A Wired article reports on data loss in 2007, and the numbers aren’t good. Credit card and social security theft was at an all-time high, with even more losses expected in 2008. Information thieves, it seems, are just one step ahead of IT security. “While companies, government agencies, schools and other institutions are spending more […]
The New York Times has up an article discussing the trend of employers tracking the ‘free time’ activities of their employees via their web presence. “When they do go off the clock and off the corporate network, how they spend their private time should be of no concern to their employer, even if the Internet, […]
A New York Times story at News.com notes the efforts of American security organizations to help the Chinese government prepare for the coming Olympic games. Critics argue this assistance violates the spirit of Congressional sanctions, and that the technology left behind after the games are over could be used to track dissident elements. “‘I don’t […]
theodp writes “Ready for one-automobile-per-child (OAPC)? India’s giant Tata Group is on the verge of launching the world’s cheapest car. The People’s Car, slated to be unveiled January 10th at a New Delhi auto show, will carry a sticker price of 100,000 rupees ($2,500), which some analysts say could revolutionize automobile costs worldwide. The Tata […]
Secret of Raising Smart Kids writes “”I have a DVD remote control with 52 buttons on it, and every one of them is there because some engineer along the line knew how to use that button and believed I would want to use it, too,” says David Heath, co-author of “Made to Stick: Why Some […]
Googling Yourself writes “Lifehacker has an interesting blog post on the “Top 10 Google Products You Forgot All About” that includes stalwarts like Google Trends and Google Alerts and a few others that may not be quite so familiar like Google Personals, Google’s WYSIWYG web site creation tool, and Flight Simulator for Google Earth.”
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An Engadget article notes that the Washington Post RIAA article we discussed earlier today may have been poorly phrased. The original article implied that the Association’s suit stemmed from the music ripping. As it actually stands the defendant isn’t being sued over CD ripping, but for placing files in a shared directory. Engadget notes that […]
EvilRyry writes “In an article for Discover Magazine, Jaron Lanier writes about his belief that open source produces nothing interesting because of a hide-bound mentality. ‘Open wisdom-of-crowds software movements have become influential, but they haven’t promoted the kind of radical creativity I love most in computer science. If anything, they’ve been hindrances. Some of the […]
Roland Piquepaille noted coverage of the iSnake Robotic Surgeon which is basically a super flexible robot that can travel through blood vessels and repair the heart. Of course the article isn’t exactly clear on what happens if they gain control of the city’s sewage system and take over.
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twitter writes “PC World has released their year in review statistics and 2007 was not kind to Microsoft. IE 6 users are equally likely to move to Firefox as they are to IE7 and no one wants Vista. ‘How much of an accomplishment is it for a new version of Windows to get to 14 […]