Friend- Happy Monday. We have two exciting bits of news for you: With the support of thousands of Demand Progress activists and others, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a major surveillance reform measure late last week: WASHINGTON POST: "House votes to rein in NSA `back door' surveillance powers" If the language makes it through the Senate, this amendment would ban the NSA from conducting warrantless searches of of Americans' communications. Since the Snowden leaks, Demand Progress has helped lead surveillance reform efforts, organizing campaigns that have driven more than 100,000 phone calls and hundreds of thousands of emails to lawmakers, and working the halls of Congress week-in and week-out. This win signals continued drive for reform -- not just by millions of activists, but even by federal lawmakers. That's huge. And that brings us to our second exciting piece of news: There's an easy and *FREE* way that you can help support our important ongoing work this month so that we can achieve more victories like this one. We have been selected as one of three nonprofit groups that will receive funds from CREDO this month. How much we get depends on you. CREDO is a progressive activist network and a provider of mobile and long distance phone services, as well as the CREDO credit card. They donate a portion of their revenue to a wide range of nonprofit groups. Last year they raised $2.6 million and, since 1985, CREDO has raised more than $76 million. Each month, they ask CREDO/Working Assets customers and CREDO Action members to vote for the groups they think should receive the funding. This is where you come in. The more votes we receive, the greater our share of funding. Voting is easy, free and an effective way to support us. If you are a CREDO/Working Assets customer or a CREDO Action member -- meaning somebody who receives CREDO's email alerts -- just go to click here to vote: [1]www.credodonations.com. [2]Voting here is a *FREE* way for you to help make sure that we can keep up our efforts to protect the Internet and our broader democracy. Not a CREDO member? It's easy to join! * Sign a CREDO Action petition at [3]www.credoaction.com -- this will take 30 seconds and make you eligibile to vote * Sign up for mobile phone service: [4]www.credomobile.com * Get the credit card that creates progressive change with every purchase:[5]www.credocreditcard.com * Need long distance phone service? Sign up at [6]www.credolongdistance.com Thanks so much -- this funding is critical to forwarding our work on issues like ending mass surveillance and supporting net neutrality. [7]Please click here to vote today so we can keep on fighting. Thanks. -Demand Progress References Visible links 1. http://act.demandprogress.org/go/1282?t=1001&akid=2635.1760944.QYzfUV 2. http://act.demandprogress.org/go/1282?t=1002&akid=2635.1760944.QYzfUV 3. http://act.demandprogress.org/go/750?t=1003&akid=2635.1760944.QYzfUV 4. http://act.demandprogress.org/go/1283?t=1004&akid=2635.1760944.QYzfUV 5. http://act.demandprogress.org/go/1284?t=1005&akid=2635.1760944.QYzfUV 6. http://act.demandprogress.org/go/1285?t=1006&akid=2635.1760944.QYzfUV 7. http://act.demandprogress.org/go/1282?t=1007&akid=2635.1760944.QYzfUV Paid for by Demand Progress ([1]DemandProgress.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. One last thing -- Demand Progress's small, dedicated, under-paid staff relies on the generosity of members like you to support our work. [2]Will you click here to chip in $5 or $10? Or you can become a Demand Progress monthly sustainer [3]by clicking here. Thank you! You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time: http://act.demandprogress.org/cms/unsubscribe/unsubscribe/?akid=2635.1760944.QYzfUV References Visible links 1. http://demandprogress.org/?akid=2635.1760944.QYzfUV 2. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=info@demandprogress.org&lc=US&item_name=Donate%20to%20Demand%20Progress&no_note=1&no_shipping=1¤cy_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donateCC_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted&akid=2635.1760944.QYzfUV 3. http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/dp_sustainer/?recurring=1&akid=2635.1760944.QYzfUV
Reset the net update
Looks l like the campaign had an effect.
You did it! Late last night — after they were bombarded by calls from FFTF members and many others — the U.S. House of Representatives http://fight4future.tumblr.com/post/89385245478/the-u-s-house-of-representatives-just-voted-to-cut?t=dXNlcmlkPTU0OTI3NzE3LGVtYWlsaWQ9ODc4OQ==
There’s no question about it. The tides are turning. We didn’t just win this vote, we won it by a landslide. 293-123.
Our movement is showing it’s power, and organized Internet users are once again proving to be a more formidable force than the U.S. government (or any of the pundits) expected.
We still have a long way to go. No matter what happens in Congress, we will need to continue our Reset the Net effort to secure the web through technology. As we know all too well, governments often bend and break the rules they set for themselves, and so far the reforms on the table in Congress don’t do nearly enough to protect the rights of people outside the U.S.
But one thing is certain: we are gaining ground, and the NSA is losing it. We’re beating them back with technology, pushing politicians to cut their funding, and dragging their secretive programs out into the sunlight for all to see.
This vote in congress didn’t happen by magic. So many of us have spoken out in the last year and made it clear in no uncertain terms that mass surveillance is not okay. Our movement has become too big for Congress to ignore. We forced them to go on record supporting change.
We still have much work to do, but today is a day worth celebrating! More soon.
Sincerely,
-Tiffiniy, Holmes, and Evan
Fight for the Future
P.S. Fight for the Future helped lead the charge to ensure that these Amendments passed, and we’ll be there tomorrow and the next day to move this fight forward. http://donate.fightforthefuture.org?t=dXNlcmlkPTU0OTI3NzE3LGVtYWlsaWQ9ODc4OQ== Our small team will make every penny count.
Torbay Raspberry Pi Jam – 14th June 2014
Another good meeting, for those who didn’t make it, here is a quick write up on all the goodies you missed out on.
Tom Brough demonstrated his Scratch game that can be controlled with a Wii mote. A full write up on how this works will be available at sometime in the future. You missed out on a real gem with this.
Torbay Raspberry Pi Jam – 10th May 2014
This is a pi jam, however we now have more Arduino based projects than actual Raspberry Pi’s, anyway the Jam is about learning, education etc so why not. Especially as the Arduino and Pi can work together. So maybe the jam should be a PI / Arduino jam instead.
Torbay Raspberry Jam – 12th April 2014
Again we had a mix of things going on, Tom Brough brought Bob along, with more improvements / enhancements from last time. He can walk and was set in guard dog mode, which those of you who attended the last Exeter Jam will know he just sits there until activated by movement detected by the ultrasonic sensor. Most of the enhancements are with the walking mechanism. Continue reading
Torbay Raspberry Pi Jam – 8th March 2014
Following on from last month, we one again had a good mix of projects on offer. Gordon Henderson brought the fuze box, a project to help get the pi in to schools, pi inside a custom case with keyboard, and a recess with built in breadboard and access to the gpio header, you also get a box of components with it. The main demonstration was of the built in fuze basic which is a more full featured version of return to basic written by Gordon Henderson. But written for the fuzebox. Continue reading
Torbay Raspberry Pi Jam – 15th February 2014
Another successful pi jam, Tom set up his latest project, on the pi, which uses a wii remote to control a helicopter flying over open street maps, this works very well and you can move around the map area, which was set for the locality of the Pi jam.
Torbay Raspberry Pi Jam – 11th January 2014
Torbay Raspberry Pi Jam – By Paul Sutton
The 2nd Raspberry pi jam in Torbay took place on the 11th Jan at the Library. A few projects were demonstrated. One of the projects being demonstrated was by Tom Brough, he built a raspberry pi robot last year and has been adding enhancements etc to it ever since. The robot now has the ability to scan a printed qr code, store it’s contents and then read these back and then move around.
Torbay Raspberry Pi Jam – 14th December 2013
A big thank you goes out to all who attended, helped and especially to Torbay Library services for all their help and Paignton Library for hosting us.
Exeter Raspberry Pi Jam – 23rd November
Photos from the Exeter pi jam on the 23rd November can be found here.