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Technology Industry News & Career Management information, brought to you by BrainWave Consulting Company.
January 2008 - Posts
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Seems the UK government has plans to coerce its citizens into a national ID database. Actual pdf document is here, and hopefully mirrored elsewhere.... Share Post: Read More...
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Yet another article on the topic.... Share Post: Read More...
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It always irritates me when this happens: Frank Hayes beat me to the punch (a sadly common occurrence; for my money Frank is the best columnist in IT). Take the time to read his excellent column about the Tribune company and its new owner/CEO, Sam Zell: "Frankly Speaking: Sam Zell's 'crazy' idea plugs Read More...
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Interesting allegation: ...federal law enforcement officials who need to know have already learned the identities of those responsible for running the Storm worm network, but that U.S. authorities have thus far been prevented from bringing those responsible to justice due... Share Post: Read More...
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Cory Doctorow has a new metaphor: We should treat personal electronic data with the same care and respect as weapons-grade plutonium -- it is dangerous, long-lasting and once it has leaked there's no getting it back I said something similar... Share Post: Read More...
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They're checking IDs more carefully, looking for forgeries: Black lights will help screeners inspect the ID cards by illuminating holograms, typically of government seals, that are found in licenses and passports. Screeners also are getting magnifying glasses that highlight tiny... Share Post: Read More...
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Two Ethiopian cabin cleaners were found hiding in the ceiling of an aircraft after it landed at Dulles. Presumably they were allowed on the plane at Addis Abbaba, but no one checked to make sure they got off.... Share Post: Read More...
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If there's a debate that sums up post-9/11 politics, it's security versus privacy. Which is more important? How much privacy are you willing to give up for security? Can we even afford privacy in this age of insecurity? Security versus... Share Post: Read More...
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Remember the "cyberwar" in Estonia last year? When asked about it, I generally say that it's unclear that it wasn't just kids playing politics. The reality is even more mundane: ...the attacker convicted today isn't a member of the Russian... Share Post: Read More...
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Dear Bob ...My current boss has asked me to undertake an extensive review of organizational information practices, with an eye to (1) understanding how the business works, and (2) seeing what can be done to improve our practices.So far, I've documented about 100 requests and suggestions for improvements Read More...
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Ronald C. Arkin, "Governing Lethal Behavior: Embedding Ethics in a Hybrid Deliberative/Reactive Robot Architecture," Technical Report GIT-GVU-07011. Fascinating (and long: 117-page) paper on ethical implications of robots in war. Summary, Conclusions, and Future Work This report has provided the motivation,... Share Post: Read More...
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Today CPSR gave me the 2008 Norbert Weiner Award: In 1987, CPSR began a tradition to recognize outstanding contributions for social responsibility in computing technology. The organization wanted to cite people who recognize the importance of a science-educated public, who... Share Post: Read More...
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Dear Bob ...Do you know of any cases where a large enterprise has used a Wiki for their metadata, allowing most people (after registering) with access to the intranet update the metadata?The problem we are having is that IT does not want to own (seems they did not budget or schedule for it) the metadata, Read More...
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It's also dead: Heavier than even giant squid, colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) have eyes as wide as dinner plates and sharp hooks on some of their suckers. The new specimen weighs in at an estimated 990 pounds (450 kilograms).... Share Post: Read More...
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An update: New York City's plan to secure its subways with a next-generation surveillance network is getting more expensive by the second, and slipping further and further behind schedule. A new report by the New York State Comptroller's office reveals... Share Post: Read More...
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A suitcase in New Zealand. An American photographing all 50 state capitols. Maybe this would be a good idea.... Share Post: Read More...
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And when the owner reports his mistake, he's arrested. What is this supposed to teach?... Share Post: Read More...
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This is an about non-Muslims being recruited in the UK: As many as 1,500 white Britons are believed to have converted to Islam for the purpose of funding, planning and carrying out surprise terror attacks inside the UK, according to... Share Post: Read More...
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Using software, of course. The context is shredded and torn East German Stazi documents, but the technology is more general of course: The machine-shredded stuff is confetti, largely unrecoverable. But in May 2007, a team of German computer scientists in... Share Post: Read More...
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I have absolutely no doubt that there will be security flaws in remotely controllable thermostats, allowing hackers to seize control of them. Do this on a too-hot day, and you might even cause a large blackout.... Share Post: Read More...
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The CIA unleashed a big one at a SANS conference: On Wednesday, in New Orleans, US Central Intelligence Agency senior analyst Tom Donahue told a gathering of 300 US, UK, Swedish, and Dutch government officials and engineers and security managers... Share Post: Read More...
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Dear Bob ...So, awhile ago I wrote you about what to do when I found out my boss was looking to replace me ("When you hear you're going to be replaced," Advice Line, 12/15/2007). Well, I took Lewis' First Law of Business ("We are all capitalists") to heart and started looking for another job. I found Read More...
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Almost three years ago I blogged about SmartWater: liquid imbued with a uniquely identifiable DNA-style code. In my post I made the snarky comment: The idea is for me to paint this stuff on my valuables as proof of ownership.... Share Post: Read More...
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The Dutch RFID public transit card, which has already cost the government $2B -- no, that's not a typo -- has been hacked even before it has been deployed: The first reported attack was designed by two students at the... Share Post: Read More...
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Dear Bob ...A long time ago people were calling everyone including the dog their customer. A lot of that is still going around and it gets in the way of clear thinking sometimes.I liked your (now ancient) article [probably "Who defines value," InfoWorld's Survival Guide, 7/29/1996) positing that only Read More...
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There have been stories previously, but this time it looks like it will actually happen: Up to three American Airlines jets carrying passengers will be outfitted with anti-missile technology this spring in the latest phase of testing technology to protect... Share Post: Read More...
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According to Fire Engineering magazine, one reason for the slow response to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was that fire alarms were kept locked to prevent false alarms: Q: Prior to 1870, street corner fire alarm pull boxes were... Share Post: Read More...
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A 14-year-old built a modified a TV remote control to switch trains on tracks in the Polish city of Lodz: Transport command and control systems are commonly designed by engineers with little exposure or knowledge about security using commodity electronics... Share Post: Read More...
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MySpace has has reached an agreement with the attorneys general of 49 states -- Texas sat out -- to protect children from sexual predators on the site. The attorneys general are all congratulating themselves, as is MySpace -- and there's... Share Post: Read More...
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The New York Times writes about a plausible connection between fear and heart disease: Which is more of a threat to your health: Al Qaeda or the Department of Homeland Security? An intriguing new study suggests the answer is not... Share Post: Read More...
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A longish article by Rudy Giuliani on his philosophy to secure the nation from terrorism. I may write a long blog post on the article after I read it, but I wanted to post the link as soon as I... Share Post: Read More...
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This is a good article on a new trend in corporate spying: companies like Wal-Mart and Sears have resorted to covert surveillance of employees, partners, journalists, and even Internet users to protect itself from "global threats." "Like most major corporations,... Share Post: Read More...
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[More on "A greater good," Advice Line, 12/29/2007):Normally, I am very impressed by Bob's insights and thinking outside or beyond the box views.This one seems a little off the mark.I think Bob missed the (perhaps unspoken) theme here that we, or at least some of us, are completely disgusted and fed Read More...
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Two of them: On Wednesday, a man dressed as an armored truck employee with the company AT Systems walked into a BB&T bank in Wheaton about 11 a.m., was handed more than $500,000 in cash and walked out, a source... Share Post: Read More...
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How to cheat on a test by replacing a soft-drink-bottle label with a replica that includes your crib notes. Certainly more clever than hiding a small piece of paper inside your pen.... Share Post: Read More...
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Whenever I talk or write about my own security setup, the one thing that surprises people -- and attracts the most criticism -- is the fact that I run an open wireless network at home. There's no password. There's no... Share Post: Read More...
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Paul Torrens, at the Arizona State University School of Geographical Sciences, has a computer simulation that models urban panic: "The goal of this project is to develop a reusable and behaviorally founded computer model of pedestrian movement and crowd behavior... Share Post: Read More...
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Their special report from December includes a bunch of different articles.... Share Post: Read More...
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Maybe this is a bit of a stretch.It's easy to over-use sports metaphors when writing about business. Among their many limitations: Sports is unambiguous. You either win or you lose. When you (for example) deploy a new IT application, assessing the success of the effort is just a wee bit more ambiguous Read More...
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Excellent essay from The New York Times: In the end, I'm not sure which is more troubling, the inanity of the existing regulations, or the average American's acceptance of them and willingness to be humiliated. These wasteful and tedious protocols... Share Post: Read More...
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This story made the rounds in European newspapers some years ago -- mostly stories in German, if I remember -- but it wasn't covered much here in the U.S. For half a century, Crypto AG, a Swiss company located in... Share Post: Read More...
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It's not on their website yet, and you'd have to pay to read it in any case, but the February 2008 issue of Consumer Reports has an article on aviation security. Much of it you've all heard before, but there... Share Post: Read More...
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His name is similar to someone on the "no fly" list: A five-year-old boy was taken into custody and thoroughly searched at Sea-Tac because his name is similar to a possible terrorist alias. As the Consumerist reports, "When his mother... Share Post: Read More...
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A comment on this week's Keep the Joint Running, "A contrarian view of process," which suggests that too much emphasis has been placed on process, at the expense of more important matters, such as establishing what Jim Collins calls a "culture of discipline":Dear Bob ...Discipline and process are two Read More...
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The 2007 International Privacy Ranking. Canada comes in first. Individual privacy is best protected in Canada but under threat in the United States and the European Union as governments introduce sweeping surveillance and information-gathering measures in the name of security... Share Post: Read More...
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Oops: The daily newspaper, Aftonbladet, turned the stick over to the Armed Forces on Thursday. The paper's editorial office obtained the memory stick from an individual who discovered it in a public computer center in Stockholm. An employee of the... Share Post: Read More...
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Two related Comments regarding my recent post, "Is looking out for the greater good reasonable?" (Advice Line, 12/29/2007), edited for length:"Everyone is supposed to look out for themselves first. Anyone who doesn't is a commie."Come on, Bob. Isn't that a little over the top?Is everyone who lets a vehicle Read More...
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Interesting article from Newsweek: The evolutionary primacy of the brain's fear circuitry makes it more powerful than the brain's reasoning faculties. The amygdala sprouts a profusion of connections to higher brain regions -- neurons that carry one-way traffic from amygdala... Share Post: Read More...
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Investigative report on passport fraud worldwide. Six years after 9/11, an NBC News undercover investigation has found that the black market in fraudulent passports is thriving. On the streets of South America, NBC documented the sale of stolen and doctored... Share Post: Read More...
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I've written about the "War on the Unexpected," and how normal people can't tell the difference: All they know is that something makes them uneasy, usually based on fear, media hype, or just something being different. [...] If you ask... Share Post: Read More...
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I was interviewed by Computerworld Australia.... Share Post: Read More...
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The news articles are pretty sensational: The computer network in the Dreamliner's passenger compartment, designed to give passengers in-flight internet access, is connected to the plane's control, navigation and communication systems, an FAA report reveals. And: According to the U.S.... Share Post: Read More...
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Because they're harder to hack: Though Apple machines are still pricier than their Windows counterparts, the added security they offer might be worth the cost, says Wallington. He points out that Apple's X Serve servers, which are gradually becoming more... Share Post: Read More...
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Dear Bob ...In response to your recent post, "How long should a discipinary freeze last?" I think you missed the point of his question.His point was that if you are not included in the 4% this year, next year's 4% is based on a lower base salary, as will every raise thereafter (until promotion, I suppose), Read More...
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I cheated.After my last post regarding my problems with MessageLabs ("Spam filtering for dummies," Advice Line, 12/26/2007) I notified the company's press contacts that I'd highlighted MessageLabs in Advice Line. (Unlike non-client technical contact information, this contact information was easy to find).A Read More...
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xkcd. This one is pretty funny, too.... Share Post: Read More...
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Good article about the Ft. Dix terrorist plotters: the challenges of going after terrorism more proactively, and the risks of using informants. I wrote about some of these issues here.... Share Post: Read More...
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I'm generally a fan of behavioral profiling. While it sounds weird and creepy and has been likened to Orwell's "facecrime", there's no doubt that -- when done properly -- it works at catching common criminals: On Dec. 4, Juan Carlos... Share Post: Read More...
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Join "My SHC Community" on Sears.com, and the company will install some pretty impressive spyware on your computer: Sears.com is distributing spyware that tracks all your Internet usage - including banking logins, email, and all other forms of Internet usage... Share Post: Read More...
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"National Security for the Twenty-First Century," by Charlie Edwards at the British think-tank Demos. It's long -- 121 pages -- but there's some good stuff in it.... Share Post: Read More...
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The British Government changes their rhetoric: The words "war on terror" will no longer be used by the British government to describe attacks on the public, the country's chief prosecutor said Dec. 27. Sir Ken Macdonald said terrorist fanatics were... Share Post: Read More...
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