Tuesday, July 10, 2012


“Oh yeah, that's in our plan to consider at some future date.” Translation: “We have no clue...”
July 09, 2012
New GAO Report on Electronic Warfare
DOD Actions Needed to Strengthen Management and Oversight, GAO-12-479, July 9, 2012
  • "DOD has taken steps to address a critical electronic warfare management gap, but it has not established a departmentwide governance framework for electronic warfare. GAO previously reported that effective and efficient organizations establish objectives and outline major implementation tasks. In response to a leadership gap for electronic warfare, DOD is establishing the Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Control Center under U.S. Strategic Command as the focal point for joint electronic warfare. However, because DOD has yet to define specific objectives for the center, outline major implementation tasks, and define metrics and timelines to measure progress, it is unclear whether or when the center will provide effective departmentwide leadership and advocacy for joint electronic warfare. In addition, key DOD directives providing some guidance for departmentwide oversight of electronic warfare have not been updated to reflect recent changes. For example, DOD’s primary directive concerning electronic warfare oversight was last updated in 1994 and identifies the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics as the focal point for electronic warfare. The directive does not define the center’s responsibilities in relation to the office, including those related to the development of the electronic warfare strategy and prioritizing investments. In addition, DOD’s directive for information operations, which is being updated, allocates electronic warfare responsibilities based on the department’s previous definition of information operations, which had included electronic warfare as a core capability. DOD’s oversight of electronic warfare capabilities may be further complicated by its evolving relationship with computer network operations, which is also an information operations-related capability. Without clearly defined roles and responsibilities and updated guidance regarding oversight responsibilities, DOD does not have reasonable assurance that its management structures will provide effective departmentwide leadership for electronic warfare activities and capabilities development and ensure effective and efficient use of its resources."


It's hard to put a value on a Privacy Officer – until after the fact. Do you suppose this was reviewed and approved by Google's Privacy Officer? Do you think the next project will be?
Google may be near record fine to settle FTC privacy charges
The Web giant is expected to pay $22.5 million to settle charges it sidestepped user privacy settings in Apple's Safari Web browser -- the largest penalty the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has ever levied against a single company, unidentified officials told the newspaper.


...as long as it doesn't fall apart until after the election.
Kim Dotcom’s Extradition Hearing Postponed Until March 2013
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The United States’ court case against Megaupload founders Kim Dotcom, Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk for alleged copyright infringement was dealt another setback Tuesday, after the New Zealand extradition hearing for the four was moved to March 2013.
Originally, the hearing was scheduled for August 6 this year, about six months after Dotcom’s home was raided in January, but a series of legal complications have pushed that date forward.
These include a High Court judge invalidating the warrants for seizing Dotcom’s property and funds — thus making the armed raid at dawn illegal. The judge also declared that the FBI shipping cloned hard drive images taken at the raid was unlawful, thanks to the warrants used being too broad and general.
… A hearing in the Federal Court of Virginia before Justice O’Grady is up next in the Megaupload legal saga.
Rothken has filed motions to vacate the orders that led to the seizure of Megaupload’s domain names and servers and says he is optimistic that O’Grady will do so.
He also expects O’Grady to order a hearing around the return of legitimate data belonging to Megaupload users. The users’ data was swept up in the confiscation of Megaupload’s assets by the US authorities, which have since then refused to return it to users.


A blog to envy? At least an example of the value of expertise (no matter how acquired) in the 'information age' Passion for a subject is as valuable as a formal education.
How This Landlubber’s Blog Became the Navy’s Ideas Machine
In January the U.S. Navy announced a crash program to convert the USS Ponce, a 41-year-old amphibious transport, into a floating base for helicopters, minehunters and Navy SEALs in the Persian Gulf. Adm. John Harvey called the ship’s three-month conversion a “remarkable feat.”
Equally remarkable is whose idea it was, though not exclusively. For decades the Navy has occasionally used big, cheap, mostly empty vessels to stage troops, boats and copters in conflict zones. But in recent years these “motherships” have become a core Navy concept, thanks in part to steady cheerleading by a 36-year-old, New York-based civilian IT consultant and part-time blogger with no military experience or college degree.


Education, what a concept!
July 09, 2012
Continuing Professional Development, Life Long Learning and Legal Ethics Education
Devlin, Richard and Downie, Jocelyn, '...And the Learners Shall Inherit the Earth': Continuing Professional Development, Life Long Learning and Legal Ethics Education (2010). (2010) Canadian Legal Education Annual Review 9. Available at SSRN
  • "After many years of debate and resistance the Canadian legal profession is finally accepting that compulsory professional development is a necessity. We argue that as the legal profession begins to design and deliver these programmes it should take into consideration the insights of the educational literature on lifelong learning. By way of a concrete example we explore the ways in which lifelong learning theory can inform the design and delivery of legal ethics education."


This makes sense only if IT become a critical part of their business model. If self-driving, Internet connected cars are in our future, perhaps this is wise.
"GM's new CIO Randy Mott plans to bring nearly all IT work in-house as one piece of a sweeping IT overhaul. It's a high-risk strategy that's similar to what Mott drove at Hewlett-Packard. Today, about 90% of GM's IT services, from running data centers to writing applications, are provided by outsourcing companies such as HP/EDS, IBM, Capgemini, and Wipro, and only 10% are done by GM employees. Mott plans to flip those percentages in about three years--to 90% GM staff, 10% outsourcers. This will require a hiring binge. Mott's larger IT transformation plan doesn't emphasize budget cuts but centers on delivering more value from IT, much faster--at a time when the world's No. 2 automaker (Toyota is now No. 1) is still climbing out of bankruptcy protection and a $50 billion government bailout."


For my Students...
LinkedIn used by 93 percent of recruiters to find job candidates
A recent survey from Jobvite found that 93 percent of job recruiters tap into LinkedIn to find qualified candidates, up from 87 percent last year and 78 percent in 2010. But the other popular social networks are growing in influence as well.
In second place, Facebook is used by 66 percent of the recruiters polled, up from 55 percent last year. And Twitter is on the watch list among 54 percent of those surveyed, up from 47 percent last year.


For my Website students: Not quite a Google hiring 'test' but interesting. (I would never send you to such a boring website.)
Government Agency Recruits Via the Source Code of Its Web Page
The Consumer Financial Protection is looking for a few good technology and design fellows to help them out. Where might they find ideal candidates? Perhaps in the pool of people who go to their website AND want to see the code behind the page. So, they inserted an advertisement for their fellowship program into the source for the site. This is, effectively, a hidden ad targeted only at the kind of nerds who "view source." Very clever.*


Global Warming! Global Warming! My Statistics class starts this week. Some items to chew on: is a 120 year sample adequate? How unlikely (improbable) is a 2 degree above average June?
July 09, 2012
NOAA - State of the Climate National Overview June 2012
Climate Highlights — June: "The average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during June was 71.2°F, which is 2.0°F above the 20th century average. The June temperatures contributed to a record-warm first half of the year and the warmest 12-month period the nation has experienced since recordkeeping began in 1895. Scorching temperatures during the second half of the month led many cities to set all-time temperature records."


On occasion, my students send me a good one. This is supposed to be a true exchange that happened on the edge of the Iraq war.
Iranian Air Defense Site: 'Unknown aircraft you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.'
Aircraft: 'This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.'
Air Defense Site: 'You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we
will launch interceptor aircraft!'
Aircraft: 'This is a United States Marine Corps FA-18 fighter.
Send 'em up, I'll wait!'
Air Defense Site: (.... total silence)

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