4 ms·

Project Seen

78 points by evpuneq 11y ago

dasmoth 11y ago
UK perspective: how come "NSA" is censored but "GCHQ" isn't?
- emilkozole 11y ago
  The list is based on a publicly available list that was released by Homeland of National security in 2013, so the focus is on US list, with that being said it shouldn't be taken to literate since by recent reports NSA and GCHQ have identified more than 40.000 triggers. Project "Seen" wants to stimulate a conversation on this topic opposed to being an actual tool.
aholla 11y ago
Why is this case sensitive ??
- pluma 11y ago
  Because it is based on ligatures, which are case sensitive by nature.
yakcyll 11y ago
How can a font possibly affect automatic content scanning, is what I'm curious about.
- jamessb 11y ago
  Fonts can have ligatures, which represent several letters as a single glyph (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_ligature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_ligature). There are several common ones for letter combinations like "oe" - perhaps this font simply registers longer ones for whole words? Edit: if you're on a mac, download the .zip file and double-click on one of the .otf font files. It will open in Font Book: View->Show Font Info says it hs 451 glyphs, and View->Repertoire shows that there are indeed glyphs representing each of the censored words.
  - emilkozole 11y ago
    Exactly, so it can be used in any software that supports opentype format.
  - oevi 11y ago
    Here is a nice article from a similar project that explains the trick in detail: http://pixelambacht.nl/2015/sans-bullshit-sans/ http://pixelambacht.nl/2015/sans-bullshit-sans/
- friendzis 11y ago
  It cannot. > This way it automatically highlights and points out the content prone to secret surveillance. The font is designed to alert writer, not scanner systems. I think use of a font is a very clever idea: instead of supplying separate tool that is hard to integrate with other systems it reuses OS functionality. Utility value highly drops, but the concept is very cool. Someone might get an idea for a much more sophisticated "font" system that would process the text behind the scenes. Imagine that WM provides html/markdown/pdf rendering capabilities and browser acts as a transport. In case of dirt simple WM (terminal) browsers could provide renderer plugins. The same browser core could be reused for pc/mobile/text, no need for complex sandboxing/multiprocess security and stuff.
bagosm 11y ago
Cool! Should be treated more like art than a tool...
thekemkid 11y ago
The 'a' glyph annoys me, the rest of the glyphs are rounded.
orf 11y ago
If you like this then check out the authors other work here: http://emilkozole.com/ http://emilkozole.com/
kraftman 11y ago
Changing the width is not a pleasant experience...
njharman 11y ago
Clicked away after it did not redact "bomb" or "terrorist". If your gonna make a "political statement as art" put some effort into making it work.
- piqufoh 11y ago
  Also NSA redacts, but not GCHQ ?
- leftnode 11y ago
  Yeah, you're right, they put absolutely no effort into this.
nlake44 11y ago
Make sure to use strong SSL certs, otherwise how do I know its your website? There better be a little green lock in the upper left corner of my browser ;)
aortega 11y ago
So it actually kind of highlight the words so they can be detected more easily?
tzakrajs 11y ago
"Tap the lines for terrorist activity. Exfiltrate credentials using beach head and break the kill chain." Nothing gets highlighted. Is this correct?
josefdlange 11y ago
This website does the worst job explaining what it's even here for. I have to spend ten minutes reading obfuscated to text to understand that the font shows different glyphs when I type a "dangerous" word? Why do this in a font? Why don't you build a spellcheck dictionary and misuse that technology instead of this one that's in front of me all day?
- suyash 11y ago
  It was not that bad, sometimes I don't like information presented in A, B, C format and like to figure things out. I enjoyed it.
slayed0 11y ago
It would be nice if a few of the people upvoting this came into the comments section to explain what they liked about it. I personally find absolutely no value.
yellowapple 11y ago
> claims to protect against dangerous words > fails to censor the name of that D&D-playing traitor Edward Snowden 0/10

Project Seen

78 points by evpuneq 11y ago

dasmoth 11y ago

UK perspective: how come "NSA" is censored but "GCHQ" isn't?

emilkozole 11y ago
The list is based on a publicly available list that was released by Homeland of National security in 2013, so the focus is on US list, with that being said it shouldn't be taken to literate since by recent reports NSA and GCHQ have identified more than 40.000 triggers. Project "Seen" wants to stimulate a conversation on this topic opposed to being an actual tool.

aholla 11y ago

Why is this case sensitive ??

pluma 11y ago
Because it is based on ligatures, which are case sensitive by nature.

yakcyll 11y ago

How can a font possibly affect automatic content scanning, is what I'm curious about.

jamessb 11y ago
Fonts can have ligatures, which represent several letters as a single glyph (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_ligature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_ligature). There are several common ones for letter combinations like "oe" - perhaps this font simply registers longer ones for whole words? Edit: if you're on a mac, download the .zip file and double-click on one of the .otf font files. It will open in Font Book: View->Show Font Info says it hs 451 glyphs, and View->Repertoire shows that there are indeed glyphs representing each of the censored words.
- emilkozole 11y ago
  Exactly, so it can be used in any software that supports opentype format.
- oevi 11y ago
  Here is a nice article from a similar project that explains the trick in detail: http://pixelambacht.nl/2015/sans-bullshit-sans/ http://pixelambacht.nl/2015/sans-bullshit-sans/
friendzis 11y ago
It cannot. > This way it automatically highlights and points out the content prone to secret surveillance. The font is designed to alert writer, not scanner systems. I think use of a font is a very clever idea: instead of supplying separate tool that is hard to integrate with other systems it reuses OS functionality. Utility value highly drops, but the concept is very cool. Someone might get an idea for a much more sophisticated "font" system that would process the text behind the scenes. Imagine that WM provides html/markdown/pdf rendering capabilities and browser acts as a transport. In case of dirt simple WM (terminal) browsers could provide renderer plugins. The same browser core could be reused for pc/mobile/text, no need for complex sandboxing/multiprocess security and stuff.

bagosm 11y ago

Cool! Should be treated more like art than a tool...

thekemkid 11y ago

The 'a' glyph annoys me, the rest of the glyphs are rounded.

orf 11y ago

If you like this then check out the authors other work here: http://emilkozole.com/ http://emilkozole.com/

kraftman 11y ago

Changing the width is not a pleasant experience...

njharman 11y ago

Clicked away after it did not redact "bomb" or "terrorist". If your gonna make a "political statement as art" put some effort into making it work.

piqufoh 11y ago
Also NSA redacts, but not GCHQ ?
leftnode 11y ago
Yeah, you're right, they put absolutely no effort into this.

nlake44 11y ago

Make sure to use strong SSL certs, otherwise how do I know its your website? There better be a little green lock in the upper left corner of my browser ;)

aortega 11y ago

So it actually kind of highlight the words so they can be detected more easily?

tzakrajs 11y ago

"Tap the lines for terrorist activity. Exfiltrate credentials using beach head and break the kill chain." Nothing gets highlighted. Is this correct?

josefdlange 11y ago

This website does the worst job explaining what it's even here for. I have to spend ten minutes reading obfuscated to text to understand that the font shows different glyphs when I type a "dangerous" word? Why do this in a font? Why don't you build a spellcheck dictionary and misuse that technology instead of this one that's in front of me all day?

suyash 11y ago
It was not that bad, sometimes I don't like information presented in A, B, C format and like to figure things out. I enjoyed it.

slayed0 11y ago

It would be nice if a few of the people upvoting this came into the comments section to explain what they liked about it. I personally find absolutely no value.

yellowapple 11y ago

> claims to protect against dangerous words > fails to censor the name of that D&D-playing traitor Edward Snowden 0/10