Thursday, March 17, 2011

“Hey, we gotta start teaching them young that they got no right to Privacy!”

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/03/17/0350211/US-Ed-Dept-Demanding-Principals-Censor-More?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

US Ed Dept Demanding Principals Censor More

"Education Department officials are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students' lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed to be harassment of some students. Under the new interpretation of civil rights laws, principals and their schools are legally liable if they fail to curb 'harassment' of students, even if it takes place outside the school, on Facebook or in private conversation. When children are concerned, where is the line between protection and censorship?"



We have the technology, therefore we have to use it!

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/026775.html

March 16, 2011

EPIC Urges Congress to Suspend Body Scanner Program, Require Public Comment Period

EPIC: "In a hearing before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, EPIC urged Congress to suspend the use of airport body scanners for primary screening. EPIC said the devices were not effective and were not minimally intrusive, as courts have required for airport searches. EPIC cited TSA documents obtained in EPIC's FOIA lawsuit which showed that the machines are designed to store and transfer images, and not designed to detect powdered explosives. EPIC was joined on the panel by radiation expert Dr. David Brenner, who has frequently pointed out the radiation risks created by these machines. The TSA, which is a federal agency funded by taxpayer dollars and responsible for the body scanner program, originally refused to testify at hearing. Eventually they showed up. Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who had previously sponsored a bill regarding body scanners, grilled the TSA officials and said the hearing would continue with more questions. For more information see EPIC: Whole Body Imaging Technology and EPIC: EPIC v. DHS."



Another comment on Privacy

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=21714

Senate Committee Holds Hearing on the State of Online Consumer Privacy

March 17, 2011 by Dissent

Nicole Friess has a recap of yesterday’s hearing on consumer online privacy:

On March 16, 2011, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a full committee hearing on the state of online consumer privacy. The hearing was the first in a series of hearings the Committee will hold on consumer privacy in the 112th Congress. The hearing focused on online commercial practices that involve collecting, maintaining, using and disseminating large amounts of consumer information, some of it potentially very sensitive and private in nature.

Read her recap on InformationLawGroup.



I wonder if we'll see Dilbert move into Noprivacyville? Could be interesting.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/03/16/0429203/Scott-Adams-Says-Plenty-Would-Choose-Life-In-Noprivacyville?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Scott Adams Says Plenty Would Choose Life In Noprivacyville

"On the other end of the spectrum from Richard Stallman, Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) speculates upon the advantages of living in a town with no privacy whatsoever. Everyone gets chipped and tracked online. 'Although you would never live in a city without privacy, I think that if one could save 30% on basic living expenses, and live in a relatively crime-free area, plenty of volunteers would come forward.'"



The latest “Sue me!” ploy?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-20044057-250.html

Crazy Zediva streams movies only out on DVD

Want to stream a movie over the Internet that's not available for streaming on a service like Netflix or Amazon? Zediva can stream films that you can only get on physical DVDs--through a goofball workaround that actually has strong legal precedent.

Zediva rents you a DVD but keeps the DVD in a player in its own facility. You then control this player remotely from your computer, and the output is piped over the Net to you. Think of it as a wall of Slingboxes, available for rent. If you want to watch a movie online that's only available on disc because it's in the pre-streaming, DVD-sales-only "window," this will punch through that restriction.



“How do I charge thee, let me count the ways...”

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/03/17/0157239/British-ISPs-Could-Charge-Per-Device?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

British ISPs Could 'Charge Per Device'

"British ISPs could start charging customers depending on which device or which type of data they're using, according to a networks expert. 'The iPad created a very interesting situation for the operators, where the devices themselves generated additional loads for the networks,' said Owen Cole, technical director at F5 Networks. 'The operators said "If we have devices that are generating work for us, this gives us the ability to introduce a different billing model."' 'The operators launched special billing packages for it, which is in direct contravention to net neutrality,' said Owen. 'If things are left to just be driven by market economics, we could end up with people paying for the amount of data that they consume to every device and that would not be a fair way to approach the market.' Owen also foresees a billing system that charges less for non-urgent data, with an email costing less per bit than either Skype or video packets that need immediate delivery."


(Related)

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/03/overlooked-att-billing-term/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

AT&T Will Charge You for Uncompleted Calls



Interesting free resource.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/026772.html

March 16, 2011

EURO-LEX Official launches of LII of India - 108 databases

"The Legal Information Institute of India (LII of India) was officially launched in Delhi on 9th March, 2011, followed by the first regional launch in Hyderabad on 11 March. Further regional launches will take place in Bangalaru and Kolkota over the next fortnight. Each launch is hosted by a partner National Law University. The official launch in Delhi was by Dr (Shri) M Veerappa Moily, Union Minister of Law and Justice, Government of India. Other Guests of Honour to speak at the launch included Dr Lachlan Strahan, Australian Deputy High Commissioner, Chief Justice Dipak Misra of the Delhi High Court, the Justice V P Reddi, Chairman of the Law Commission of India, and Prof Ved Prakash, Chairman of the University Grants Commission, as well as representatives of LII of India and of AustLII. The Delhi launch, at the Vigyan Bhavan, was hosted by the National Law University, Delhi (NLUD)...LII of India now has 108 databases (plus 8 virtual databases), with the recent additional of 59 databases of State and Territory legislation. It currently provides free online access to Indian legislation (63 databases), treaties (2 databases), case law (41 databases), law reform (1 database) and legal scholarship (9 databases). Further databases are being added." [Graham Greenleaf AM Professor of Law & Information Systems, University of New South Wales (UNSW)]



For the techie toolkit

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-disk-images-mount-virtual-drive-windows/

How To Create Disk Images & Mount Them On A Virtual Drive [Windows]



For my Math students...

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/natural-disasters/how-the-japan-earthquake-made-the-day-shorter

How the Japan Earthquake Made the Day Shorter



Not just for teachers, these videos show you how to use some nifty free software!

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/03/loads-of-great-teacher-training-videos.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Loads of Great Teacher Training Videos

When you're trying to figure out how to use a new piece of software or a new web application, searching YouTube for how-to videos often returns some useful stuff. But for teachers there is a better place to turn to and that place is Russell Stannard's Teacher Training Videos. Russell Stannard's videos are screencasts in which he walks viewers through the process of using software and web applications from beginning to end. The videos are categorized by the purpose of the application such as blogging, podcasting resources, online quizzes, file sharing, IWB, etc. There are also categories for EFL and MFL.

[For example, here is a video on JING screen capture software: http://teachertrainingvideos.com/Jing/index.html


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