It's only the Times. God help them if
they shut down the SuperBowl telecast!
Hackers
in China Attacked The Times for Last 4 Months
For the last four months, Chinese
hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating
its computer systems and getting passwords for its reporters and
other employees.
… The timing of the attacks
coincided with the reporting for a
Times investigation, published online on Oct. 25, that found that
the relatives of Wen Jiabao, China’s
prime minister, had accumulated a fortune worth several billion
dollars through business dealings.
… The hackers tried to cloak the
source of the attacks on The Times by first penetrating computers at
United States universities and routing the attacks through them, said
computer security experts at Mandiant, the company hired by The
Times. This matches the subterfuge used in many other attacks that
Mandiant has tracked to China.
Keeps my secret identity secret!
I’ve been checking Foursquare’s
site occasionally today as they indicated that a change in their
Terms of Service was forthcoming. Now it’s here, and it’s great.
As I blogged earlier
today, Foursquare had implemented their new
“full name” privacy policy, announced last month, even though
it seemed to be in
conflict with their media statements that suggested nyms could be
used, and their Terms
of Service that required “truthful” registration information.
Their new
TOS, dated yesterday but uploaded today, states, in relevant
part:
Registration and
Eligibility.
You may browse the
Site and view Content without registering, but as a condition to
using certain aspects of the Service, you are required to register
with Foursquare and represent, warrant and covenant that you provide
Foursquare with accurate and complete registration information
(including, but not limited to a user name (“User Name”), e-mail
address and a password you will use to access the Service) and to
keep your registration information accurate and up-to-date. Failure
to do so shall constitute a breach of these Terms of Use, which may
result in immediate termination of your Foursquare account. We
recommend, but do not require, that you use your own name as your
User Name so your friends can recognize you more easily.
(emphasis added by me)
This is good news, indeed, and I think
they made a great policy decision. Hopefully, they’ll allow users
who registered using real names to change to usernames if they so
desire.
Frankly, I have no idea if any of this
was already under internal review before Jules Polonetsky, Greg
Norcie, and I individually contacted them with our observations
and questions, but either way, it’s a good outcome for user
privacy.
I don't think the IRS has a sense of
humor either...
"An employee of the Canada
Revenue Agency lost his job after releasing a
humorous game in which the player answers customer service calls
for the Agency, usually leading to his termination. In an email
National Revenue Minister Gail Shea said: 'The Minister considers
this type of conduct offensive
and completely unacceptable. The Minister has asked the
Commissioner (of Revenue, Andrew Treusch) to investigate and take any
and all necessary corrective action. The Minister has asked the CRA
to investigate urgently to ensure no confidential taxpayer
information was compromised.'"
Perhaps we should think about this in
the US?
"As the UK prepares to shake
up the way computer science is taught in schools, Redmond is
warning that the
UK risks falling behind other countries in the race to develop
and nurture computing talent, if 'we don't ensure that all children
learn about computer science in primary schools.' With 100,000
unfilled IT jobs but only 30,500 computer science graduates in the UK
last year, MS believes: 'By formally introducing children to computer
science basics at primary school, we stand a far greater chance of
increasing the numbers taking the subject through to degree level and
ultimately the world of work.'"
OMG! IMHO this is too much! (Don't
they Google these requests?)
First time accepted submitter 3seas
writes in about DMVs across the country learning textspeak in order
to keep
vulgar acronyms off the road.
"You can
have txtspeak on your plate in Arizona, but only if you keep it
clean. 'ROFLMAO' is a no-go. Arkansas, however, seems to be a
little slower on the uptake. 'ROFLMAO' doesn't appear on the state's
prohibited list. That doesn't necessarily mean the plate would pass
DMV scrutiny should someone request it."
Everything is a joke today... Isn't
it? I mean, would we ever see the “TRUE” sign?
The Washington Post has announced a
prototype news application called "Truth
Teller", that displays “TRUE" or “FALSE” in real
time next to video of politicians as they speak. The Knight
Foundation-funded program automatically transcribes speeches and
checks
the statements against a database of facts. From the article:
"For now, the early beta prototype has to be manually hand-fed
some facts, and thus only works on topics it has been specifically
designed to recognize. Since Congress has yet to pass a budget, and
financial discussions are prone to widespread lies and misstatements,
Truth Teller is being piloted on the issue of tax policy."
Now all I need is a reason for everyone
to give me money!
… I’d like to ... show you all of
the different ways that you can actually accept payments from people.
Dilbert
voices one of my long time concerns...
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