July 14, 2006

See, it's not just backup tapes that get lost.

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/13/1654200&from=rss

Apollo 11 TV Tapes Go Missing

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 13, @07:22PM from the check-the-roswell-basement dept. NASA Space

Richard W.M. Jones writes "On July 21st 1969, Honeysuckle Creek observatory brought us the first TV pictures of men on the moon. The original signals were recorded on high quality slow-scan TV (SSTV) tapes. What was released to the TV networks was reduced to lower quality commercial TV standards. Unfortunately John Sarkissian of Parkes Observatory Australia reports that 698 of the 700 boxes of original tapes have gone missing [warning: large PDF] from the U.S. National Archives. Even more worryingly, the last place on earth which can actually read these tapes is scheduled to close in October this year. The PDF contains interesting comparisons which show that if all you've seen are the TV pictures from the landing, you really haven't seen the first moon walk in its full glory."

http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/252?ref=rss

Researchers hunt comment spammers

Robert Lemos 2006-07-13

Microsoft researchers released details on Thursday about the software giant's Search Defender project, a tool created to discover the major sources of comment spam on the Internet.

The research project aims to remove the advantages that spammers gain through more efficient comment spamming techniques, looking for large networks that feed to central domains and asking Web hosters and search engines to shut down the doorway sites to those domains.

"Comment spamming is getting worse and worse, causing a lot of clutter," Yi-Min Wang, manager of Microsoft's Cybersecurity and Systems Management Research Group, said in an interview with SecurityFocus. "In this particular report, we basically describe an automatic method to find (the spammers) and we need the communities to help actually fight them."

The Search Defender system first creates a list of potential doorway sites--intermediate destinations that take victims who click on comment spam to a more central Web page--with a tool called SpamHunter which crawls the Web for comment spam using search engine queries to find other sites in the same network. Then, using another Microsoft research project, Strider URL Tracer, the system finds the central domains to which the doorway sites refer visitors.

This will change as soon as they start signing up virtual union members...

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/0517202&from=rss

Teachers Union Opposes Virtual K-8 Charter School

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday July 14, @07:36AM from the phoning-it-in dept. Education The Internet

theodp writes "'You can't sit a child in front of a computer and expect him to learn things he needs to succeed in society,' said unimpressed Chicago Teachers Union president Marilyn Stewart of the Chicago Virtual Charter School, which will open to Chicago elementary school students this fall if approved by the state board of education."

We don't need new laws to stop this, do we?

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/business/national/story/3328816p-12259082c.html

Federal protection for consumers

By EILEEN ALT POWELL, AP Business Writer (Published: July 12, 2006)

NEW YORK (AP) - Earlier this year, consumers who thought they were requesting a free trial of a tooth whitener from an Internet site soon found withdrawals of $106.90 from their bank accounts or similar charges to their credit cards, according to a nonprofit consumer education group.

Consumer Action, based in San Francisco, said it appeared that people who asked for the free samples were automatically enrolled in a recurring payments program for the product, whether they wanted it or not.

In this case, most of the victims of the scam had federal law on their side to get their money back, said Linda Sherry, a spokeswoman for the group.

... But, Sherry points out, "some of them can be confusing, so consumers have to make sure they're taking the right steps" in filing complaints and claims in a timely manner if something goes wrong.

It occurs to me that there is little in the literature to prepare people for CPO positions... Might make a useful article...

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=190400041

Commerce Dept. names Cresanti privacy chief

EE Times (07/13/2006 3:13 PM EDT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez announced today the appointment of Robert C. Cresanti to serve as chief privacy officer for the Department, concurrent with his responsibilities as Under Secretary for Technology.

Cresanti would be the highest-ranking official to serve in this capacity in the federal government.

Here's a contrast...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201229.html

Top Cyber Security Post Still Unfilled After a Year

By Brian Krebs washingtonpost.com Staff Writer Wednesday, July 12, 2006; 4:40 PM

One year after the Department of Homeland Security created a high-level post for coordinating U.S. government efforts to deal with attacks on the nation's critical technological infrastructure, the agency still has not identified a candidate for the job.

... Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a co-author of the bill that would have forced the department to create the position last year, did not mince words: "I think DHS is pathetic and incompetent. It's a complete mystery what's happening over there."

Was this not obvious?

http://www.governmententerprise.com/news/190400168;jsessionid=VWXIFS0MU2I4SQSNDLPCKH0CJUNN2JVN

UK Companies Must Protect Customer Data Even If Outsourced Overseas

By K.C. Jones Courtesy of TechWeb.com July 13, 2006

U.K. companies must protect customer data even if it sends the data overseas for outsourcing.

The British Information Commissioner's Office said this week that companies are responsible for data protection. They can be punished for breaches, no matter where they occur and no matter how the information gets out. The ICO recently issued new, more strict guidelines, for protecting personal information under the Data Protection Act.

The ICO specifically protects information transferred beyond the boundaries of the United Kingdom and states that companies should make sure their contractors are handling data safely.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1988728,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

Most CFOs Harbor Security Concerns

By Matt Hines July 13, 2006

Chief financial officers continue to rank information security as their top priority as compliance auditors and the fear of public humiliation over data leaks drive new levels of IT security scrutiny, according to a new survey.

... A downloadable copy of Technology Issues for Financial Executives can be found at www.csc.com/solutions/managementconsulting/knowledgelibrary/2335.shtml.

http://news.com.com/2008-1028_3-6094146.html?part=rss&tag=6094146&subj=news

FBI's CIO faces agency's tech challenges

By Anne Broache Story last modified Fri Jul 14 05:58:15 PDT 2006

When Zalmai Azmi took the job of the FBI's chief information officer three years ago, he had a daunting task ahead of him: steering the agency's rocky computer modernization project back on course.

... CNET News.com spoke with Azmi about Sentinel's direction, the existing cumbersome systems and recent reports that a contractor hacked the FBI's computers.

Interesting tactic...

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1152695127989

SBC Denied Access to Conn. Senator's Home Computer

Douglas S. Malan The Connecticut Law Tribune July 13, 2006

Gemini Networks Inc., in its ongoing feud with SBC Communications over legislation that would provide SBC with pricing flexibility, has lost an appeal to the Freedom of Information Commission that would have granted it access to the home computer of Connecticut Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford.

... Rowlenson, who was represented before the FOIC by Katherine A. Scanlon of Pullman & Comley's Hartford office, requested copies of any notes, drafts, memoranda, e-mails or other documents related to discussion of Senate Bill 1097. Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed the bill last summer as a result of ethical questions raised by Gemini. Because Fonfara used his private America Online e-mail account to send correspondence related to S.B. 1097, Rowlenson sought to obtain those e-mails through a request dated June 30, 2005.

... Rendering its decision last month, the FOIC sided with Fonfara on the matter, opining that any correspondence sent from or received on Fonfara's AOL account regarding S.B. 1097 included Gemini's counsel "who has copies of such e-mails, and ... therefore there is no practical reason to recover additional copies of such e-mails ..."

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/07/13/afx2878325.html

Apple drops legal challenge to online publishers

07.13.2006, 09:44 PM

SAN FRANCISCO (XFN-ASIA) - Apple Computer Co Inc has dropped its legal challenge against two Internet publishers who reported secret details about its new products, a lawyer said.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/011804.html

July 13, 2006

'Ethics Essentials' for New Judges

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts: Ethics Essentials, a Primer for New Judges on Conflicts, Outside Activities, and other Potential Pitfalls (26 pages, PDF)....emphasizes the importance of understanding and observing ethics standards."

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/011802.html

July 13, 2006

Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age Report

Press release: "The Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age released its third report today with recommendations on how to reconcile national security needs with civil liberties requirements. The report offers a new "authorized use" standard for government handling of legally collected information that bases authorization to view information on how the information is going to be used, rather than on the nationality of the subject or the location of collection. The report also proposes a new risk management approach to sharing classified information that balances the risk of compromising classified information with the security risk that can come from failing to share information with those who need it to understand the threats to national security."

• Mobilizing Information to Prevent Terrorism: Accelerating Development of a Trusted Information Sharing Environment (100 pages, PDF)

Who in the organization would be responsible for looking for this kind of negative information? Personnel? Legal? PR?

http://techdirt.com/articles/20060713/0948251.shtml

Jobseekers Doing Online Background Checks On Employers, Too

from the role-reversal dept

With the growing popularity of social-networking sites and the increasing propensity for people to post all sort of information about themselves publicly online, there have been plenty of stories about how it can come back to haunt jobseekers. But in an interesting reversal, some sites are Web-2.0-ing the old Vault.com "bitch about your boss" idea to use similar tools to try to get some inside dirt on potential employers. One job-search site is relaunching with some social networking-like features where instead of connecting to make friends or get dates, jobseekers can get in touch with them to ask questions about their company. Of course, all this relies on employees actually caring enough to use the system, and giving honest information about their place of work, and perhaps their superiors. But with lots of employers monitoring employees' computer use, it's doubtful that too many workers would want to open themselves up to being directly contacted by strangers to talk openly about their employer -- particularly when some companies are even firing or suing employees for talking bad about them online. Perhaps the real lesson here is that instead of worrying about what their employees might say on a job board, hiring managers should just keep their pictures of swingers parties and tales of humiliating employees out of their MySpace profiles. After all, if they're doing Google background checks on applicants, the potential hires are probably looking them up, too.

Ain't technology great! (Is there a Class Action it the future based on “...it's too complex for non-geeks?” Perhaps a warning sticker: “Do not attempt to use this device if you are older than 12”

http://techdirt.com/articles/20060713/1049218.shtml

No, That Phone Isn't Broken, It's Just Unusable

from the how-do-you-turn-this-thing-on? dept

From the "Not Surprising At All, Really" file comes a new survey out of the UK that's found nearly two-thirds of the new mobile phones returned to a major retailer there as broken aren't broken at all, it's just that apparently they're so difficult to use people think they're broken. The poor usability of increasingly complex devices is symptomatic of the mobile industry's usability problems as a whole -- particularly with the mobile content and data services that are supposed to be driving its latest renaissance. A survey of people who used data services for the first time during the World Cup found that half of them won't use it again, citing poor ease of set up and use as significant reasons, while other content providers report embarrassingly low response rates to content-delivery messages, something largely blamed on, again, setup and usability problems. The sad thing is that these exact same types of stories and surveys have been published for many years, but very little meaningful action is taking place, particularly from mobile operators, who must bear a lot of the responsibility for ensuring users devices are set up properly when they get them, but also from handset vendors, most of whom don't devote enough resources to software and user-interface design.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20060713/1542253.shtml

Isn't Competition Supposed To Lower Rates?

from the oh,-right... dept

If you haven't been following what's been going on in Lafayette Louisiana, they've been having quite a technology battle. The local telco and cable company (BellSouth and Cox) have been spending millions of dollars fighting a proposed muni-fiber offering that the residents of the city voted for. The people of the city voted for it, even after push polls (designed to influence the vote, not accurately predict it) and silly threats from the incumbents. Ever since it was approved, however, the incumbents have been able to hold up the deployment by fighting it in court. Cox and BellSouth, of course, claim that such a muni network would represent unfair competition -- something they should know an awful lot about, since Cox was recently accused of anti-competitive practices in blocking out competitors in certain new housing developments. Apparently, from their point of view, "unfair competition" is just about any competition. Competition, of course, might force them to do something like offer more competitive rates -- something studies have shown isn't really happening yet. With that in mind, is it really any surprise to hear that Cox is now raising their cable rates in the city, even as they try to convince the courts that the muni-fiber network would be bad for the people of the city?

Great idea! Put FEMA in charge and the survivors of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake should get this service in just a few more months...

http://techdirt.com/articles/20060714/0316217.shtml

Should Telcos Provide Free Voicemail As Disaster Relief?

from the seems-like-a-decent-idea dept

We've all heard the stories: whenever there's any kind of disaster, phones (both landlines and mobile) become pretty much useless. The latest example where this was seen was with the bombings in Mumbai, India -- but it's a story that's been seen many times before. Following Hurricane Katrina, former telco exec Tom Evslin and VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver started talking about a simple way to at least minimize this problem. They suggested to the FCC that telcos should simply set up free voicemail accounts for those whose phone lines were impacted by the disaster. It's a relatively simple plan. Basically, phone numbers that are unreachable will automatically go to a voicemail account. If the person associated with the phone number can access a phone somewhere, he or she can leave a message letting everyone know how they are. Family and friends can then easily leave messages, rather than repeatedly trying to contact a phone number that is unreachable. It would be easy enough for this all to take place far away from the disaster area, so calls could be routed elsewhere, also minimizing the influx of phone calls to an area. Pulver and Evslin worked out the details and realized this was incredibly inexpensive to implement, and figured it made sense for the FCC to mandate it. Not surprisingly, though, the telcos immediately trashed the proposal, claiming it was prohibitively expensive -- though Pulver and Evslin don't see how that's possible. On Thursday, Evslin and Pulver spent the day at the FCC, trying to talk to folks there about the plan. It sounds like they found interest and guidance, but it still sounds like there's an awful lot to be done, and the telcos don't seem willing to go along. If the original calculations are correct, it really isn't that expensive to provide -- and the goodwill gained (and the lack of news stories trashing the telcos for having no service at all) seems like it would greatly outweigh the cost.

It's not enough to give away your name, address, phone number, SSAN, and bank account password... Stalker Alert!

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/07/13/brand-your-life-story-with-dandelife/

Brand your life story with Dandelife

Marshall Kirkpatrick July 13 2006

Dandelife is a fascinating new “social biography network” that launched its beta this week. Users tell their life stories with text, photos, videos and time lines. Part of the business model will be to license users’ stories to corporations seeking case studies and brandable narratives. I feel very ambivalent about this.

... The company’s leading competitor may be OurStory.com, a similar site that received $6 million in VC funding in January. OurStory founder and CEO Andy Halliday told me that his service may allow users to opt-in to anonymous aggregate studies in the future but that user generated content in their system will not be made available to marketers.

http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6094132.html

Judge dismisses suit over Google ranking

By Elinor Mills Story last modified Thu Jul 13 19:23:03 PDT 2006

A California judge on Thursday dismissed a Web site's lawsuit against Google over its fall in the Google search index, but left the door open for the lawsuit to be amended and refiled.

At first glance, this looks very useful. Includes some for lawyers and law enforcement. Even a schema for your wine cellar!

http://digg.com/programming/Library_of_free_database_models

Library of free database models

hourigan submitted by hourigan 1 day 2 hours ago (via http://www.databaseanswers.org/data%5Fmodels/ )

The library includes hundreds of sample database schemas for tons of topics – ranging from “Airline Reservations” to “Organizations and People” to “Car Servicing” to “Pizza Delivery”.