Wednesday, August 12, 2009

One side of the debate. Will the OMB share their arguments?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2720

EFF’s recommendations for federal web privacy policy

August 11, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Govt, Internet, U.S.

Today, EFF and the Center for Democracy and Technology submitted comments to the Office of Management and Budget in response to the agency’s review of the policies governing the federal government’s use of cookies and other web technologies.

The comments are an extension of recommendations we made in May, in which we suggested that the OMB permit cookie-based web analytics so long as the process was carefully overseen and met with specific strict safeguards. Today, we’ve expanded our recommendations to include the use of cookies for creating individualized web account logins and other common web practices that we understand government webmasters would like to be able to use. Overall, we continue to urge the government to limit the use of any data collected, to eliminate this data as soon as possible, and to seek third-party oversight.

Read more on EFF (The Electronic Frontier Foundation).

Related: EPIC submitted comments to the Office of Management and Budget recommending that the existing ban on the use of cookies at federal government websites be maintained.



Strategy is as Strategy does... Worth reading the article!

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2726

What unites advocates of speech controls & privacy regulation?

August 12, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Other

Anyone who has spent time following debates about speech and privacy regulation comes to recognize the striking parallels between these two policy arenas. In this paper we will highlight the common rhetoric, proposals, and tactics that unite these regulatory movements. Moreover, we will argue that, at root, what often animates calls for regulation of both speech and privacy are two remarkably elitist beliefs:

  1. People are too ignorant (or simply too busy) to be trusted to make wise decisions for themselves (or their children); and/or, [Governments aer smart, people are not. Bob]

  2. All or most people share essentially the same values or concerns and, therefore, “community standards” should trump household (or individual) standards. [Xenophobia. If you're not with us, you're against us. Bob]

While our use of the term “elitism” may unduly offend some understandably sensitive to populist demagoguery, our aim here is not to launch a broadside against elitism as Time magazine culture critic William H. Henry once defined it: “The willingness to assert unyieldingly that one idea, contribution or attainment is better than another.”[1] Rather, our aim here is to critique that elitism which rises to the level of political condescension and legal sanction. We attack not so much the beliefs of some leaders, activists, or intellectuals that they have a better idea of what it in the public’s best interest than the public itself does, but rather the imposition of those beliefs through coercive, top-down mandates.

Read more of this commentary by Adam Thierer & Berin Szoka in The Progress & Freedom Foundation, Progress on Point No. 16.19 on The Technology Liberation Front or access the pdf version of the article.

Making it harder for us to convict you is a crime. Making it impossible to convict you is a capital crime. The only thing worse is being innocent.

http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/11/2340221/In-UK-Two-Convicted-of-Refusing-To-Decrypt-Data?from=rss

In UK, Two Convicted of Refusing To Decrypt Data

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday August 12, @05:31AM from the no-pleading-the-fifth dept.

ACKyushu clues us to recent news out of the UK, where two people have been successfully prosecuted for refusing to provide authorities with their encryption keys, resulting in landmark convictions that may have carried jail sentences of up to five years. There is uncertainty in that the names of the people convicted were not released; [Secret trials? Bob] and without those names, the Crown Prosecution Service said it was unable to track down details of the cases.

"Failure to comply with a section 49 notice carries a sentence of up to two years jail plus fines. Failure to comply during a national security investigation carries up to five years jail. ... Of the 15 individuals served, 11 did not comply with the notices. Of the 11, seven were charged and two convicted. Sir Christopher [Rose, the government's Chief Surveillance Commissioner] did not report whether prosecutions failed or are pending against the five charged but not convicted in the period covered by his report."



Hey, who ya gonna believe? A bunch of guys with PhDs or our Marketing Department? We've been working on your politicians... I means, explaining the evidence to your politicians and they agree with us. (Lots of comments)

http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/11/1642231/Voting-Machine-Attacks-Proven-To-Be-Practical?from=rss

Voting Machine Attacks Proven To Be Practical

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, @01:51PM from the back-up-the-dumpster dept.

An anonymous reader writes

"Every time a bunch of academics show vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines, critics complain that the attacks aren't realistic, that attackers won't have access to source code, or design documents, or be able to manipulate the hardware, etc. So this time a bunch of computer scientists from UCSD, Michigan, and Princeton offered a rebuttal. They completely own the AVC Advantage using no access to source code or design documents (PDF), and deliver a complete working attack in a plug-in cartridge that could be used by anyone with a few private minutes with the machine. Moreover, they came up with some cool tricks to do this on a machine protected against traditional code injection attacks (the AVC processor will only execute instructions from ROM). The research was presented at this week's USENIX EVT."


(Related)

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/diebold-audit-logs/

Diebold Quietly Patches Security Flaw in Vote Counting Software

By Kim Zetter Email Author August 12, 2009 8:00 am

Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold, has patched a serious security weakness in its election tabulation software used in the majority of states, according to a lab that tested the new version and a federal commission that certified it.

The flaw in the tabulation software was discovered by Wired.com earlier this year, and involved the program’s auditing logs. The logs failed to record significant events occurring on a computer running the software, including the act of someone deleting votes during or after an election. The logs also failed to record who performed an action on the system, and listed some events with the wrong date and timestamps.

… It’s not known if Premier will offer the more secure version to election officials who purchased previous software. The company did not respond to a call for comment Tuesday.



Another “the patent system is broken” article? Or perhaps a “Microsoft is evil” article? Or even a “Texas is a whole 'nother country” article.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/12/1129230/US-Court-Tells-Microsoft-To-Stop-Selling-Word?from=rss

US Court Tells Microsoft To Stop Selling Word

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 12, @08:13AM from the somebody's-not-having-a-good-day dept.

oranghutan writes

"A judge in a Texas court has given Microsoft 60 days to comply with an order to stop selling Word products in their existing state as the result of a patent infringement suit filed by i4i. According to the injunction, Microsoft is forbidden from selling Word products that let people create XML documents, which both the 2003 and 2007 versions let you do. Michael Cherry, an analyst quoted in the article, said, 'It's going to take a long time for this kind of thing to get sorted out.' Few believe the injunction will actually stop Word from being sold because there are ways of working around it. [Sure to make the judge happy. Bob] In early 2009, a jury in the Texas court ordered Microsoft to pay i4i $200 million for infringing on the patent. ZDNet has a look at the patent itself, saying it 'sounds a bit generic.'"


(Related) If the software can copy an entire hard drive bit by bit (as e-Discovery tools do) would that tool now be illegal? Such copying does not “notice” what it is copying, does not “unprotect” a file, but can recreate the data exactly on another drive.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/12/1220211/Judge-Rules-Against-RealDVD?from=rss

Judge Rules Against RealDVD

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 12, @09:40AM from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.

mattOzan writes

"Judge Marilyn Hall Patel was unswayed by RealNetworks' defense of their product under the Fair Use Doctrine, as she declared RealDVD illegal and barred its distribution. As she said in her ruling, 'So while it may well be fair use for an individual consumer to store a backup copy of a personally owned DVD on that individual's computer, a federal law has nonetheless made it illegal to manufacture or traffic in a device or tool that permits a consumer to make such copies.' She also said RealNetworks was aware of the conflict between their agreement and their plans for the software: 'Real did not elect to return (or destroy, with appropriate certification) the CSS General Specifications after it received them, as Real had a right to do under the agreement... This behavior indicates that Real understood it to be bound by the CSS General Specifications as well as the other technical specifications received after execution of the CSS License Agreement.'"

[The ruling: http://opinion.latimes.com/files/pi-order-081109.pdf

[From the ruling:

See Reimerdes, 111 F.Supp.2d at 324 (“The fact that Congress elected to leave technologically unsophisticated persons who wish to make fair use of encrypted copyrighted works without the technical means of doing so is a matter for Congress. . . .”).



Obvious? The opening for non-US firms seems obvious but aren't there some “protections” that prevent foreign telecommunications firms from jumping on the gravy train?

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/11/1610237/US-Cell-Phone-Plans-Among-Worlds-Most-Expensive?from=rss

US Cell Phone Plans Among World's Most Expensive

Posted by timothy on Tuesday August 11, @01:03PM from the yes-but-we-have-cheap-gasoline dept.

Albanach writes

"An OECD report published today has shown moderate cell phone users in the United States are paying some of the highest rates in the world . Average US plans cost $52.99 per month compared to an average of $10.95 in Finland. The full report is available only to subscribers, however Excel sheets of the raw data are available to download."

(You'll find those Excel sheets — which open just fine in OpenOffice — on the summary page linked above.)



Pandemic or Overreaction? Hard to tell without Al Gore...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022030.html

August 11, 2009

Flu.gov Provides Tools and Data on Pandemic Influenza and Avian Influenza

"Flu.gov provides comprehensive government-wide information on pandemic influenza and avian influenza for the general public, health and emergency preparedness professionals, policy makers, government and business leaders, school systems, and local communities."



A business model I've been suggesting for years. Converting obsolete media to “current” media. As the pace of obsolescence grow ever faster, the market for this service should grow just as fast.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10308039-250.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Pixorial collects your video, sells it back to you

by Rafe Needleman August 12, 2009 3:00 AM PDT

The family video site Pixorial opens up to the public Wednesday. It solves two problems most people will probably relate to. First, it's a nice little video editor for piecing together clips from digital cameras and the like. Second, if you send Pixorial your old analog media (VHS tapes, Super 8 film, other formats), the company will convert them to digital so you can edit them into new films.

Once your film is edited, you can then press it to DVD ($9.99) or just view it online in smallish window. If you want to download the full, high-resolution video, that's $1.99



Inevitable. But we're going to have a battle for a device that can do everything you can already do to your textbook. Underlines, highlights, fold the corner of the page, add sticky notes, etc.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/coursesmart-brings-7000-text-books-to-the-iphone/

CourseSmart Brings 7,000 Text Books to The iPhone

By Charlie Sorrel Email Author August 11, 2009 6:13 am



Tools & Techniques for the complete hacker

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-trace-an-ip-address-how-to-find-your-own-nb/

How to Trace an IP Address to a PC & How to Find Your Own

Aug. 11th, 2009 By Saikat Basu

[See also:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-trace-your-emails-back-to-the-source/

How To Trace Your Emails Back To The Source

May. 28th, 2009 By Stefan Neagu



Business Model? After all, there is always something new...

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/11/the-new-media-school-because-college-didnt-teach-you-a-thing-about-the-digital-economy/

The New Media School: Because College Didn’t Teach You A Thing About The Digital Economy

by Jason Kincaid on August 11, 2009

By now, most businesses and self-employed individuals know that they can use social media services like Twitter and Facebook to help themselves grow their customer base and (hopefully) make some money. But for most people, actually using these services presents a challenge. Granted, there is no shortage of social media ‘gurus’ who have blogged their tips, but when it comes to finding ongoing instruction from genuine experts, the pickings have been slim.

Nick O’Neill , founder of the The Social Times, is looking to help. O’Neill is launching an educational program called the New Media School, which is setting out to help both companies and individuals most effectively take advantage of the businesses opportunities afforded by the web.

The school’s first course is the Social Media Marketing Program, which entitles participants to a number of text guides as well as a series of video lectures led by a solid roster of industry veterans. Each lecture will be streamed live via Livestream, and students in the program will be able to submit questions live via an integrated chat box. The course will begin in about a week and a half.

The school is charging $147 per month, and plans to offer new content on a rolling basis.

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