TeachITGS

Use Facebook? Beware identity theft

2009-02-09T02:16:00.000-08:00

Washington, DC - A warning tonight for Facebook users. Hackers stole
one man's online password and his identity. They changed his Facebook
page to say he was in trouble and then hit up his friends for money.

Catina Dailey, who says she has 695 friends on Facebook, has taken steps to try and stay safe.

"Only a few people have access to my pictures and I change my password once a month," says Dailey.

Marika Anastassidis, has more than 800 friends in her Facebook
network and there are more than a thousand pictures of her online.

She worries about security, but feels ,"if you use the privacy protection correctly I think it's safe."

There's no question Facebook is a great way to connect with people
who want to be friends with you. The danger is the people who want to
be you.

Commissioner pours scorn on internet freedom law

2009-02-08T02:41:00.000-08:00

New EU laws to protect freedom on the internet and force ISPs to stand up to authoritarian regimes are "unnecessary" and proposed penalties are "heavy", EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding told the European Parliament this week.
"We should not put European companies in an invidious position where their choice appears to be to break the law or leave the market to more unscrupulous operators," Reding argued. "Our goal should be to find ways to allow operators and service providers to respect human rights without doing either."
This is an important contribution to a debate that has been rumbling on since 2007, when the Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA) was introduced to the US House of Representatives. After a preamble that makes much of the threat to freedom posed by censorship under authoritarian regimes in Belarus, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran and China, it asserts: "It shall be the policy of the United States to promote as a fundamental component of foreign policy the right of everyone to freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers".

More>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/06/eu_internet_freedom/

CIA Agent Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Covert Credit Cards

2009-02-08T02:38:00.000-08:00

A 16-year veteran of the CIA pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal fraud charge after using undercover agency credit cards to run up $75,000 in personal expenses, including costly hotel stays and a $700 watch.
Steven J. Levan, 48, worked as a case agent at the CIA until his recent termination over the fraud. According to an affidavit (.pdf) by a U.S. postal inspector who investigated the case, Levan made unauthorized personal use of four special credit cards that, while not officially billed to the government, are “customarily paid by the agency.”
“The agency had to pay the defendant's fraudulent charges on those credit cards, in order to maintain the means by which the agency protects the identity of certain of its employees,” reads the affidavit.
Despite the relatively mild charges, Levan’s been held without bail since his arrest on January 12, based on the government’s assertion that the former spy could begin peddling national security secrets to foreign powers to raise more money. Levan’s attorney slammed the espionage rhetoric as “rank speculation” in a motion for bail (.pdf) last month.

More:>> http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/02/cia-agent-plead.html

The (Virtual) Global Office

2008-05-12T00:56:00.001-07:00

The (Virtual) Global Office
Moving beyond Second Life marketing, many companies are infiltrating virtual worlds for employee meetings, mixers, and recruiting

Using software from Activeworlds,
IBM builds virtual work spaces that let workers in far-flung regions
use avatars, or graphic representations of themselves, to handle such
tasks as rehearsing presentations or learning about employee benefits.
The experimentation puts IBM in the vanguard of companies that, having
tested the limits of marketing in such online environments as Second
Life, are now infiltrating virtual worlds to tackle a range of other
activities, from meetings to collaboration, from training to employee
recruiting.

First Came Virtual Marketing

At companies like Sun Microsystems (JAVA),
where upwards of 50% of employees may work outside traditional office
spaces on any given day, virtual worlds can help scattered colleagues
forge closer bonds. "It's difficult to maintain a global corporate
culture with people so spread around," says Nicole Yankelovich,
principal investigator at Sun Labs, who says the ethos can vary on Sun
campuses from Menlo Park, Calif., to Burlington, Mass. "Virtual world
technology is a way to bring the company together to build a global
corporate culture where people are on equal footing," she says.

London Olympics terror threat used to vastly increase surveillance powers

2008-05-10T11:01:00.001-07:00

The threat of terrorism at the 2012 London Olympics is being hyped up in order to justify a vast increase in the surveillance powers of the British state.

According to a memo leaked to the Daily Telegraph, Home Office officials are planning to expand the police DNA database to identify suspects and use greater powers to track individuals through advanced closed circuit television (CCTV) technology and the Oyster card used by millions of people on London’s bus and rail network.

The memo discusses different means the government could use to persuade the British public to accept these measures. It asks, “To what extent should the expectation of liberty be eroded by legitimate intrusions in the interests of security of the wider public?” and concludes, “Increasing [public] support could be possible through the piloting of certain approaches in high-profile ways such as the London Olympics.”[...]

As well as increasing the number of police, the proposed scheme involves an elaborate and sophisticated security system spanning the whole of London. According to a BBC report last month, the Metropolitan Police Service wants to pool its 10,000 existing cameras with the thousands of traffic and congestion cameras already in operation across the city.
This would give the police control over a vast network of up to half a million CCTV cameras, making it the largest of its kind in the world. The network would then be controlled by a central £100 million bomb-proof command bunker operated jointly by the military, police and intelligence services brought together under the umbrella of the Olympic Security Directorate.

The Surveillance Society Does Not Work

2008-05-10T01:21:00.000-07:00

Costing in excess of billions of pounds each year, every single area of the British surveillance society has been proven ill effective when dealing with crime, fraud and terrorism – the very reasons government officials implement such measures.

Which begs the question: How can the Government justify such spending when it also imposes an increasing risk to our personal freedom and privacy? What is more, as current technology has failed to live up to the expectations of the British Government they still have widespread plans to advance citizen surveillance like we have never seen before.

More: A surveillance society simply does not work.

Cell Phone Spying: Is Your Life Being Monitored?

2008-05-10T00:41:00.000-07:00

It connects you to the world, but your cell phone could also be giving anyone from your boss to your wife a window into your every move. The same technology that lets you stay in touch on-the-go can now let others tap into your private world — without you ever even suspecting something is awry.

The new generation

Long gone are the days of simple wiretapping, when the worst your phone could do was let someone listen in to your conversations. The new generation of cell phone spying tools provides a lot more power.

Eavesdropping is easy. All it takes is a two-minute software install and someone can record your calls and monitor your text messages. They can even set up systems to be automatically alerted when you dial a certain number, then instantly patched into your conversation. Anyone who can perform a basic internet search can find the tools and figure out how to do it in no time.

But the scarier stuff is what your phone can do when you aren’t even using it. Let’s start with your location.

Simple surveillance

You don’t have to plant a CIA-style bug to conduct surveillance any more. A service called World Tracker lets you use data from cell phone towers and GPS systems to pinpoint anyone’s exact whereabouts, any time — as long as they’ve got their phone on them.

All you have to do is log on to the web site and enter the target phone number. The site sends a single text message to the phone that requires one response for confirmation. Once the response is sent, you are locked in to their location and can track them step-by-step. The response is only required the first time the phone is contacted, so you can imagine how easily it could be handled without the phone’s owner even knowing.

Once connected, the service shows you the exact location of the phone by the minute, conveniently pinpointed on a Google Map. So far, the service is only available in the UK, but the company has indicated plans to expand its service to other countries soon.

"Odd" news site slaps back at lawsuit

2008-05-05T13:23:00.001-07:00

By Egan Orion: Monday, 05 May 2008, 3:41 AM - The inquirer

IN OUR QUEST for IT news to interest you, our readers, we often trawl some of the more obscure nooks and crannies of the web, so you don't have to do so.

One of the websites we visit because it's a veritable magnet for odd technology news is Signs of the Times, so we couldn't help but notice when it was sued for Internet defamation. The INQUIRER takes a rather keen interest when other news sites are sued for libel, for reasons that might be obvious to our readers.

In February, Eric Pepin of Beaverton, Oregon and his company, Higher Balance Institute, filed an Internet defamation lawsuit against the California non-profit organisation Quantum Future Group, which operates the Signs of the Times news and analysis website, and Laura Knight-Jadczyk, who resides in France and is the chief webmistress of Signs of the Times.
Pepin's complaint (pdf) alleged that comments that appeared on the Signs of the Times reader forum were libelous, and it sought damages of $4.47 million.

Signs of the Times has only a relatively small readership, but it's a loyal group. When the website was sued it appealed for donations to cover its legal defence costs. Within just a few weeks its readers donated £65,000 (about $128,000).
On Saturday, Signs of the Times announced through its attorneys that on April 25 it filed motions challenging Pepin's lawsuit in US District Court in Portland, Oregon. In a statement, defendant Quantum Future Group (QFG) said it asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit and further asked to recover its attorneys fees.

In its legal briefs, QFG cited Oregon's anti-SLAPP ("Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation") statute to claim that its statements about New-Age "guru" Pepin and Higher Balance Institute (HBI) are constitutionally protected speech.
Under the anti-SLAPP law, QFG argues, if the plaintiffs cannot show that they will probably prevail on the merits, the lawsuit must be dismissed before QFG and other defendants have to incur high attorneys fees to defend themselves.

QFG contends that Pepin and HBI can't show they will probably prevail on the merits because, "Without exception, the statements are all constitutionally protected expressions of opinion rather than verifiable assertions of fact."

Since the statements to which Pepin and HBI object are opinions, QFG argues, "HBI cannot meet its burden to prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that the statements are false, let alone that Defendants knew that they were false or had serious doubts as to their truth."
Signs of the Times reader forum comments that Pepin and HBI alleged were defamatory included some posts questioning Pepin's meditative techniques and commenting on Pepin's 2007 trial on multiple alleged sexual offences involving his behaviour with a 17-year old follower.
"These are exactly the sort of statements that the First Amendment and recent statutes protect as free speech," said QFG attorney Stephen Kaus. "People are entitled to believe in gurus such as Pepin and buy their books and courses for hundreds of dollars or more, but people are also entitled to point out their view that the techniques of telepathy and development of a sixth eye promoted by Pepin are nonsense."

QFG maintains that the forum comments were opinions in reaction to matters of fact reported by mainstream news sources, including The Oregonian, a daily newspaper published in Portland, Oregon, and the Associated Press, and are therefore protected by both the US Constitution and the Oregon Constitution.

An article in The Oregonian reported on Pepin's 2007 court trial on charges of sexual misconduct with a minor. Pepin was acquitted because the judge did not believe that the state's allegations had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Washington County Circuit Court Judge Steven L. Price reportedly said it was "'probable that the conduct alleged in all counts occurred,' but [that] he wasn't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt." According to The Oregonian, Judge Price "called the leader of a metaphysical Internet sales company manipulative and controlling and his testimony unbelievable, even as he acquitted him... of charges that he had sex with an underage boy."
Signs of the Times readers pointed out on its forum that being found "not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" is not the same thing as being found " innocent of all charges."

QFG's motion also argues that, under the US Communications Decency Act of 1996, Signs of the Times, as the operator of an Internet forum, is not liable for third-party comments posted on its website. It also questions the Oregon based federal court's jurisdiction over QFG, a California non-profit organisation with its primary place of business in France.

QFG attorney Walter Hansell stated in an earlier press release, "HBI's lawsuit is a frontal assault on free speech, and on the free global flow of information and opinion on the Internet. It is a blunt force attack on the discussion of sincere opinions among people sharing common interests."
Following QFG's April 25th motions filing, Hansell said, "The intent of this suit by HBI is to stifle free speech, but luckily the anti-SLAPP statute allows us to nip the matter in the bud before the cost is out of hand."

Hopefully the court will order Pepin to pay the attorneys fees incurred by QFG and Signs of the Times to defend themselves as well.
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/04/odd-news-site-slaps-back

How to add a stumble button to your blogger blog

2008-05-02T06:11:00.000-07:00

How do you increase traffic to your blog? is Digg it the answer? - having it tried posting a few of my articles I find that unless 100 or so people digg it immediately it becomes buried and lost in the digg it electron grave yard. This site explains more and my own experience would confirm that.

It seems stumble upon is far more effective for establishing your blog. See their tutorial to put a stumble upon button on your posts.

Alternatively add the addthis bookmarking button to give readers the option of bookmarking your site or post on one of the many social bookmarking websites - I put mine in the side bar and one at the end of this post- go on click - you know you want to!

Happy stumbling!

Facebook and the risks to privacy

2008-05-02T04:51:00.000-07:00

Protests force Facebook to change its new beacon advertising program so that it is now an opt-in rather than an opt-out system. A mild victory to the many users of the social networking site rightly concerned that Facebook Beacon was going to be a Privacy nightmare. However the public terms and conditions are presented, it still is a privacy nightmare. One only has to investigate the Murky history of Facebook and it's links to the CIA: Facebook the CIA conspiracy:

Facebook has 20 million users worldwide, is worth billions of dollars and, if internet sources are to be believed, was started by the CIA. The social networking phenomenon started as a way of American college students to keep in touch. It is rapidly catching up with MySpace, and has left others like Bebo in its wake.

But there is a dark side to the success story that's been spreading across the blogosphere. A complex but riveting Big Brother-type conspiracy theory which links Facebook to the CIA and the US Department of Defenc e .

Facebook Shatters dreams

There are many real life stories how Facebook has had a negative impact on the lives of individuals. Essentially from users not realising what the consequences might be of their public show-and-tell. I am sure later they regret providing information that in hindsight they should have kept private:

Halloween Fallout: 'Fairy tale' ruined by Facebook A US man (see Kevin below) who lied to his boss about a family emergency has been caught out after a photograph of him dressed as a fairy in a tutu at a Halloween party appeared online.
instances of employers rejecting candidates or firing employees based on information obtained from social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook
Ruined Christmases. Yes it is serious to some people!!!:
"I saw my girlfriend bought an item i had been saying i wanted...so now part of my christmas gift has been ruined. Facebook is ruining christmas!"

The dangers of the massive data collecting operations

The beacon advertising system is just one way in which consumer purchases are traced and utilised to influence and target individuals. A description is given in the Huffington post:

The new ad infrastructure enables Facebook to extend their reach onto other companies' sites. For example, if you rent a copy of "Biodome" from Blockbuster.com, Blockbuster will look for a Facebook cookie on your computer. If it finds one, it will send a ping to Facebook. The Blockbuster site will pop up a "toast" (= popup) asking if you want to let your friends at Facebook know that you rented "Biodome." If you say yes, next time you log into Facebook, Facebook will ask you to confirm that you want to let your friends know of your recent rental. If you say yes, that becomes an event that's propagated in the news feed going to your friends.

As the data net becomes larger, with more companies and Government agencies involved in farming data from social networking sites, the following Satire entitled 'pizza palace' illustrates perfectly the dangers of centralized databases and the importance of protecting private data.

The risk with any data is who controls it and what they do with it. Who can we trust if we cannot even trust ourselves to keep potentially self-destructive information to ourselves? We are not that far away from having no Privacy whatsoever and the sad thing is it is us who are letting it happen.

So THINK before you post your latest gossip on Facebook, are you giving too much of yourself away?

Technorati categories: News, technology, Facebook, internet,

UK: Biometrics screening for Olympics workers

2008-03-06T01:06:00.001-08:00

UK: Biometrics screening for Olympics workers

About 100,000 workers at the Olympics site in London are to be
screened using advanced face and palm recognition techniques in one of
the largest and most expensive security operations undertaken on a
British construction project.

Every worker on the site - up to 10,000 at one time at the peak of
construction in 2010 and 100,000 in total - will pass through a
two-tier biometrics access system that includes palm-print reading and
face recognition.

Media Conglomerates, Mergers, Concentration of Ownership

2008-03-01T00:39:00.001-08:00

by Anup Shah
This Page Last Updated Sunday, April 29, 2007
This page: http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/Media/Corporations/Owners.asp.
To print full details (expanded/alternative links, side notes, etc.) use the printer-friendly version:
http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/Media/Corporations/Owners.asp?p=1

Some nations can influence and control their media greatly. In addition, powerful corporations also have enormous influence on mainstream media.
In some places major multinational corporations own media stations and outlets. Often, many media institutions survive on advertising fees, which can lead to the media outlet being influenced by various corporate interests. Other times, the ownership interests may affect what is and is not covered. Stories can end up being biased or omitted so as not to offend advertisers or owners. The ability for citizens to make informed decisions is crucial for a free and functioning democracy but now becomes threatened by such concentration in ownership.
The idea of corporate media itself may not be a bad thing, for it can foster healthy competition and provide a check against governments. However, the concern is when there is a concentration of ownership due to the risk of increased economic and political influence that can itself be unaccountable.
Table of contents for this page
This web page has the following sub-sections:
Media Conglomerates, Mega Mergers, Concentration of Ownership
Vertical Integration
Interlocking Directorates
Disney
Concentration of ownership is where the problem largely lies
The Quest for the Public Airwaves
The Quest for the Internet?
More Information on Ownership issues

Related article: Web of Deceit: How Internet Freedom Got the Federal Ax, And Why Corporate News Censored the Story

Mandatory DNA database rejected in UK

2008-02-27T08:25:00.001-08:00

Calls to put the DNA of every UK resident on a national database are impractical, the government has said.

A senior police officer has argued for a universal register, after
two killers were convicted on DNA evidence. Sally Anne Bowman's killer,
Mark Dixie, and Suffolk serial murderer Steve Wright were both captured
because their DNA was taken after unrelated offences.

But the Home Office said a mandatory database "would raise significant practical and ethical issues".

The DNA database, which covers England and Wales, currently contains
around 4.5m profiles - routinely taken from criminal suspects after
most arrests.

It is already the largest of its kind in the world but is controversial.

Since 2004, the data of everyone arrested for a recordable
offence - all but the most minor offences - has remained on the system
regardless of their age, the seriousness of their alleged offence, and
whether or not they were prosecuted.

Victory of reason: Mandatory DNA database rejected in UK

Virtual Spooks: U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft

2008-02-27T08:24:00.001-08:00

Be careful who you frag. Having eliminated all terrorism in the real world, the U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games, according to a data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence.

The Reynard project will begin by profiling online gaming behavior, then potentially move on to its ultimate goal of "automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world."
* The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world.
* If it shows early promise, this small seedling effort may increase its scope to a full project.
Reynard will conduct unclassified research in a public virtual world environment. The research will use publicly available data and will begin with observational studies to establish baseline normative behaviors.
The publicly available report -- which was mandated by Congress following earlier concerns over data-mining programs -- also mentions several other data-mining initiatives. These include:
* Video Analysis and Content Extraction - software to automatically identify faces, events and objects in video
* Tangram - A system that wants to create surveillance and threat warning system that evaluates known threats and finds unknown threats to issue warnings ahead of an attack
* Knowledge Discovery and Dissemination - This tool is reminiscent of the supposedly-defunct Total Information Awareness program. It seeks to access disparate databases to find patterns of known bad behavior. The program plans to work with domestic law enforcement and Homeland Security.

The report gives no indication why the find-a-terrorist cell in Sims project is called Reynard, though that is a traditional trickster figure in literature.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/nations-spies-w.html

UK government wants personal details of every EU traveller

2008-02-27T08:23:00.001-08:00

Passengers travelling between EU countries or taking domestic flights would have to hand over a mass of personal information, including their mobile phone numbers and credit card details, as part of a new package of security measures being demanded by the British government. The data would be stored for 13 years and used to "profile" suspects.

Brussels officials are already considering controversial anti-terror plans that would collect up to 19 pieces of information on every air passenger entering or leaving the EU. Under a controversial agreement reached last summer with the US department of homeland security, the EU already supplies the same information [19 pieces] to Washington for all passengers flying between Europe and the US.

But Britain wants the system extended to sea and rail travel, to be applied to domestic flights and those between EU countries. According to a questionnaire circulated to all EU capitals by the European commission, the UK is the only country of 27 EU member states that wants the system used for "more general public policy purposes" besides fighting terrorism and organised crime.

Comment: We wonder what those "more general public policy purposes" might be.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/149585-UK-government-wants-personal-details-of-every-EU-traveller

UK School had CCTV cameras in children's toilets

2008-02-27T08:21:00.001-08:00

A school has been forced to remove CCTV cameras they installed in the students' toilets after furious protests from pupils and parents.

Hundreds of outraged students petitioned against the cameras after they spotted them in the toilets and even refused to use the loos all day so they were not caught on CCTV. Other children were kept at home by their families rather than expose themselves to the "gross invasion of privacy".

The cameras were installed at Lipson Community College in Plymouth, Devon, which has 1,400 pupils. Concerns were first raised when pupils returned from the week-long break on Tuesday and spotted the cameras.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=517250&in_page_id=1770

The RFID Guardian: jamming device which works as a firewall for your tags

2008-02-27T07:11:00.001-08:00

Here, there, and everywhere

Don't carry RFID? You might be surprised; the short-range ID technology is currently found in everything from US passports to swipeless credit cards to public transit passes to World Cup tickets to car keys to the building access pass for your office building. A few of the digerati even elect to have RFID implants from VeriChip slipped beneath their skin in order to use them as cashless payment systems.

Much of the information on these chips can be read without exotic equipment, assuming an attacker can get within several feet with a concealed RFID reader. Unfortunately, most tags give users no control over when they respond to queries, and they offer no notification, which means that sensitive data could be at risk in public places.

The solution, for those concerned about such things, has so far been low-tech: smashing the chip with a hammer appears to be the preferred method for passports, but it is technically illegal and could lead to unpleasantness at customs.
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/rfid-guardian.ars?rel

Human ID Chips Get Under My Skin

2008-02-27T07:05:00.001-08:00

The technology is available, but the potential for misuse is almost limitless. Our columnist takes you through the dangers of this futuristic process
Editor's note: This is the second in a series of perspectives on implantable microchips. The first appeared on Jan. 30.

While it's easy to reject the notion of placing little ID chips inside humans as an ominous Orwellian invasion of individual rights, I suspect it's inevitable that in my lifetime we will all have some kind of computerized implants. My problem is not with the technology, known as chipping, or with the companies that sell it. My concern stems from my lack of trust in institutions and lack of belief that the technology will be forever restricted to beneficial, socially acceptable uses.

Chipping involves implanting a transponder chip below the skin for identification purposes. VeriChip (CHIP), the one company that has gained FDA clearance to perform this procedure, has emerged as the process's leading advocate. The implant procedure itself is simple and mostly painless, accomplished in a doctor's office in a matter of seconds.

Generally speaking, the only data stored on the chip is a 16-digit ID number that cross-references to a record in VeriChip's database. Nevertheless the chip raises a number of troubling concerns:
Health. Before diving into privacy and security concerns, it is worth noting recent reports indicate implanted chips may have caused tumors in small lab animals, and therefore may be equally dangerous for humans. I am not qualified to express an opinion on the subject other than to note the FDA has approved the device as safe. Evidence to the contrary will probably take years to accumulate, and at that point, a debate would be useless to those already afflicted.

Privacy. Advocates of chipping often downplay privacy and security worries by stressing the chips merely contain a number rather than any actual personal information. However, that may be dangerous enough. A centralized numeric database storing information on a significant number of Americans begins to look a lot like a national ID card. But unlike an ID card safely stowed in a wallet, the numbers on these chips can potentially be read wirelessly by someone standing near you with an inexpensive handheld reader. Legislative attempts to establish a national ID, such as the REAL ID Act, have proven to be highly controversial. It would be a shame to have human chipping effectively short-circuit that debate and create a de facto national identification system.

Hacking and Misuse. I trust VeriChip, I guess. At least I have no reason not to trust them. But what about someone hacking into their databases? (Please don't tell me their security is absolutely foolproof - thanks to all the credit-card system breaches, we all know better.) All it would take is a careless employee to accidentally expose everyone's numbers to an ill-intentioned hacker. Since you can't reprogram chips already implanted, would we all need to have them physically swapped out whenever VeriChip's database was compromised? I also suspect it wouldn't be too hard to execute "man-in-the-middle" attacks that snag an individual's chip number for malicious use.

Consent. The leading candidates proposed for the initial rounds of chipping are people who are either unwilling or unable to give informed consent. While there have been a few actual instances of mandatory chipping - the Attorney General of Mexico forced his staff to get implants to gain access to a sensitive document room - most uses remain theoretical. For example, VeriChip has advocated chipping Alzheimer's patients as a way to help families find those sufferers who get lost.

Scott Silverman, VeriChip's chairman, has proposed mandatory chipping of guest workers and immigrants. A hospital in Ontario plans to implant the chips in babies, and the U.S. Army is mulling a requirement for enlisted personnel.

The elderly, immigrants, babies, low-ranking soldiers...these are not exactly the most powerful segments of U.S. society. Compare this to new technologies such as laser eye surgery and non-invasive heart procedures, where the wealthy and powerful typically benefit well before the lower rungs of the social ladder. I am inherently distrustful of technologies that start deployment at the bottom of the power pyramid.

Unintended Consequences. Once implanted, these chips, and the associated network of chip readers deployed to work with them, will be around for a long time. Let's give VeriChip, participating hospitals, and government agencies the benefit of the doubt about being ethical and well-intentioned organizations. But who knows which agencies might be given access to the database down the road as part of new policy initiatives. Congressmen are notorious for passing legislation requiring the government to exploit existing databases for new endeavors, such as targeting deadbeat dads or delinquent student loan holders through the IRS tax refund system.

I can think of countless initiatives that could be launched to make use of a sufficiently large group of chipped people: a universal college student ID system; chip readers in cars that would block drivers with unpaid parking tickets from using their vehicles; tracking people with a history of emotional disturbances; court-ordered chipping tied to domestic restraining orders; government monitoring of people found to have a high-risk profile through computer profiling; outfitting firearms with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader and requiring gun owners to be chipped to fire their weapon (like existing thumbprint locks).

Once a sufficient number of humans have had chips implanted, for whatever the reason, all bets on containing the technology are off. A responsible debate on human chipping would consider the extreme scenario - widespread mandatory implants - and not just focus on the initial "socially acceptable" proposals that target specific populations such as Alzheimer's patients, children, or convicts on work release programs.

Reduced Expectations. Although there is no guarantee of privacy written explicitly into the Constitution, a century of court rulings has carved out some tenuous protections for Americans, most of which are based on the concept of "expectation of privacy." A widely deployed system of human ID chips might very well erode that expectation, weakening everyone's shield against privacy intrusions.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080211_165324.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

Deloitte flags risks of UK child database

2008-02-23T19:56:00.001-08:00

A security review by Deloitte of one of the UK government's child
databases - ContactPoint, which will contain an entry for every English
child under 18 - has found it is generally secure. With some provisos.

Deloitte makes a timely reminder to a government convinced that
securing databases is simply a technical problem: "Risk can only be
managed not eliminated, and therefore there will always be a risk of
data security incidents occurring." http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/22/child_database_review/

CELEBRATING UN-PRESIDENT'S DAY: WHY I WILL NOT VOTE FOR A PRESIDENT IN 2008

2008-02-20T09:36:00.001-08:00

Four years ago, I wrote "Why I Will Not Vote In 2004" for which a number of readers thanked me profusely while another segment of readers sent scathing emails questioning how I could be so cynical and unpatriotic.

My intent in writing that article was not cynicism but honest questioning and exposure of what the voting process in this nation has become in recent years. It was authentic and sprang from genuine issues I had at the time regarding the wisdom of voting in a federal election. Since then, my skepticism of the integrity of the electronic voting machine process has deepened exponentially. And since then, Bev Harris of Black Box Voting produced an HBO documentary "Hacking Democracy" which exposes the jaw-dropping abuses of the electronic voting system and calls into question the veracity of any outcomes produced by it.

http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/329/

Fingerprint scan at nursery door

2008-02-20T09:35:00.001-08:00

Fingerprint scan at nursery door

The nursery says only parents and staff will be registered

A nursery has installed fingerprint scanning at its entrance to increase the safety of its young pupils.

The biometric security system at Mes Enfants nursery in Mumbles, Swansea, allows only authorised parents and staff to access the building.

When registered people swipe their finger, their details also flash up on a computer so staff know who is there.
Nursery owner Rebecca Treharne said the aim was to give parents and staff added confidence.
The nursery has been running for five-and-a-half years and has 100 children on its books, aged from four months to four-and-a-half years old.

It believes it could be the first nursery in Wales to adopt such a system for staff and parents.
Ms Treharne said: "I like the nursery to be quite forward thinking and modern in approach. I think this is the way forward. more>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7247103.stm

Big Brother is not in the public interest

2008-02-03T23:11:00.001-08:00

The news that more than 1,000 requests a day
are made to "intercept" our phone calls, post and email should come as
no surprise to anyone observing Britain's rapid descent into mass
surveillance. What may be more of an eye-opener is the extent to which
the Government has systematically embedded secrecy, incompetence and
spin into the process.

The state can intrude into our communications in three distinct
ways. It can bug our phone lines, it can open our mail and it now has
the ability to access our phone and email records, discovering
everything about our calling patterns, email usage and our networks of
friends and colleagues. This latter innovation has become an epidemic.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/148123-Big-Brother-is-not-in-the-public-interest

UK: Talking CCTV cameras installed at parks

2008-02-03T23:10:00.001-08:00

Talking CCTV cameras have been installed at two Norwich parks with the aim of slashing anti-social behaviour.

Eight cameras at Waterloo Park and one at Eaton Park have been
connected to their own loudspeaker system and, through Norwich City
Council's 33-screen, £500,000 CCTV control room, the voice of a camera
operator will boom out across each park to tell off those causing a
nuisance, committing low level crime and anti-social behaviour.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/148277-UK-Talking-CCTV-cameras-installed-at-parks

Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software

2008-01-19T21:16:00.000-08:00

Alexi Mostrous and David Brown

Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence.

The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees’ performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer’s assessment of their physiological state.

Technology allowing constant monitoring of workers was previously limited to pilots, firefighters and Nasa astronauts. This is believed to be the first time a company has proposed developing such software for mainstream workplaces.
Microsoft submitted a patent application in the US for a “unique monitoring system” that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read “heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure”, the application states.
The system could also “automatically detect frustration or stress in the user” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”. Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker’s weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he needed help.

Google. Who's looking at you?
It wants to know everything about you. It wants to be your best friend — or your Big Brother. Are your secrets safe with Google?

Across government, departments are losing more than 200 computers a year, many holding sensitive information

2008-01-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

MoD admits it has no idea what was on 400 stolen laptops
By Brian Brady and Andrew Johnson, Published: 20 January 2008

The Ministry of Defence admitted yesterday that it was urgently checking the information thought to be held on more than 400 laptops stolen from the department in the past five years, including at least 68 stolen in 2007 alone.
The admission came after revelations that a laptop containing personal details – including passport numbers, bank details and national insurance numbers – of more than 600,000 people who had expressed an interest in enlisting had been stolen from the car of a naval officer in Birmingham.

It is the latest in a string of losses by both the Government and private companies including more than 25 million names lost on two disks by Revenue & Customs officers.
Official figures revealed through parliamentary answers show that in the last year all government departments reported at least 208 laptops, and a number of PCs, stolen. By far the worst culprit is the MoD. Since 2003 it has reported 420 laptops stolen. An MoD spokesman yesterday said he could not say whether the laptops contained sensitive information or not.
"This has to be seen in the context of a department which employs 300,000 people," he said. "It is unacceptable to lose that many which is why procedures and under review all the time. In the light of this latest loss we are searching every record of missing laptops to find out exactly what's going on."
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3353778.ece

Call to ban A-level coursework as students just cut and paste

2008-01-19T21:12:00.000-08:00

From The Times, January 19, 2008, Nicola Woolcock

Sixth-formers regularly cut and paste A-level coursework from the internet, according to a survey of teachers.

Nearly 60 per cent of teachers said that plagiarism was a problem in their schools. Of those, 28 per cent claimed that they suspected plagiarism in half or more of all work that they marked. They reported students being too lazy, or stupid, to disguise what they had done.
One teacher from Leeds said: “I had one piece of work so blatantly ‘cut and pasted’ that it still contained adverts from the web page.”

Another, from Southampton, said: “Two GCSE English retake students were very late handing in their last piece of coursework, an essay on Romeo and Juliet.
“When finally given in, the pieces turned out to be identical – and significantly better than either of them could have done. Not only that, the essays given in didn’t quite answer the title question I had set.”

Respondents told the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), which conducted the survey, that coursework should be scrapped for all A-level courses.
They said that plagiarism was difficult and time-consuming to spot, and that marking down pupils could put them at a disadvantage compared with the students of less rigorous teachers.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article3213128.ece

White bread for young minds, says university professor

2008-01-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

Google is “white bread for the mind”, and the internet is producing a generation of students who survive on a diet of unreliable information, a professor of media studies will claim this week.
In her inaugural lecture at the University of Brighton, Tara Brabazon will urge teachers at all levels of the education system to equip students with the skills they need to interpret and sift through information gleaned from the internet.

She believes that easy access to information has dulled students’ sense of curiosity and is stifling debate. She claims that many undergraduates arrive at university unable to discriminate between anecdotal and unsubstantiated material posted on the internet.
“I call this type of education ‘the University of Google’.

“Google offers easy answers to difficult questions. But students do not know how to tell if they come from serious, refereed work or are merely composed of shallow ideas, superficial surfing and fleeting commitments.
“Google is filling, but it does not necessarily offer nutritional content,” she said.
Alexandra Frean, Education Editor
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3182091.ece

E-voting fraud

2008-01-14T23:47:00.000-08:00

Recent US election congressional results look fishy... Watch the link on how electronic voting machines routinely give false results>>>

Presidential hopeful, Congressman Ron Paul, issued a statement on January 12,
2008 stating the reasons he will not pursue a recount of the votes cast in the
New Hampshire primary. His statement is
here. My email box is full of angry responses from Ron Paul supporters.
There is going to be a recount which begins January 16, 2008. This is a grass
roots recount effort started by the 'Granny Warriors,' and funded by Americans
who do not believe we have accurate elections counts. Only the candidate can
request the recount. Dr. Paul's top advisers have assured him the count was
accurate, therefore he should not challenge it. The Granny Warriors, approached
another GOP candidate, Albert
Howard, who has filed and paid the initial fees for the recount. Democratic
hopeful, Dennis Kucinich, has also indicated he is requesting a recount.

Congressman Paul states, "My campaign staff and I have analyzed the numbers
in New Hampshire and I have reached the conclusion that it was the high turnout
-- not vote fraud or counting errors -- that left us with eight percent of the
vote." So, he believes his staff has done due diligence, even though the 31 vote
"error" for Sutton, New Hampshire, is not mentioned in this polished piece of
word smithing. The text about vote tallying and "watching," is all well and
fine, but millions of us know it's what happens inside the machines. If you
haven't seen it yet, please do take 10 minutes to watch this voting counting
machine during a test where 6 no votes and 2 yes votes are fed into it. The
demonstrator confidently hits the button to get the vote tally. The results: 7
yes and 1 no. Additionally, one might want to click here and look at this hand
recount because it clearly shows there is a serious problem with the vote count
and that's why I support the efforts of the Granny Warriors.

http://newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd336.htm

US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search

2008-01-14T23:28:00.003-08:00

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a "walk in the park," according to an interview published in the New Yorker's print edition today.

Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “will be a walk in the park compared to this,” McConnell said. “this is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”
The article, which profiles the 65-year-old former admiral appointed by President George W. Bush in January 2007 to oversee all of America's intelligence agencies, was not published on the New Yorker's Web site.

McConnell is developing a Cyber-Security Policy, still in the draft stage, which will closely police Internet activity.

"Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the autority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search," author Lawrence Wright pens.

“Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation, he said," Wright adds. "Giorgio warned me, 'We have a saying in this business: ‘Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.'"
A zero-sum game is one in which gains by one side come at the expense of the other. In other words -- McConnell's aide believes greater security can only come at privacy's expense.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/US_drafting_plan_to_allow_government_0114.html

US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search

2008-01-14T23:28:00.002-08:00

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/US_drafting_plan_to_allow_government_0114.html

US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search

2008-01-14T23:28:00.001-08:00

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/US_drafting_plan_to_allow_government_0114.html

US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search

2008-01-14T23:28:00.000-08:00

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/US_drafting_plan_to_allow_government_0114.html

FBI wants instant access to British identity data

2008-01-14T23:12:00.001-08:00

Americans seek international database to carry iris, palm and finger prints
Owen BowcottTuesday January 15, 2008The Guardian

Senior British police officials are talking to the FBI about an international database to hunt for major criminals and terrorists.

The US-initiated programme, "Server in the Sky", would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the "war against terror" - the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy.
Biometric measurements, irises or palm prints as well as fingerprints, and other personal information are likely to be exchanged across the network. One section will feature the world's most wanted suspects. The database could hold details of millions of criminals and suspects.
The FBI is keen for the police forces of American allies to sign up to improve international security. The Home Office yesterday confirmed it was aware of Server in the Sky, as did the Metropolitan police.

The plan will make groups anxious to safeguard personal privacy question how much access to UK databases is granted to foreign law enforcement agencies. There will also be concern over security, particularly after embarrassing data losses within the UK, and accuracy: in one case, an arrest for a terror offence by US investigators used what turned out to be misidentified fingerprint matches.

Britain's National Policing Improvement Agency has been the lead body for the FBI project because it is responsible for IDENT1, the UK database holding 7m sets of fingerprints and other biometric details used by police forces to search for matches from scenes of crimes. Many of the prints are either from a person with no criminal record, or have yet to be matched to a named individual.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0,,2241005,00.html

Seven Steps to a Homeland Security Campus

2008-01-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

Consider the ultimate gift in a homeland security country: the iTaser, a weapon with its own MP3 player and earphones that can deliver a 50,000 volt electrical charge while you catch your favorite tunes. This new Taser, on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will be available, reports Richard Wray of the British Guardian, in "red, pink and even leopard print designs." Anyone carrying the iTaser will be able to make what may be the first homeland-security fashion statement in any one of the 43 states where Tasers are legal. The company that makes the weapon, Taser International, has already sold 160,000 less-stylish versions to private individuals. According to founder and company CEO Rick Smith, "Personal protection can be both fashionable and functionable."
In November 2006, the Taser infamously broke into the news on campus when a student at the University of Florida, questioning Senator John Kerry harshly, was dragged off, Tased, and subdued by campus police. His plea, "Don't Tase me, Bro!," is now the stuff of bumper stickers, T-shirts, and cell phone ring tones. Thanks largely to him and the publicity the incident got, the New Oxford Dictionary made "Tase" one of its 2007 words of the year, the Yale Book of Quotations put it at the top of its yearly list of most memorable quotes, and the rest of us got a hint that something new might be happening in America's "ivory towers."
As Michael Gould-Wartofsky indicates below, that incident was just the tip of an enormous homeland-security presence on campus. Gould-Wartofsky's remarkable report -- a piece that the Nation Magazine and Tomdispatch.com are sharing -- offers real news about just how deeply the new homeland security state is settling into every aspect of our world.
MORE>>http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174879/gould_wartofsky_seven_steps_to_a_homeland_security_campus

Student-tracking treating children like “cattle” plan dropped

2008-01-13T22:19:00.000-08:00

Monitoring of Middletown students is opposed
01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, January 9, 2008
By Meaghan WimsJournal Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — The Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union is calling on the Middletown School Department to drop its planned pilot program of a student-tracking system that the ACLU says would treat children like “cattle” and violate their privacy.
The school district this month will test the Mobile Accountability Program, or MAP, which will place GPS tracking devices in two school buses and attach radio-frequency identification labels to the backpacks of the 80 or so Aquidneck Elementary School students who ride those buses. School administrators will then be able to monitor — in real-time, via an online map of Middletown at MAPIT’s secure Web site — the progress of those buses and their passengers as the children enter and exit the buses.
MAP is designed to improve transportation safety and efficiency and the pilot would last for the rest of the school year, after which school officials will determine whether to expand the program to the district’s entire bus fleet.
more>>http://www.projo.com/ri/middletown/content/SC_EB_MIDDACLU8_01-09-08_LD8HAAH_v18.2b23737.html

Teachers 'put pupil data at risk' -- Signs of the Times News

2008-01-07T22:19:00.000-08:00

Teachers 'put pupil data at risk' -- Signs of the Times News:

Teachers 'put pupil data at risk'

The data include potentially sensitive information about pupilsSensitive information on school pupils is being put at risk by staff who take it home with them, an IT firm says.
Teachers in nearly half of England's primary schools back up pupil data on CDs and memory sticks, which they then take out of school, research suggests.
A survey of 933 schools for school computing firm RM found only 1% of respondents were encrypting the data.
RM blamed a lack of clear guidance, but the government said it published advice for schools on the issue.
The warning comes after a string of data security breaches by government departments and associated agencies.
'Risks'
"http://www.sott.net/articles/show/146790-Teachers-put-pupil-data-at-risk-"

UK: Schoolchildren to be fingerprinted in Big Brother-style shake-up -- Signs of the Times News

2008-01-06T23:43:00.000-08:00

UK: Schoolchildren to be fingerprinted in Big Brother-style shake-up -- Signs of the Times News:
Up to 5.9million children face having their fingerprints taken by schools in another move towards a 'Big Brother' society.
Pupils will have to hand over their biometric details simply to borrow library books or gain access to school dinners

A million children's fingerprints are believed to have been taken already, some without parental approval and even by 'con tricks' such as pretend spy games.
Freedom of Information data obtained by the Tories reveals a further 4.9 million sets of prints could now be added to school computers after the vast majority of local education authorities sanctioned the practice.
Critics say it is part of a 'softening-up' exercise to condition children to accept a creeping surveillance society. They also point to the danger of identity theft, if hackers manage to access school databases.
Phil Booth, of the NO2ID campaign, said: "This is an abrogation of moral duty. Schools should be teaching children to look after their biometric information.
"They are going to grow up in a world where keeping it secure is enormously important, yet they are being taught that it is OK to hand it over for the most trivial of matters. It is a disgrace."
He added the Government could ultimately seek access to huge amounts of sensitive information by the 'back door'.
"http://www.sott.net/articles/show/130020-UK-Schoolchildren-to-be-fingerprinted-in-Big-Brother-style-shake-up"

Wi-Fi: Children at risk from 'electronic smog' -- Signs of the Times News

2008-01-06T23:41:00.000-08:00

Wi-Fi: Children at risk from 'electronic smog' -- Signs of the Times News:

Britain's top health protection watchdog is pressing for a formal investigation into the hazards of using wireless communication networks in schools amid mounting concern that they may be damaging children's health, 'The Independent on Sunday' can reveal.
Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency, wants pupils to be monitored for ill effects from the networks - known as Wi-Fi - which emit radiation and are being installed in classrooms across the nation.
Sir William - who is a former chief scientific adviser to the Government, and has chaired two official inquiries into the hazards of mobile phones - is adding his weight to growing pressure for a similar examination of Wi-Fi, which some scientists fear could cause cancer and premature senility.
"http://www.sott.net/articles/show/130700-Wi-Fi-Children-at-risk-from-electronic-smog-"

Ireland: Text messages harm written language? -- Signs of the Times News

2008-01-06T23:39:00.000-08:00

Ireland: Text messages harm written language? -- Signs of the Times News:

The rising popularity of text messaging on cell phones poses a threat to writing standards among Irish schoolchildren, an education commission says.
The frequency of errors in grammar and punctuation has become a serious concern, the State Examination Commission said in a report after reviewing last year's exam performance by 15-year-olds.
"The emergence of the mobile phone and the rise of text messaging as a popular means of communication would appear to have impacted on standards of writing as evidenced in the responses of candidates," the report said, according to Wednesday's Irish Times.
"http://www.sott.net/articles/show/130940-Ireland-Text-messages-harm-written-language-"

Computer Game Violence Level, Confiscated Swords Led To Student's Removal -- Signs of the Times News

2008-01-06T23:30:00.000-08:00

Computer Game Violence Level, Confiscated Swords Led To Student's Removal -- Signs of the Times News:
Police discovered five swords in the bedroom of a Clements High School senior whose home they searched after getting complaints about a 3-D computer “shoot-‘em-up” game map the student designed, which depicted a portion of the school.
That information surfaced in a Fort Bend Independent School District Police Department report released Tuesday, and was confirmed by several district officials who also revealed other details about the case for the first time.
The student, whose name has not been released, was not arrested or charged by FBISD police, however, he was removed from Clements and transferred to M.R. Wood Alternative Education Center several days ago. Officials said he also complied with a police order to delete the game and game maps from his computer.
"http://www.sott.net/articles/show/131290-Computer-Game-Violence-Level-Confiscated-Swords-Led-To-Student-s-Removal"

MySpace Photo Costs Teacher Education Degree -- Signs of the Times News

2008-01-06T23:28:00.000-08:00

MySpace Photo Costs Teacher Education Degree -- Signs of the Times News:
The ongoing debate over how much an educator's out-of-school behavior should affect his or her job has taken a decidedly youthful turn.
Teacher in training Stacy Snyder was denied her education degree on the eve of graduation when Millersville University apparently found pictures on her MySpace page "promoting underage drinking." As a result, the 27-year-old mother of two had her teaching certificate withheld and was granted an English degree instead. In response, Snyder has filed a Federal lawsuit against the Pennsylvania university asking for her education diploma and certificate along with $75,000 in damages.
So what, you're probably asking yourself, could have been in this picture that was so abhorrent as to make Stacy Snyder unworthy of teaching children? Was she force-feeding a 6-year-old bourbon from a bottle or spiking a middle school dance's punch? Not even close. The picture in question turned out to be of her at a Halloween party in 2005 dressed as a pirate and drinking an indeterminate liquid "from a plastic 'Mr. Goodbar' cup." But underneath was a caption which read "Drunken Pirate" and that caption apparently lead faculty to assume she was too "unprofessional" to educate young minds. Word was sent to the Millersville administration, and Snyder's "lifelong dream" of being a teacher ended less than a day before being achieved.
"http://www.sott.net/articles/show/131625-MySpace-Photo-Costs-Teacher-Education-Degree"

China is E-Waste Dumping Ground for the US -- Signs of the Times News

2008-01-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

China is E-Waste Dumping Ground for the US -- Signs of the Times News: "http://www.sott.net/articles/show/146709-China-is-E-Waste-Dumping-Ground-for-the-US"

The highway of poisoned products that runs from China to the United States is not a one-way street. America ships China up to 80 percent of U.S. electronic waste - discarded computers, cell phones, TVs, etc. Last year alone, the United States exported enough e-waste to cover a football field and rise a mile into the sky.

So while the media ride their new lead-painted hobbyhorse - the danger of Chinese wares - spare a thought for Chinese workers dying to dispose of millions of tons of our toxic crap.

Most of the junk ends up in the small port city of Guiyu, a one-industry town four hours from Hong Kong that reeks of acid fumes and burning plastic. Its narrow streets are lined with 5,500 small-scale scavenger enterprises euphemistically called "recyclers." They employ 80 percent of the town's families - more than 30,000 people - who recover copper, gold and other valuable materials from 15 million tons of e-waste.

UK, US and China Cybercrime

2008-01-02T04:48:00.000-08:00

There has been much China-bashing in the main-stream-media (MSM) of late. Whether it be financial underhand practices threatening dollar hegemony, recalling of lead-contaminated toys (followed later by apologies to China from Matel), toxic food from China, Chinese surveillance of foreign journalists, Their Crackdown on the media, China saying ties with US are damaged amid Navel row , China accused of monopolistic practice in search engine re-routing to Baidu, Chinese censorship - the great firewall of china and the latest Cybercrime attacks: China and Russia accused of switching to electronic hacking into government computers to gain Britain's military secrets, cyber attacks on the Pentagon from China, and comments from Washington - that Chinese espionage in the United States is the largest threat to US military technology.

One of the most recent stories is from the BBC Business news: MI5 warns over China spy threat

Leading British firms and government agencies have been warned Chinese state organisations may be spying on them.

UK intelligence network MI5 has contacted 300 chief executives and security experts at banks and financial institutions to raise the concerns. It is alleged that UK organisations may suffer a concerted cyber attack to gain commercially-sensitive data.

Zhao Shangse, an official from the Chinese embassy in London, has denied the allegations.

Is there any truth it this new terror threatl? I doubt Craig Murry would think so, in response to MI5's pre-Christmas warning of an impending dirty bomb attack, he writes: UK Media Hype: Terror Scare Early for Christmas:

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith made today the most cynical - and least convincing - move yet to exploit "terror" politically in the UK. On the day that New Labour hit a twenty year low in the opinion polls and Harriet Harman blamed Gordon Brown's office for her dodgy donations, we now have the first headline on the television news as a government announcement of the threat of a "Dirty Bomb" over Christmas.

I cannot say this loudly enough. I have checked with my own contacts and there is NO specific or new intelligence indicating a threat of a terrorist dirty bomb - or any other terrorist threat - this Christmas. Doubtless that will not stop Frank "Goebbels" Gardner appearing any minute now nobly to warn us of the grave danger we face.

Interestingly, even my friends in the Security Services - who normally are pretty happy to see the threat exaggerated, thus adding to their ever increasing budgets and career prospects - this time are sickened by the cynicism of the timing of this "Christmas Warning".

An article last year entitled "Crying Wolf: Terror Alerts based on Fabricated Intelligence" Michel Chossudovsky highlights the lack of evidence on no less than 5 of these alleged terror attacks. In a response to the August 2006 'foiled terror plot' to blow up transatlantic jets, he writes:

This is certainly not the first time that brash and unsubstantiated statements have been made regarding an impending terror attack, which have proven to be based on "faulty intelligence".

Back to the impending cyberwar about to be launched by those pesky Chinese hackers, the most interesting part of the article on the MI5 warning about the China cyberthreat is at the end:

Earlier this week, China said that it too had been attacked by computer hackers. Meanwhile, other experts say that hackers outside of China may be using the country's many insecure computers and networks to disguise their locations.

Speculating here, where would they originate from if not from China? qui bono? who would benefit from stealing wealth from UK and US businesses and individuals and scaring them in the process? Who has the means, the know how, the resources, the expertise and the motivation? who would want to paint China as the enemy to blame for a nations pending economic collapse?hmmm... let me think about it while I buy new firewall protection and a dirty-bomb suit.

Technorati categories: News, technology, Politics internet, digg, wired

Video games as a military recruitment tool

2007-12-08T09:06:00.000-08:00

He didn’t find his dreams…the military found him!

Sott.net recently carried an article that appeared in The Times: British intelligence is recruiting adrenaline-addicted video games junkies. In the article it is reported:

"Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the surveillance arm of the intelligence services, will this month become the first spy agency to embed adverts for new recruits inside computer games.[…] The advertisements will appear as billboards in the fictional landscapes of games including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent. They will not be written into the games themselves but will be fed into games when they are played on personal computers and Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles that are connected to the internet. GCHQ hopes to "plant the idea in the heads of younger players" of pursuing a career in the secret services.”

The emphasised sentences imply that they will be able to modify the adverts/programming to fit any need they want - even customizing it to a single individual. Scary don't you think?

He didn't find his dreams...his dreams found him

The last Starfighter was a 1984 science fiction movie, A teenager living in a trailer park becomes the best player ever at Starfighter, a stand-up arcade game that has him "defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada." The night he gets best score ever in the game, he is approached by the game's fast-talking inventor, Centauri in his human form. Stepping into Centauri's vehicle (a "starcar"), Alex is horrified to find that not only is the car actually a spaceship, but Centauri is a disguised alien, who whisks him off to another planet. (not an office in Whitehall)

Essentially Alex lives up to his high-score reputation, kills the baddies and saves the planet…a true hero. The story ends with Alex's younger brother Louis preparing to play the Starfighter game, hoping to join Alex one day in the Star League. The movie had the tagline: “He didn't find his dreams...his dreams found him” and if you think for a second that future Tom Clancy’s will have the same romantic ending then you must be one of the owners of a 'starcar'!

This is not the first time that video games have been used as a military recruitment tool. “In 2002, The United States Army, released a free-share online game called America's Army. Players that register, and who agree to certain conditions, are allowed to have their play performance reviewed by real-life recruiters looking for potential enlistees. The game, however, was mainly designed to convince possible recruits to join the U.S. Army, not test them. America's Army is the first computer and video game to make recruitment an explicit goal and the first well-known overt use of computer gaming for political aims.

America’s Army used the services of GameSpy: also known as GameSpy Industries, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game Web sites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current company is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California. It is currently controlled by News Corporation (a company chaired by mass-media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch’s media empire includes the FOX television networks, British SKY broadcasting, The Sun and Times newspapers and consequently have a undeniable influence in the way that information is presented to the general public. Murdoch (and other media companies) have close ties with politics.

It is no surprise that in July 2007 the UK guardian reported that Blair and Murdoch spoke days before Iraq war:

“Tony Blair spoke to the media mogul Rupert Murdoch three times in the 10 days before the outbreak of the Iraq war - once on the eve of the US-led invasion - it was disclosed yesterday.
The telephone conversations were among six calls between the two men detailed by the cabinet office in response to a freedom of information request by the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Avebury. […] Lord Avebury said: "Rupert Murdoch has exerted his influence behind the scenes on a range of policies on which he is known to have strong views,the Iraq war. including the regulation of broadcasting and The public can now scrutinise the timing of his contacts with the former prime minister, to see whether they can be linked to events in the outside world."

It is clear from the above that Rupert Murdoch has a vested interest in promoting the war agenda, is influential in the way that news stories are presented in order to win over support from the public for that agenda. It is also clear that his corporation’s activities reach as far as using the latest technology to assist in military recruitment.

One could argue that video games are creating a generation of young people with highly tuned motor skills: there is research that suggests that Gun-firing video games improve eyesight. perhaps this is an undeclared aim. That "aim" is possibly to create individuals that will be used as controllers of a robot army or at the very least it is an effective method of desensitizing individuals to war, killing and bloodshed that occurs in unnecessary wars. The overwhelming evidence is that the negative effects far outweigh any positive benefits. You can see why those groups and individuals who promote and support wars of aggression would benefit from our children to learning to become psychopathic killers: The article:"Many Killed Or Maimed" by Video Games reports:

“One expert, Pat Brown, a national top criminal profiler and parent, said that these video games are causing our children to become psychopathic killers by 9 years old. Others, such as Dr. Phil McGraw (psychologist), Bill O'Reilley (Fox news), professor James Alan Fox (criminal justice expert) and Candice DeLong (retired FBI profiler) echoed similar sentiments.”

In April 2007 ISU psychologists published three new studies on violent video game effects on youths.The Iowa State Universities key findings were:

Exposure to cartoonish children's violent video games had the same short-term effects on increasing aggressive behavior as the more graphic teen (T-rated) violent games.
High school students who had more exposure to violent video games held more pro-violent attitudes, had more hostile personalities, were less forgiving, believed violence to be more typical, and behaved more aggressively in their everyday lives.
Children who played more violent video games early in the school year changed to see the world in a more aggressive way, and became more verbally and physically aggressive later in the school year

So are our generation of Last Starfighter’s intentionally being trained, turned into psychopaths and then recruited by the military by video games? I would say it is possible! Video games and what was considered harmless entertainment for children has come along way since pacman! Does the fact that GCHQ is placing virtual adverts in these games disturb you at all? It should!

One has to wonder whether their involvement stops at the use of video games and technology
for control and other purposes. Technology certainly exists for sophisticated psychological profiling: In May 2007 the UK guardian reported that Google may use games to psycho-analyse net users. From the article: “The patent says: "User dialogue (eg from role playing games, simulation games, etc) may be used to characterise the user (eg literate, profane, blunt or polite, quiet etc). Also, user play may be used to characterise the user (eg cautious, risk-taker, aggressive, non-confrontational, stealthy, honest, cooperative, uncooperative, etc)."

What is to stop military recruiters from building up psychological profiles of all young online gamers? Before the first interview, a recruiter would know how the individual reacts under stress or what is the best way to influence the individual to get the desired reaction and result. Scenarios and situations could be personally created and targeted to influence certain psychological conditions. Mix this with data-mining software currently used to monitor searches, email and browsing history and the recruiter would have all the information and tools necessary to manipulate and assess an individual, make his… but at what price to personal privacy?

Reality or fantasy?

The increasing use of all senses in video game technology, high definition TV and sound blurs the distinction between reality and fantasy. Our last Starfighter is already distanced from the reality of war, starved of objective reporting on the humanitarian disasters that the current War campaign is creating. He would be aware of who won the last series of Celebrity Big Brother but would he know the true human costs of war?

battlefield of the future

Video game training is producing the ideal candidates for the battlefield of the future. The increasing technological advancements of weaponry further distances the operator from the target. In Mar 2007, Science Daily reports in The Most Realistic Virtual Battlefield In The World how Iowa State University [while also researching the detrimental effects of video games!]:

"is developing a control interface for the militaries next generation of unmanned aerial vehicles. The researchers are building a virtual environment that allows operators to see the vehicles, the surrounding airspace, the terrain they're flying over as well as information from instruments, cameras, radar and weapons systems. The system would allow a single operator to control many vehicles."

©Kevin Teske

Muthukkumar Kadavasal, an Iowa State doctoral student in human computer interaction, demonstrates how improvements to Iowa State's C6 provide virtual reality at the world's highest resolution.

It seems we are certainly producing a generation of young people well suited to this task: Lightening responses and no conscience. Would they be aware it is real people that get blown to pieces in wars or would they be too conditioned and focused on the bottom right hand side of the screen’s flashing body-count?

As parents we need to try and minimise our children’s exposure to the negative impact of violent computer games and media. We need to be aware just how interconnected technology companies, Media corporations and politicians actually are. We need to also be aware that these organisations do not have our best interests at heart. Will this story end just like the last Starfighter: Our children following the next into the cannon-fodder league?

We need to give our children the opportunity for them to create their own ‘tag lines’ otherwise it will be given for them:

He didn't find his nightmares...his nightmares found him!

Technorati categories: News, Technology, Politics, iraq, Google, Internet

Two must have free news subscriptions!

2007-12-02T23:00:00.000-08:00

Here are two free news subscriptions that are excellent resources for ITGS:

1. Firewallguide newsletter gives a weekly collection of the latest stories on internet security, crime, bugs and ways to protect yourself. "A real human being picks out the best Internet security news articles from thousands of articles available online each day so that you can spend your time reading them instead of finding them." SIGN UP HERE NOW

2.SOTT.net free newsletter gives an alternative news roundup, including a big brother section on the latest technology developments that pose a threat to civil liberties. SIGN UP HERE NOW

Turn off your TV and start Reading!

Robotic law enforcement out of control

2007-12-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Do you remember this scene from the 1984 film Robocop?

You have 20 seconds to comply!

[Mr. Kinney points a pistol at ED-209]
ED-209: [menacingly] Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply.
Dick Jones: I think you better do as he says, Mr. Kinney.
[Mr. Kinney drops the pistol on the floor]
Dick Jones: [Mr. Kinney drops the pistol on the floor, but ED-209 advances, growling]
ED-209: You now have 15 seconds to comply.
[Mr. Kinney turns to Dick Jones, who looks nervous]
ED-209: You have 10 seconds to comply.
[Entire room of people in full panic trying to stay out of the line of fire, especially Mr. Kinney]
Kinney: Help me!
ED-209: You have 5 seconds to comply... four... three... two... one... I am now authorized to use physical force!
[ED-209 opens fire and shreds Mr. Kinney]

At least Mr Kinney had 20 seconds warning. The 9 military personnel recently slaughtered by an out of control robot had no warning Robotic Cannon Mysteriously Kills 9 Soldiers.

“it is assumed that there was a mechanical problem, which led to the accident. The gun, which was fully loaded, did not fire as it normally should have," he said. "It appears as though the gun, which is computerised, jammed before there was some sort of explosion, and then it opened fire uncontrollably, killing and injuring the soldiers."

Young says he was also told at the time that the gun's original equipment manufacturer, Oerlikon, had warned that the GDF Mk V twin 35mm cannon system was not designed for fully automatic control. Yet the guns were automated. At the time, SA was still subject to an arms embargo and Oerlikon played no role in the upgrade.

Young says in the 1990s the defence force's acquisitions agency, Armscor, allocated project money on a year-by-year basis, meaning programmes were often rushed. "It would not surprise me if major shortcuts were taken in the qualification of the upgrades"

The questionable reliability and safety of robotic weapons is clearly an important issue and likely to be one that is going to come up again: according to the Pentagon: Our new robot army will be controlled by malware

"A US defence department advisory board has warned of the danger that American war robots scheduled for delivery within a decade might be riddled with malicious code. The kill machines will use software largely written overseas, and it is feared that sinister forces might meddle with it in production, thus gaining control of the future mechanoid military.
Apparently the FCS programme office has admitted that there is a "low to moderate risk that malicious code could be inserted... and exploited.""

So in the same way that your computer frequently crashes due to the incompatibility of hardware and software, inevitably from time to time robotic weapons developed under FCS projects are going to make mistakes.

The US Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) programme

The FCS project website tells us that it is the Army's modernization program consisting of a family of manned and unmanned systems, connected by a common network, that enables the modular force, providing our Soldiers and leaders with leading-edge technologies and capabilities allowing them to dominate in complex environments.

The first barrier to a fully functional robot army is technical -- no one has created a reliable, effective way to make robots truly autonomous.[…]

The DoD estimated in 2006 that the total investment in robotic research from 2006 to 2012 would be $1.7 billion [source: Development and Utilization of Robotics and Unmanned Ground Vehicles].[…]

A major goal of the FCS project is to create a universal platform that the Army and other forces can incorporate into military systems from now on. One of the challenges the military has faced over the years is that it relies on a mix of equipment, vehicles and software that aren't integrated with one another, making battle coordination and tactical discussions difficult.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/robot-armies2.htm

If you are a front line soldier and your survival is dependent on the performance of an unmanned drone ahead of you would you feel safe knowing there was a moderate risk of the drone malfunctioning? The answer is no. But why is unreliable technology being put into the theatre of war?

The answer must be to do with cutting costs. Suppliers such as iRobot corp are in the business of making weapons for profit, as with any business, their interest is in increasing sales and profits for shareholders. So if it is cheaper for the programming to be outsourced to a sweat shop in India, with all the communication problems that might arise, then that is what is done.

So what if soldiers die at the hands of misfiring automated weaponry? or the elderly, disabled and children die from the use of a taser-wielding robot? It won't affect the profits of the company if there are a few casualties...

Then there are the Ethical issues:

Would a country with an armed robotic force be more likely to invade another country, knowing the invasion would likely result in very few casualties? By removing the human element from war, do we make it even more inhumane? When a robot breaks down during a mission, do we risk sending humans in to retrieve and repair it? Can we be sure that robots will know when to stop attacking when an enemy surrenders?
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/robot-armies4.htm

Coming to a street corner near you...

The US military has deployed robotic weapons in it’s current empire building campaign: Gun Toting Robots See Action in Iraq but how long is it before armed robots are in place in civilian areas? It won't be too long before we see the Rise of the Machines: Military robots to be armed with Tasers:

RoboCops and robot soldiers got a little closer to reality Thursday as a maker of floor-cleaning automatons teamed up with a stun-gun manufacturer to arm track-wheeled 'bots for police and the Pentagon.

By adding Tasers to robots it already makes for the military, iRobot Corp. says it hopes to give soldiers and law enforcement a defensive, non-lethal tool.

Non-leathal tool? Amnesty International reports 152 taser-related deaths in the US

The article continues:

"I could see rent-a-cop companies wanting to buy it, I can see corrections departments wanting to buy it, because it might be seen as a cost-effective alternative to having a human guard patrolling a perimeter," Pike said.

"For now, as soon as you let go of the joystick, the robot just sits there," Pike said. "So questions of moral agency don't arise - that is to say, whose finger is on the trigger. But a little further down the road, when these ground vehicles do achieve greater autonomy, there may be no human finger on the trigger."

As commented on SOTT.net:

"questions of moral agency DO arise.- What is the difference between a robot and a psychopath taking life or death decisions over others if they are both equally heartless?"

You only have to read the news to see how certain members of the Police force may just as well be conscienceless robots:
Chicago Cop Being Investigated for Tasering an 82-Year Old Woman

Wheelchair-Bound Woman Dies After Being Shocked With Taser 10 Times

UK police are told they can use Taser guns on children

If our current law enforcement officials have no regard for human life then will an expensive lump of metal with faulty-software-controlled-weapons make you feel any safer? The answer is no. Will Police officers be free from incrimination and instead the blame shifted onto the technology manufacturers? The manufacturers will no doubt be able to negate any liability under corporate protection laws. Will we see more reports on software malfunctions ending in bloodshed? Will US, NATO or Israeli air strikes that kill civilians no longer be accompanied with the claim that human error was to blame but computer malfunction?

It is convenient to put the blame of loss of life onto someone or something else rather than face up to the truth. The fact is that the powers that be are spending billions of dollars on technology that is answerable to no one. Do you feel safe yet?

You have 20 seconds to comply!

Sultan's School student Haider gets to grip with videoblogging

2007-12-01T00:19:00.001-08:00

Haider gives a presentation on his personal experience of life for an upcoming conference in the UK on global issues

BBC: Protests force Facebook to change

2007-11-30T23:37:00.000-08:00

Many users resented Facebook grabbing and sharing dataFacebook members have forced the social networking site to change the way a controversial ad system worked.
More than 50,000 Facebook users signed a petition calling on the company to alter or abandon its Beacon advertising technology.

When Facebook users shopped online, Beacon told friends and businesses what they looked at or bought.
Many considered the data sharing to be an intrusion that exposed them to more scrutiny than was comfortable.

Privacy please

In response to the demands, Facebook's 55 million members will have more control over whether data about what they do online is used for Beacon.
Before the changes, Beacon was an "opt out" system and many complained that they missed the chance to avoid using it when it was introduced in early November.
Now Beacon will be an "opt in" system that only tracks data if explicit permission is granted to Facebook to do so.
More than 40 websites, including Fandango.com, Overstock.com and Blockbuster, signed up to use Beacon software on their webpages and report what Facebook users did when they visited.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/default.stm

Related article: Is facebook a privacy nightmare

Mark Zuckerberg & Co. stood up in front of the advertising community in New York today and unveiled Facebook Ads, an ad system that allows companies to use the Facebook social graph and to develop highly targeted ads. Large brands such as Coca-Cola (KO), Sony Pictures (SNE) and Verizon (VZ) have signed on for this effort. Part of the engine powering this new ad system is called Beacon, which takes data from 44 web destinations and mashes it up with Facebook’s internal information to help build more focused advertising messages.
While it seems to be a clever idea, a quick review reveals that Beacon might turn out to be a privacy hairball for the company.
The 44 sites that have partnered with Facebook include everyone from Kongregate, LiveJournal, NYTimes (NYT), Sony Online, Blockbuster (BBI), Bluefly.com, STA Travel, The Knot, TripAdvisor, Travel Ticker, TypePad, viagogo, Vox, Yelp, WeddingChannel.com and Zappos.com.

These partner sites put a little a piece of Facebook javascript on their web site and certain information, cleverly (and innocuously) labeled as a user alert, is sent to Facebook. For instance, Fandago users can publish information about the movies they saw. It all seems like a clever idea because it lets Facebook triangulate your likes and dislikes even more, and deliver more focused ads.

Facebook Beacon provides advanced privacy controls so Facebook users can decide whether to distribute specific actions from participating sites with their friends.
Reading that line prompted the following questions, which I put to Facebook:

Can consumers opt out of this?
If yes, does their data get erased?
Will the sites for example, Fandango, stop sending all personal and any kind
of information to Facebook once the user opts out?

Why didn’t they make this an opt-in feature, instead of being an opt-out feature?
Their PR spokesperson emailed me this response:

Users can opt-out of Beacon on a per-site basis. They can opt-out for each
action, or they can opt-out to never have an affiliated site send stories to
Facebook. For instance, a user that buys The Notebook from Blockbuster can stop
a story from being published about it, or she can opt-out of having Blockbuster
publish any actions she takes on the Blockbuster site.

The response doesn’t seem to answer my questions and basically makes it seem like users have control over this data, when in reality, this is a privacy disaster waiting to happen. The javascript on the Fandango site pops up a little screen which asks if you want to publish the information on Facebook. If you say no, your friends won’t see the information, but apparently Facebook still receives it. This means that if you are a Facebook member, Facebook will know what you are doing on each of their partner sites. And there is no way for you to opt out of that. Or is there? I asked Facebook to clarify and I am still waiting for them to write back.

Word Processing VS Desk Top Publishing

2007-11-23T20:11:00.000-08:00

“Has the introduction of DTP been a positive step for society?”

Read and refer to Computer Confluence pages 187 - 133

This web site has everything you ever wanted to know about typewriters (but were afraid to ask)

Here's another site with way too much information about old typewriters and some lovely pictures of old typwriters

This wiki entry gives lots of information on the history of DTP

Great Debate Preparation:

“Has the introduction of DTP been a positive step for society?”

Sardinia (Kallman 1996) is an imaginary dictatorship. The President has banned the use of DTP hardware and software by private citizens. He wishes to control the Press in his country.

He agrees with the following quote:

“FREEDOM OF THE PRESS belongs to the person who owns one.” (A.J. Liebling)

In groups of four Choose ONE of the following roles

Title	Description
President of Sardinia	a dictator who does not agree with freedom of the press
Sardinia resident	disagrees with the President, believes people have a right to express their own views
Typesetter at Sardinia Press	an employee at Sardinia Press who has been deskilled and is now unemployed
Manager Sardinia Press	believes that the introduction of DTP has been an overall positive step for his business

Write a half page argument with supporting evidence.

Use the following websites to help you:

1. Freedom of the press: this wiki entry gives lots of information to prepare your case:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press

2. Effects of WP and DTP on the workplace, eg job loss, deskilling

Dead medium: Typesetters: a Dead Class of Media Workers
http://www.deadmedia.org/notes/40/406.html

3. The advantages and disadvantages of introducing WP and DTP into the workplace.

Desktop Publishing and Your Business By Melanie L. Drak

Desktop Publishing is Neither
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrwizard/web/dtp.html

information reproduced from http://www.senri.ed.jp/departments/itgs2/WP_DTP.html

French Anti piracy and social website warning

2007-11-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS TECHNOLOGY:

* France unveils anti-piracy plan *
French pirates faces being thrown off the net as the country tackles illegal file-sharing.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/technology/7110024.stm

* Young warned over social websites *
Young people could damage their future careers with information posted on social network websites, a watchdog warns.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/technology/7108627.stm

I now pronounce you man and robot

2007-11-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

Submitted by Keith Shaw on Fri, 11/02/2007 - 9:44am. at http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/21460?ts0hb=&story=ht

I'm a certified sci-fi geek and fan of future technology, but this next piece of news even creeps me out a bit.

According to this Computerworld story, an artificial intelligence researcher is predicting that humans will be marrying robots by the year 2050 because of dramatic advances in robotics.

David Levy, a British artificial intelligence researcher whose book, "Love and Sex with Robots," will be released next Tuesday (Nov. 6), says robots will be very much like a new race of people because of their abilities to have intelligent conversations and display emotions.

While this may sound exciting to some people, I think it would open up a whole new set of problems. I had a hard enough time as a teen-ager trying to communicate with humans of the opposite sex, imagine how weird it would be to get turned down for a date by a robot.

Then again, if all of the robots in 2050 look like 7 of 9 from Star Trek, I would work on my human-robot pickup lines in a hurry. "Hey baby, you have the most beautiful neural network I've ever seen."

Update: The slide show boys have put together a list of the 10 Robots We'd Like to Marry. Check it out.

Toxic e-waste articles

2007-11-11T21:31:00.001-08:00

Two articles from the excellent resources at itgs.wikispaces.com on discussion about what happens to old computers and their toxic effects:

E-Waste is killing Ghanaians slowly

This article by Emmanuel K. Dogbevi, connotes the possible impacts of e-waste on Ghana and the possibility that e-waste is a cause for the increasing number of diseases in this developing country. The journalist claims no evidences have yet been made available in Ghana, but that the impact of e-waste in reference to that of other countries' could be an indication of the types of consequences that Ghana should be expecting from e-waste.

Sony launches recycling efforts
This article by Linda Rosencrance, dicusses the efforts of Sony Electronics Inc. which has lnow aunched a nationwide recycling program to help consumers recycle and dispose of their electronic devices. The author, or rather, the journalist discusses the impacts and developments of this recycling effort and the possible trends that will be overcome in a few years, in order to improve the displacement of electronic and electrical waste.