The Grand Signal

Does Bitcoin have the potential to change the financial landscape?

The Grand Signal — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 21:55:16 +0000

Last year the price of a Bitcoin was hovering at a little over $13USD. Fast forward a year later and it’s now trading at $800USD. Many wouldn’t have anticipated the sudden spark in interest from consumers; such is the dynamic of the internet and the pace of technological change today. Those who are bullish on [...]

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London Rescues Syrian Refugee Tech Startup

The Grand Signal — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 15:28:53 +0000

Business was booming for tech-startup Rootal 2 years ago, until a car bomb was set off just a few blocks awat from its Damascus headquarters. It’s been two years since Rootal was keyed in on the Syrian government hitlist, but the geolocation company is still going strong. How? You can thank the United Kingdom’s Refugee [...]

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mWater – Using mobile technology to track water quality

The Grand Signal — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 21:52:23 +0000

Despite achieving the millennium development goal of cutting lack of access to safe drinking water in half by 2015, approximately 11% or 783 million people still don’t have access to clean water (as of March 2012). Particularly, there remains large disparities in developing areas such as sub-Saharan Africa where only 61% of the population had access [...]

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Assange recites essay on BBC radio about mass surveillance

The Grand Signal — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 20:22:05 +0000

Last Thursday, Julian Assange appeared on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme to recite an essay on the government’s desire to achieve ‘god-like’ knowledge of its citizens. “To keep a person ignorant is to place them in a cage. So it follows that the powerful if they want to keep their power, will try to know as [...]

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Parents’ ban Wi-Fi In New Zealand School

The Grand Signal — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 16:24:19 +0000

One of the problems unique to the 21st century has involved the clammoring over potential health-risks posed by WiFi signals. Parents in a New Zealand have decided to take things into their own hands to protect their kids from these risks. “Two parents in New Zealand have orchestrated the removal of a school’s Wi-Fi system. [...]

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US drone operator: ‘We always wonder if we killed the right people’

The Grand Signal — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 15:49:46 +0000

There are few topics hotter right now in the world of security and privacy than the proliferation of drone technology. To add fuel to the fire, The Gaurdian has published a report of a former US drone operator openly questioning the US drone program. An Air Force analyst for nearly 4 years, Heather Linebaugh says [...]

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Chinese hackers create malware to steal Bitcoins

The Grand Signal — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 19:56:41 +0000

On the heels of China’s announcement of not recognizing Bitcoin as a currency (and the subsequent near 50% drop in the currency’s value), Trusteer has discovered a Zeus P2P/Gameover variant mallware that is designed specifically to steal the passwords of bBitcoin traders. The strain actively targets BTC China. The strain acts as a dormant entity, [...]

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Infographic: The quest to power Africa

The Grand Signal — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 13:21:59 +0000

25% of the world’s population is located in Africa, yet only 21% of them have access to electricity. GOOD and Column Five Media created a neat infographic breaking down the energy crises in Africa. Check it out by clicking on the image below:

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France joins the fray: Article 20 opens the gate for institutionalized surveillance

The Grand Signal — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 16:13:50 +0000

Europe has been saved from the brunt of criticism against civilian surveillance largely because of the EU’s vocal ciriticism of the US. They have, however, joined the fray at last. Article 20 (formerly Article 13), a policy in the works in France, is one which sanctions and almost encourages institutionalized surveillance of open communication. La [...]

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New Stanford project on entrepreneurship after the Arab Spring

The Grand Signal — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 13:53:16 +0000

The Arab Spring signaled a political upheaval of the Arab world. But a lesser impact, although heavily documented still, was in the region’s technology sector. Penned the “social media revolution”, the Arab spring has fostered a massive entrepreneurial change in the landscape of the Arab world. Stanford University, always at the forefront of entrepreneurial change, [...]

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