But it endeavors to carve a unique niche within the secure communications ecosystem.

‘Up to Your Imagination’

The main thing the Tox team is trying to do, besides provide encryption, is create a tool that requires no central servers whatsoever—not even ones that you would host yourself. It relies on the same technology that BitTorrent uses to provide direct connections between users, so there’s no central hub to snoop on or take down.

There are other developers trying to build a secure, peer-to-peer messaging systems, including Briar and Invisible.im, a project co-created by HD Moore, the creator of the popular security testing framework Metasploit. And there are other secure-centric voice calling apps, including those from Whisper Systems and Silent Circle, which encrypt calls made through the traditional telco infrastructure. But Tox is trying to roll both peer-to-peer and voice calling into one.

Actually, it’s going a bit further than that. Tox is actually just a protocol for encrypted peer-to-peer data transmission. “Tox is just a tunnel to another node that’s encrypted and secure,” says David Lohle, a spokesperson for the project. “What you want to send over that pipe is up to your imagination.” For example, one developer is building an e-mail replacement with the protocol, and Lohle says someone else is building an open source alternative to BitTorrent Sync.

The New Skype

That said, the core Tox team is focused on building the features specifically required for building a Skype replacement. There are at least 10 different Tox messaging and voice clients so far, each supporting a different range of features. Eventually, Lohle says, there will be “official” clients for each major operating system, but for now the team is just recommending a few specific clients. µTox, which is available for Linux and Windows, is a the “bleeding edge” reference design, while qTox is the project’s recommendation for OS X users and Antox is the recommended for Android. There is no iOS version as of yet.

µTox is still rough, but the interface and experience is straightforward. You download the client, and it automatically creates a public encryption key that you can provide to everyone, and a private encryption key that you keep on your computer or phone. From there, it works very much like Skype. You can add a friend to your contact list by pasting in their public key, and then you just click their name to send them a message, or click the big phone icon to call them. If you want to move your identity from one computer to another, you just copy a single file that includes your private key and contact list.

There are still a few features that are missing, though. For example, there’s no way to do a group chat yet. And there’s no way to be logged in as the same person on two different devices — say, both your phone and your computer. But Lohle says those features are coming, and the team already as a proof-of-concept for how group chat will work.

He says the team has no plans to turn it into a company or monetize it in any way. “No one getting paid, but we dedicate as much time as we can,” he says. “If I’m not in class, or I’m not eating, I’m probably working on Tox, and that’s at least the same for probably 10 people.” Besides, the lead developer, known only as irungentoo, is completely anonymous, so it would be hard to issue him a paycheck. “I don’t think any of us know his real name,” Lohle says.

The Link With 4Chan

Today Lohle downplays Tox’s relationship to 4chan. “We were self-sufficient after only a couple weeks,” he says. “We also posted on reddit and hacker news, and people joined from that.” He probably has good reason to distance the project from the site. The racism, homophobia and misogyny on display on the 4chan on a day to day basis would be a big turn off both for users and potential contributors.

The association has also exposed the project to the trolling and drama characteristic of the forum, which often makes it hard for outsiders to evaluate. For example, one Tox developer raised concerns about Tox users exposing their IP addresses to each other. The team responded by masking IP addresses through a technology called onion routing — the same technique that the Tor Project uses to protect user anonymity on the web. But the fix didn’t stop a wave of paranoia from sweeping forums, and it’s hard to tell how much of that is trolling and how much of it is legitimate concern.

Can You Trust It?

Worse, the project let its “warrant canary” page go offline for a week. A warrant canary is usually a website that states that a company or organization has not be served by a secret subpoena from the NSA or any other law enforcement or intelligence agency. It’s meant as a way to bypass laws that prevent companies from warning their customers that they have been served with a national security letter. The Tox team claimed in a blog post that they simply forgot to put the warrant canary back online after moving web hosts. But the incident led to degree of understandable suspicion.

Meanwhile, few security experts outside the project have reviewed the Tox code yet, but the project is based on an existing set of code libraries for working with crypto algorithms called NaCl, which has received considerably more attention. “NaCl is a newish library that is nevertheless very highly regarded in the security community, produced by skilled people,” says the Electronic Freedom Frontier senior staff technologist Jacob Hoffman-Andrews, who hasn’t yet evaluated Tox.

But it’s entirely possible to good crypto libraries in poor ways, so the Tox team is saving money to hire a professional security firm to audit the code once it reaches a more stable state. “Right now we’re relying on the open source community,” Lohle says. “We have about 15 who stare at the code for days or weeks.”

Citymapper is what happens when you actually understand user experience.

Every so often, an app comes along that just completely understands the way you think. I don’t normally write long posts about an app I’ve used. But Citymapper is so incredibly well-made that I decided to put together a list of common use cases of a maps app, and how both Google Maps and Citymapper handle them.

Scenario 1: I need to get somewhere as fast as possible.

Citymapper, 10 seconds: I can see all 4 options (public transport, walking, car/taxi, and biking) side-by-side, allowing me to compare options quickly.

Google Maps, 20 seconds: I need to click through each individual option and remember which is the fastest. Also, the flyover animation is cool but unnecessary when I’m trying to see what the fastest time is.

Scenario 2: I want to see the time needed to get from point A to point B.

Citymapper, 10 seconds: I can enter my origin and destination at the same time.

Google Maps, 30 seconds: I need to first enter my destination, then specify how I want to get there, and then change my origin from “My Location” to a different address.

Scenario 3: What are the trains near me?

Citymapper, 2 seconds: Since I know the subway system pretty well, I don’t always need full directions — I just need to know where the closest subways are so I can judge which one I should take. With one click on the train icon, I can see all the trains near me, sorted by distance. Same thing for buses.

Google Maps, 30+ seconds: There’s no way to see all nearby trains, so you have to manually look around your waypoint and click on each station. There is a public transit option in the sidenav, but it only highlights the lines on the map and you still need to click through to see which stations are closest. And at transit hubs (in this case, Union Square) it considers different subway entrances and lines as separate, so it won’t let you see aggregate information for a particular station.

Scenario 4: How long will it take me to get somewhere by Citibike?

Google Maps, can’t do it: Google Maps doesn’t have bikeshare integration, so I’m forced to switch apps and use the equally scatterbrained Citibike app to find availability.

Citymapper, 15 seconds: Not only does Citymapper find where the nearest Citibike location is and let me choose whether I want the fastest route or the quietest (read: safest) route, it also notices that the closest Citibike location to my destination has no available spaces and reroutes me to the next closest one that does. That’s magical.

Scenario 5: I just searched for directions at the office, and now I want to see those directions again.

Citymapper, 5 seconds: Previously searched destinations can be found right underneath the search bar for easy access.

Google Maps, 10 seconds — if you know where to find it: For some reason, previously searched destinations are found under your profile (the person icon next to the search bar) instead of when I search. I never noticed that until I started writing this post.

Scenario 6: I’m late to a meeting so I’m sprinting as quickly as possible down the street, looking at my phone for directions.

In any other app, shaking my phone might mean “undo last action” (e.g. Mailbox) or “submit feedback” (e.g. some beta builds of mobile apps). In a maps app, though, there’s pretty much one thing a shaking phone means — I’m running, biking, or just moving. And when I do any of that with Google Maps, this happens:

It blocks my view, it shuts off turn-by-turn directions, and is altogether a pretty terrible interaction.

Other design details

City icons

Going to a different city? Citymapper’s customized icons for each of its supported metro areas gives the app personality.

Offline subway map

If you’re in the subway, you can access a full offline zoomable subway map by clicking on an icon on the homescreen.

Humor

When presenting your transit options, Citymapper will occasionally throw in a funny option:

Thor Works for Amazon Customer Service

 

Over the last several years, office workers have begun to see the error of their sedentary ways. Study after study has shown that sitting down all day can contribute to a bunch of health problems, including diabetes and cancer. The solution: Stand up for part of the workday. In some companies, nearly one-third of the workforce has adopted sit-and-stand workstations.

Factory workers, on the other hand, have the opposite problem. Standing on an assembly line for hours puts undue stress on lower limbs, joints and the back. It can also exacerbate existing conditions, such as diseases of the heart.

Yet at many factories, there’s not a chair in sight. Owners want to maximize space on the line and reduce clutter that might pose safety hazards, desires that leave little room for sitting. That’s why Zurich-based startup Noonee has developed the Chairless Chair, a wearable armature that provides workers with a place to perch—no matter where they are.

Keith Gunura, Noonee CEO and co-founder, first had the idea for an exoskeleton-type chair when he was 17 and working on a production line in a factory in the U.K. “We wanted the ability to sit anywhere and everywhere,” he recalls.

The Chairless Chair consists of a thin aluminum armature attached to the user’s shoes and waist. Wearers first clip on a belt, which contains the control module, then attach a strap onto the heel of their shoes (any heel a quarter-inch or larger will do). They tighten straps around their upper and lower legs and adjust the length of the aluminum frames to match the length of their calves and thighs.

When looking to sit, a worker bends his or her knees and presses a button on the control unit to lock the chair into place. A damper that extends from the knee to the heel provides the support. The system can hold up to 400 pounds and can lock in anywhere through the knee’s range of motion. Gunura says the best position is a perch, not unlike sitting on a barstool—an ideal posture because it keeps the wearer’s back straight. If you try to lean back, you’ll throw off your center of gravity and tip over.

The current Chairless Chair prototype weighs 4.4 pounds. Users can walk, even run, normally with the unit tied on. But, Gunura says the final version will be even lighter.

Gunura estimates that it will be three to five years before the Chairless Chair becomes a fixture in factories, but the company is gearing up for a robust set of trials in facilities across Europe and the U.K. that will begin within the next year. According to CNN, BMW and Audi will be among the first factories with the device. The company has not set a price yet, but says it will be affordable.

Noonee says that factory owners it’s been in contact with—the startup is not currently able to call their partners by name—see the productivity benefit of allowing their workers to take short rests during the workday. “We don’t want to promote long-term sitting; what you want are micro breaks,” says Gunura.

Once the professional rollout is underway, the company will begin adapting its technology to other fields, including medicine and rehabilitation, and eventually develop a consumer-friendly version. “We’ve had interest from surgeons saying that they want to try this as a substitute for their stool, which is something they normally have to move quite a lot,” Gunura explains.

Unlike other exoskeleton devices, the Chairless Chair does not imbue the wearer with extra strength or capabilities he or she might not otherwise have. Devices like the TitanArm, Gunura contends, could actually make the wearer weaker over time, as he or she progressively relies more and more on the mechanical assistance. “That’s the trade-off,” he says.

As for a layperson device, Gunura is fixated on making the Chairless Chair look as little like a rehab device or exosuit as possible. “We want to make it invisible, so that you can take it anywhere you want,” he imagines. “It could be embedded in your jeans.”

Her expressionless mug has been featured on countless toys, not to mention bowling balls, motor oil, a Fender Strat, a pricey Judith Leiber clutch, sanitary napkins and mens underwear. She has inspired a controversial song by Avril Lavigne, works of sculpture by Tom Sachs and a pretty spectacular dress worn by Lady Gaga.

I am talking about Hello Kitty, the adorable cultural force that began life as a character on a coin purse in Japan 1974. Produced by Sanrio, she arrived in the United States two years later. And she's been a part of global popular culture ever since.

This fall, she is set to take L.A. by storm, with a full-blown retrospective of Kitty art, merch and fashion at the Japanese American National Museum, which opens in mid-October. Two weeks later, the first ever Hello Kitty Con, will be held at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Christine R. Yano is an anthropologist from the University of Hawaii (and currently a visiting professor at Harvard) who has spent years studying the phenomenon that is Hello Kitty. She is also the author of the book "Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty's Trek Across the Pacific," published by Duke University Press last year. She says that Kitty's unreadable features (she usually doesn't have a mouth), along with clever merchandising, has helped cultivate the character's following.

"Hello Kitty works and is successful partly because of the blankness of her design," Yano says. "People see the possibility of a range of expressions. You can give her a guitar, you can put her on stage, you can portray her as is. That blankness gives her an appeal to so many types of people."

That also makes her more than just another fabrication of Japan's culture of cute, known as kawaii.

"She doesn't have this insipid cuteness," explain Yano, who is also serving as curator for the Japanese American National Museum's retrospective. "It's something clever and creative which contributes to a certain cool factor. For example, take Precious Moments [giftware]. That's cute. But there's nothing cool about Precious Moments. Hello Kitty has the potential to be so many other things."

This year, Kitty turns 40 — and her power as icon and brand shows no sign of abating. 

But there's a lot we don't know about Hello Kitty. And, Yano, who is currently wading through hundreds of objects for the exhibition at the the Japanese American National Museum (including the famous Gaga dress), gives us the lowdown:

Hello Kitty is not a cat.
You read that right. When Yano was preparing her written texts for the exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum, she says she described Hello Kitty as a cat. "I was corrected — very firmly," she says. "That's one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She's a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She's never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it's called Charmmy Kitty."

I grew up with Hello Kitty everything and all I have to say is, MIND BLOWN.

Hello Kitty is British.
Kitty is actually named Kitty White and she has a full back story. She is a Scorpio. She loves apple pie. And she is the daughter of George and Mary White.

"She has a twin sister," adds Yano. "She's a perpetual third-grader. She lives outside of London. I could go on. A lot of people don't know the story and a lot don't care. But it's interesting because Hello Kitty emerged in the 1970s, when the Japanese and Japanese women were into Britain. They loved the idea of Britain. It represented the quintessential idealized childhood, almost like a white picket fence. So the biography was created exactly for the tastes of that time."

Hello Kitty has special significance to Asian Americans.
Yes, she's worldwide. But Hello Kitty has had special resonance with Asians who grew up in the United States.

"When Hello Kitty arrived in the U.S. in the mid-1970s, it was a commodity mainly in Asian enclaves: Chinatowns, Japantowns, etc.," explains Yano. "In talking to Japanese Americans who grew up in the 1970s, they say, 'That figure means so much to us because she was ours.' It's something they saw as an identity marker. This is why the exhibition is being held at the Japanese American National Museum. It's about reconnecting her to this community. It gives the whole thing a certain poignancy and power."

"Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty," opens Oct. 11 at the Japanese American National Museum, 100 N. Central Ave., downtown Los Angeles, janm.org. Hello Kitty Con runs for four days starting Oct. 30 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 152 N. Central Ave., downtown Los Angeles, sanrio.com.

Twitter: @cmonstah

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