Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Golly Gee Willikers, perhaps that warrantless wiretapping was worth it?

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/nsa-email/

NSA-Intercepted E-Mails Helped Convict Would-Be Bombers

By Kim Zetter September 8, 2009 6:26 pm



For my Business Continuity class

http://www.csoonline.com/article/501584/Data_Breaches_Patterns_and_Their_Implications

Data Breaches: Patterns and Their Implications

What can we learn from statistical analysis of data breaches? Luther Martin digs in.

By Luther Martin, Voltage Security

September 08, 2009 — CSO — One problem that every information security organization faces is how to accurately quantify the risks that they manage. In most cases, there is not enough information available to do this, but there is now enough known about data breaches to let us draw interesting conclusions, some of which may even have implications in other areas of information security.

(Editor's note: See Bruce Schneier's analysis of ALE in Security ROI: Fact or Fiction?)



For my Forensics students. When your browser keeps your passwords for you, you tend to forget them. Here's a way to retrieve them.

http://securityxploded.com/firepasswordviewer.php

FirePasswordViewer

FirePasswordViewer is the GUI version of popular FirePassword tool designed to decrypt sign-on secrets stored by Firefox. Firefox records the login details such as username and password for every website authorized by the user and stores them in the sign-on database file in encrypted format.



For my Hacking students (I request books like this through my locallibrary.)

http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2009/09/new-book-hacking-the-next-gene.html

New Book "Hacking: The Next Generation"

By Nitesh Dhanjani September 5, 2009

With the advent of rich Internet applications, the explosion of social media, and the increased use of powerful cloud computing infrastructures, a new generation of attackers has added cunning new techniques to its arsenal. For anyone involved in defending an application or a network of systems, Hacking: The Next Generation is one of the few books to identify a variety of emerging attack vectors.



Short, but on point!

http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/09/09/german-bloggers-internet-manifesto-on-journalisms-future-makes-waves/

German bloggers’ Internet Manifesto on journalism’s future makes waves

by Markus Goebel on September 9, 2009

After stirring up their own country, the German blogger elite has launched an international version of their Internet Manifesto in English. Fifteen authors of Germany’s most popular blogs have signed a declaration about How journalism works today. The 17 articles run down from statements like “the Internet is different” and “the Internet improves journalism” to sideswipes like “tradition is not a business model” and “the web constitutes an infrastructure for social exchange superior to that of 20th century mass media”. The manifesto is causing a lot of interest and briefly took the site out at one stage.



Why doesn't everyone love Google?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=3703

National coalition of authors urge rejection of Google Book Search deal

September 8, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Court, Featured Headlines, Internet

From EFF:

A coalition of authors and publishers—including best-sellers Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, and technical author Bruce Schneier—is urging a federal judge to reject the proposed settlement in a lawsuit over Google Book Search, arguing that the sweeping agreement to digitize millions of books ignores critical privacy rights for readers and writers.

The group of more than two dozen authors and publishers, represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Samuelson clinic), filed an objection to the settlement today. The coalition is concerned that Google’s collection of personal identifying information about users who browse, read, and make purchases online at Google Book Search will chill their readership.

For today’s filing: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/authorsguild_v_google/File%20Stamped%2…

For more on this case: http://www.eff.org/cases/authors-guild-v-google



Too accurate? Dilbert insightfully defines the future of Intellectual Property.

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-09-09/



Just a thought, but if Twitter is suspending accounts because of “trends” (assumption is SPAM?) would they cut off accounts reporting on a major disaster?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/09/tweeting-about-the-gov-2-0-summit-may-cause-serious-account-suspension/

Tweeting About The Gov 2.0 Summit May Cause Serious Account Suspension

by Robin Wauters on September 9, 2009

… Published author and blogging expert Debbie Weil also got banned from Twitter for the time being, and assumes it has something to do with the fact that the hashtag #gov20e was a trending topic yesterday and may have caused Twitter to automatically suspend the accounts of several users who have been keeping busy tweeting about and from the event using the identifier. Well in that case at least the company’s trying to combat spam.



Ah the power of my blog! I asked for this and got an immediate response!

http://www.dora.state.co.us/occ/Comparison_Main.html

Telecommunications Rate Comparison Main Page

The following links provide the specific information for:

Wireline (Landline)

"*"Wireless (Cellular)

"*"Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

"*"Long Distance and Prepaid Calling Cards



Congressional Twit: “Mtg w lobyst. Lrg campain donation convinces me. LAW2B” (Laughing all the way to the bank)

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022271.html

September 08, 2009

New Political Realtiy of Web 2.0 - Connecting With the Public Via Microblogging

Newsweek: Who’s Winning the Twitter Wars? How Democratic and Republican politicians use the popular microblogging service.

  • "For the foreseeable future, Republicans will continue to broadcast their message widely,while the left-most wing of the Democratic Party mounts a quiet, steady defense. Strategists on both sides agree that Twitter—or at least, the short-form communication that Twitter has pioneered—will be crucial to campaigns for years to come. It turns out that a powerful message can indeed be delivered with only 140 characters."



Two displays to 'emulate' the two pages of an open book? Is this the right direction for e-reader design? Should it become ever more book-like or move into new areas? I strongly suspect the latter.

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/09/08/1941215/Asus-Plans-Dual-Display-E-Reader?from=rss

Asus Plans Dual-Display E-Reader

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 08, @09:52PM from the blurring-the-lines dept.

adeelarshad82 writes

"Yet more confirmation has emerged that Asus plans its own e-book reader. An Asus representative in the UK appears to have confirmed this, with the additional details that there may be a value-priced as well as a premium version. The article guesses at the price point for the low-end model — around £100 ($192). Unlike current e-book readers, which take the form of a single flat screen, the Asus device has a hinged spine, like a printed book. This, in theory, enables its owner to read an e-book much like a normal book, using the touchscreen to 'turn' the pages from one screen to the next. Asus showed off a prototype of the device at the CeBIT trade show in March."

Reader NeverBotedBush adds, "Asus's e-reader will likely have color touch screens, a speaker, a webcam, and a microphone, along with the capability to make inexpensive Skype calls." The color screen rules out using E Ink technology, so long battery life seems to be unlikely.


(Related)

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-websites-with-lots-of-completely-free-ebooks-that-dont-suck-nb/

4 Websites With LOTS Of Completely Free Ebooks That Don’t Suck

Sep. 8th, 2009 By Simon Slangen

Planet eBook

Planet eBook is a classy site that offers classic literature for free. These books, because they’re out-of-copyright, can be offered to you in an entirely legal fashion.

ManyBooks

ManyBooks works in the same way as Planet eBook, they offer pieces of classic literature for free that are out-of-copyright. However, where Planet eBook presents a carefully selected array of literature, ManyBooks handles in bulk (as the name truthfully implies).

Classic Reader

Classic Reader takes a conceptual place in between Planet eBook and ManyBooks. It offers noticably more books than Planet eBook (3,629 titles at the time of writing), its material is still more selected (by a 1-man Canadian company) and controlled.

PublicBookshelf

Contrary to the three previously mentioned sites, PublicBookshelf is NOT filled with works of classic literature. Instead, PublicBookshelf relies completely on new, promising authors who publish online as a means of promoting their printed books.

[...and my own favorite:

the Baen Free Library

http://www.baen.com/library/



Banned in Bob's class! (Yes, I'm cruel, that's what professor means! (^_~) )

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/15-popular-codes-for-smiley-faces-their-meanings/

15 Popular Codes For Smiley Faces & Their Meanings

Sep. 8th, 2009 By Tina

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