Sunday, August 09, 2009

Now you can Twit like a Brit!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10305946-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

British military encouraged to get online

by Jennifer Guevin August 8, 2009 11:41 AM PDT

As professional organizations become increasingly guarded about employees' use of social networks, British troops are actually being encouraged to use social media to talk about what they do--within limits, of course.

The Ministry of Defence has issued its Online Engagement Guidelines (PDF), 13 pages of recommendations for keeping in touch with friends and family via blogs, social networks, virtual worlds, and multiplayer games without endangering military personnel and activities.


(Related) We know it's risky, but we do it anyway.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022004.html

August 08, 2009

Social Networking Sites and the Surveillance Society

Fuchs, Christian. 2009. Social Networking Sites and the Surveillance Society. A Critical Case Study of the Usage of studiVZ, Facebook, and MySpace by Students in Salzburg in the Context of Electronic Surveillance. Salzburg/Vienna: Research Group UTI. ISBN 978-3-200-01428-2.

  • "674 students from Salzburg participated in the study that was conducted by the eTheory Research Group (University of Salzburg, ICT&S Center). 88.3% of the respondents use studiVZ, 39.5% Facebook, 15.9% MySpace, 9.0% Xing, 7.4% Lokalisten. Each of 61 other social networking sites (SNS) is used by less than 1%. Study author associate professor Christian Fuchs: "There are indications for a strong economic concentration in the area of social networking sites. On the one hand concerning usage, but as a consequence on the other hand also in relation to profits that are made by advertising".

59.1% of the respondents see the maintenance of social contacts as the biggest advantage of SNS, 55.7% say that economic and political surveillance is the greatest risk. Fuchs: "Students are very aware of the massive collection of personal data on these platforms, they use them nonetheless because of the expected communicative advantages. This does not mean that they are incautious, but that there is a structural lack of alternative platforms. [Business opportunity? Bob] Non-commercial, non-profit SNS do not have to evaluate data for personalized advertisements, therefore the probability of surveillance and data abuse decreases. But such platforms are currently hardly existent or completely unknown, therefore young people − the main usage group of social networking sites − have to rely on commercial service providers that collect, store, and evaluate personal data in order to accumulate profits by targeted advertising"."



What a hacking target! Deposit the same check in many banks around the world and transfer funds to your (insert tax haven here) account! I'm considering a project for my hacking class where their grade is based on the amount of money in my account.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9136359/How_tech_is_changing_banks

How tech is changing banks

Deposit checks with your iPhone camera? Banks as cyber cafes? Tech makes banking fun

By Mike Elgan August 8, 2009 06:00 AM ET

… The only remaining reason for many of us to visit bank branch offices, wait in line and interact with a teller is to deposit checks. That's about to change.

The United Services Automobile Association, a financial services company for members of the U.S. military and veterans, plans to launch a free iPhone app that lets you deposit checks via your iPhone camera. The service will be called USAA Deposit@Mobile. To make a deposit, you use the app to log onto your account, enter the amount of the check, snap a picture of the front and back of the check, then touch the "Send" button. The bank sends a confirmation. Here's a video demo.



We call ours the Federal Register

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022007.html

August 08, 2009

Government Gazettes Online

Government Gazettes Online: "Government Gazettes, which are published by federal governments worldwide, are the means through which the government can communicate to officials and the general public. Although most countries publish a gazette, their regularity and content varies widely, which is noted in the description of each gazette. Gazettes are useful not only to monitor the actions of the government, but also as primary source documentation in research." [Lyonette Louis-Jacques]

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