Happy Birthday IBM

IBM celebrates 100 years.
This video is very interesting, but more interesting are the negative comments on the video. Worth a look.

I've Got Nothing To Hide

                                                              Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
From The New York Times.
For years, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, has extolled the virtue of transparency, and he built Facebook accordingly. The social network requires people to use their real identity in large part because Mr. Zuckerberg says he believes that people behave better — and society will be better — if they cannot cloak their words or actions in anonymity.

“Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity,” Mr. Zuckerberg has said.
Now, Facebook is being taken to task for trying to conceal its own identity as it sought to coax reporters and technology experts to write critical stories about the privacy implications of a search feature, Social Circle, from its rival, Google.

Companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere routinely approach reporters and analysts with stories about the so-called misdeeds of their competitors. But journalism and public relations experts criticized Facebook for doing so anonymously and insisting that Burson-Marsteller not reveal its identity.

Everywhere You Go-I'll Be Watchin' You.

From The Guardian.
Security researchers have discovered that Apple's iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner's computer when the two are synchronized.

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone's recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner's movements using a simple program.

For some phones, there could be almost a year's worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple's iOS 4 update to the phone's operating system, released in June 2010.

"Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you've been," said Pete Warden, one of the researchers.
If someone were to steal an iPhone and "jailbreak" it, giving them direct access to the files it contains, they could extract the location database directly. Alternatively, anyone with direct access to a user's computer could run the application and see a visualization of their movements. Encrypting data on the computer is one way to protect against it, though that still leaves the file on the phone.

TOH-Dvorak Uncensored.

We're All Cons Now.

From Reason TV.
This is a funny remix of ConAir clip TSA style:

Caution-entering TSA Groping Zone.

From BoingBoing

Full Body Xray Machines

The following letter expresses concerns that some scientists at UCSF have concerning the possible harm that the use of the new full-body xray machines may cause.  If you believe the common quoted concept that the new machines are as safe as using a cell phone, that may not be true.  There may be a reason that the TSA machine operators are forbidden to wear xray dose monitors at work.

Letter here.

First Tasers, Now Microwaves, What's Next.

From the sgvtribune.com.

CASTAIC - A high-tech ray gun built for the military that fires an invisible heat beam capable of causing unbearable pain will be tested on unruly inmates in the sheriff's detention facility in Castaic, officials said Friday at an unveiling event.

The "Assault Intervention System" (AIS) developed by the Raytheon Co., could give the Sheriff's Department "another tool" to quell disturbances at a 65-inmate dormitory at the Pitchess Detention Center's North County Correctional Facility, said Cmdr. Bob Osborne, head of the technology exploration branch of the sheriff's Department of Homeland Security Division.


AIS fires a directed beam of invisible "millimeter waves" that cause an unbearable burning sensation by penetrating 1/64 of an inch into the skin, where pain receptors are located, said Mike Booen, Raytheon's vice president of advanced security and directed energy systems.

"That's our vision," said Booen. "We want to get to the point where it is a hand-held device."

The Quickening

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by information overload?
Does life come at you at a fevered pace?
Consider the following video.




TOH to http://www.righttruth.typepad.com/