Saturday, July 24, 2010

Why free speech is necessary? An indication that Queen Victoria still rules the mind of her subjects?

http://politics.slashdot.org/story/10/07/24/0517212/Australian-Enterprises-Block-Sex-Partys-Political-Site?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Australian Enterprises Block Sex Party's Political Site

Posted by timothy on Saturday July 24, @05:57AM

"Corporate web filters in some organizations are blocking web access to the Australian Sex Party, which is a registered political party that is contesting Australia's upcoming August 21 Federal Election. The site features policies and campaign material, including opposition to the Government's mandatory internet filtering proposal. Party convener Fiona Patten said that although the term 'sex' in the party's website URL could be responsible for its filtering woes, the party is unlikely to consider a name change: 'I think the fact that people are still blocking our site just because of the word "sex" in the name shows that we need this political movement.'"



If Wal-mart used RFID can the rest of the world be far behind?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12301

Wal-Mart to use RFID tags to track clothing

July 23, 2010 by Dissent

Miguel Bustillo of the Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart is about to expand its use of RFID tags to track clothing:

Starting next month, the retailer will place removable “smart tags” on individual garments that can be read by a hand-held scanner. Wal-Mart workers will be able to quickly learn, for instance, which size of Wrangler jeans is missing, with the aim of ensuring shelves are optimally stocked and inventory tightly watched. If successful, the radio-frequency ID tags will be rolled out on other products at Wal-Mart’s more than 3,750 U.S. stores.

Bustillo discusses the potential privacy concerns about the use of such tags on clothing. Dennis Kneale of CNBC Tech Check, however, poo-poos the privacy concerns and derides what he calls the “privacy police.”



Think of this as preparation for the military's version of Behavioral Advertising analysis – you only get a missile if it looks like you really want one.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/air-force-wants-drones-to-sense-other-planes-intent/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

Air Force Wants Drones to Sense Other Planes’ ‘Intent’



This shows how difficult it is to “prove your innocence” How can you tell by looking at a document if it is copyright free, copyright expired, copyrighted but sharable, or has been licensed?

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/07/24/0215247/Study-Finds-03-of-BitTorrent-Files-Definitely-Legal?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Study Finds 0.3% of BitTorrent Files Definitely Legal

Posted by timothy on Saturday July 24, @12:08AM

"It's common knowledge [Translation: The RIAA's assertion Bob] that the majority of files distributed over BitTorrent violate copyright, though the exact percentage is unclear. The Internet Commerce Security Laboratory of the University of Ballarat in Australia has conducted a study and found that 89% of files examined were in fact infringing, while most of the remaining 11% were ambiguous but likely to be infringing. Ars Technica summarizes the study: 'The total sample consisted of 1,000 torrent files—a random selection from the most active seeded files on the trackers they used. Each file was manually checked to see whether it was being legally distributed. Only three cases—0.3 percent of the files—were determined to be definitely not infringing, while 890 files were confirmed to be illegal. ' The study brings with it some other interesting statistics; out of the 1,000 files, 91 were pornographic, [Less than 10%? Impossible! Bob] and approximately 4% of torrents were responsible for 80% of seeders. Music, movies and TV shows constituted the three largest categories of shared materials, and among those, zero legal files were found."

[From the article:

"[M]any files were tagged as amateur (suggesting no copyright infringement) but further inspection revealed that they were in fact infringing," wrote the researchers.

[Princeton did a similar study with similar results: http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/census-files-available-bittorrent



For my Statistics students. When to ask Dad for money?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/024788.html

July 23, 2010

Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day inferred from Twitter

Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day inferred from Twitter, by Alan Mislove, Sune Lehmann, Yong-Yeol Ahn, Jukka-Pekka Onnela, J. Niels Rosenquist - researchers from Northeastern University and Harvard University, studying the characteristics and dynamics of Twitter.



For those times when you absolutely, positively need to rot your brain.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/23/clicker-adds-mobile-apps-social-sharing-and-check-ins-to-tv-guide-for-online-video/

Clicker Adds Mobile Apps, Social Sharing, And Check-Ins To TV Guide For Online Video

We’re big fans of Clicker, a comprehensive search engine for TV content on the web. Clicker, which made its debut at TechCrunch50 last fall, indexes over 650,000 full length TV episodes spanning 10,000 shows The startup also recently started indexing live programming on the web. Today, the startup is taking its online video guide to the next level with launch of Clicker Social, which allows people to discover, share, rate, discuss, and check-in to shows on Clicker and third party partner sites, and Clicker Mobile, which allows users to access Clicker’s service through free Android and iPhone apps.



About time they updated this interface. Really opens up another major search tool.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/features-google-image-search/

4 New Cool Improvements Of Google Image Search

This update added many new features that make Image Search quicker and easier to use. Some of the new features are obvious, but some are a bit under-the-hood, so you may not realize that they’re there unless you go looking.

Improved Tile Interface

The first new feature you’ll notice when you use Google Image Search is that revamped tile layout that is used to display images.

Better Image View Pane

Clicking on a thumbnail now loads a full size version of the photo instantly in the foreground.

Better Keyboard Integration

New Search Methods

For example, you can now search for individual images based on color. Let’s say you want to find red bicycles. On the left side of Image Search there is a color palette. If you select red and then search for bicycles you will only receive images of red bicycles.

Other search functions, like the ability to search only for faces, photos, clip art or line drawings, remain.



Because you can never have enough research tools...

http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/hqpdf-com-find-download-pdfs

HQPdf.com - Find & Download PDFs

http://www.hqpdf.com/

HQPdf.com is a new search engine that will give you the chance to download not only PDFs but also MS Word documents and data sheets of every type, along with various other documents. The site can be used entirely at no cost, and the database is constituted by .pdf and .doc files that come from all over the Internet - resources such as blogs, forums and bulletin board systems are extensively crawled. This database is regularly checked for file validity, too.

PDFs have long been the preferred format for manuals and guides, but they are also extensively used when it comes to journals and (of course) scanned books. There are so many PDFs available (and so many are surface every day) that having a site like HQPdf at hand is nothing short of vital.



Tools to augment tools – you gotta love it. (Some of my students report other instructors refuse to allow them to cite Wikipedia. How 1990s... )

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-coolest-wikipedia-plugins-browser/

The 7 Coolest Wikipedia Plugins for Your Browser

Wikipedia is one of the foremost sources of information online and there is no limit to how the site can be used for both research and for contributing information. Regardless of what your browser of choice is, you’re bound to find a plugin that will enhance your Wikipedia experience, making it easier to search through the website’s endless wealth of information.

[I particularly like:

Googlepedia

Googlepedia integrates Wikipedia search directly into Google dividing your search page into two columns. The first column contains the original google results, while in the second, the relevant Wikipedia article is displayed.

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