This is the problem facing any autonomous device – cars, drones, Rumba vacuums, etc.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/toyota-to-collaborate-with-mit-and-stanford-on-artificial-intelligence-research/

Toyota announces artificial intelligence research collaboration with MIT and Stanford

You may have seen Google’s self-driving pod car, or the Audi RS 7 that hot lapped Sonoma Raceway, and thought they were pretty clever. But while these cars may be smart, they are not intelligent.

All autonomous vehicles built so far rely on programming to make decisions. If engineers did not write software for a given scenario, the car simply does not know what to do. One possible solution is developing artificial intelligence capabilities for future robot cars, and at a press conference in Palo Alto today, Toyota said it will take the first steps to develop that.

The Japanese carmaker will invest $50 million over the next five years to establish joint research centers at MIT and Stanford. Researchers will work to develop artificially-intelligent systems and investigate how they can be applied to future self-driving cars.

Sometimes it's hard to keep all the reasons people are suing straight. At least we are getting some interesting new legal terms like “biometric slurpage.”

(Yet another) Class action launched against Facebook over biometric slurpage

Alexander J. Martin reports on the latest class action launched against Facebook over face prints.

Facebook has been hit with a class-action complaint over its biometrics slurpage, with millions of possible plaintiffs who may claim damages if the advertising giant is found to have acted unlawfully.

The complaint (PDF) states that “Facebook has created, collected and stored over a billion ‘face templates’ (or ‘face prints’)”, which, ostensibly, are as uniquely identifiable as fingerprints. These have been gathered “from over a billion individuals, millions of whom reside in the State of Illinois”.

It is alleged that in doing this, the ZuckerBorg is in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which was passed by the state legislature in 2008.

Read more on The Register.

Background for my IT Governance students. We call them “Best Practices” or “Frameworks.”

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/use-checklist-templates-tools-prevent-mistakes/

Use Checklist Templates & Tools to Prevent Mistakes

Checklists aren’t very exciting, [In the world of Computer Security, the opposite of dull & boring is outright panic. Bob] but there’s evidence that they can make a huge difference in how well you do something. Nine hospitals in Michigan instituted a checklist system for reducing the number of infections in their intensive care units (ICUs), and infections went down by 66%, saving 1,500 lives and 75 million dollars in healthcare expenses over an 18-month period.

The hospitals’ checklist was only five items long, and included things that everyone already knew they should be doing. But just because they knew that they should do them didn’t mean that they actually did them. They often just forgot. And if doctors in the ICU are forgetting simple things, it stands to reason that you are, too.

I'm not taking sides, I'm just saying there are lots of languages to choose from.

http://www.wired.com/2015/09/facebooks-new-anti-spam-system-hints-future-coding/

Facebook’s New Spam-Killer Hints at the Future of Coding

… Brandy is a software engineer at Facebook, and alongside a team of other Facebookers, he spent the last two years rebuilding the system that removes spam—malicious, offensive, or otherwise unwanted messages—from the world’s largest social network. That’s no small task—Facebook juggles messages from more than 1.5 billion people worldwide—and to tackle the problem, Brandy and team made an unusual choice: they used a programming language called Haskell.

… Indeed, they already are. Newer languages such as Google Go and Mozilla’s Rust are designed so that developers can build massively parallel code and build it at speed. And as Brandy points out, other projects are building Haskell-like software libraries for additional languages, including “reactive” programming projects like RxJava.

Perspective and a few “Things” for my students.

http://hothardware.com/news/internet-of-things-projected-to-explode-with-massive-quadruple-growth-by-2020?google_editors_picks=true

Internet Of Things Projected To Explode With Massive Quadruple Growth By 2020

… Market research firm ABI Research predicts that the number of business-to-business (B2B) IoT connections will more than quadruple to 5.4 billion by 2020. The stat is cited in a Verizon reported titled, "State of the Market: The Internet of Things 2015." It's aimed at enterprises that might be underestimating the IoT sector by not having a strategy in place.

… Based on its research, Verizon estimates that just 10 percent of enterprises have adopted IoT extensively, though it expects that number to grow. By 2025, organizations that dive deep into IoT will be at least 10 percent more profitable than competitors that don't, Verizon says.

You can read the report here (PDF).

(Related) Is football really a high tech game?

http://www.cio.com/article/2980853/wearable-technology/the-internet-of-things-comes-to-the-nfl.html

The Internet of Things comes to the NFL

… On Thursday, when the defending Superbowl XLIX champion New England Patriots host the Pittsburgh Steelers to open the 2015 football season, each player will be equipped with a set of RFID sensors about the size of a quarter [Why so huge? Bob] embedded in his shoulder pads, each emitting unique radio frequencies. Gillette Stadium (and every other stadium used by the NFL) has been equipped with 20 receivers to pick up those radio frequencies and pinpoint every player's field position, speed, distance traveled and acceleration in real time.

… The NFL plans to use the data generated to power the NFL 2015 app for Xbox One and Windows 10, allowing for things like "Next Gen Replay" that will allow fans to call up stats for each player tied into highlight clips posted on the app. But that's just the beginning. The data will be fed to broadcasters, leveraged for in-stadium displays and provided to coaching staff and players.

… What do you need in order to effectively track professional athletes? You need the ability to track a motion in subseconds. Our tags can blink up to 85 times per second."

You also need the capability to deliver data from a tag to a server with very low latency. She notes that it takes about 120 milliseconds between the time a tag blinks on the field and when it hits a server. The location data is accurate to within six inches. [Not good enough! Bob]

(Related) For my Computer Security students.

http://www.ashdowngroup.com/news/gartner-internet-of-things-will-change-cybersecurity-dramatically-news-801799680

Gartner: Internet of Things will change cybersecurity dramatically

Another source of “Best Practices” for my Computer Security students.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/82458.html?google_editors_picks=true

Linux Foundation Security Checklist: Have It Your Way

The Linux Foundation's recently published security checklist may draw more attention to best practices for protecting Linux workstations, even if IT pros do not embrace all of its recommendations.

… "Checklists and best practices documents are how Linux Foundation IT works internally. We are just taking an extra step of making generalized versions of these documents available to others under free documentation licenses, in hopes that they are useful to other teams.

The “gig economy” is a bit bigger than I thought. Or is this a micro-bubble?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/07/us-uber-china-idUSKCN0R714320150907

Uber China raises $1.2 billion in ongoing fundraising round

Uber Technologies Inc's China unit has raised $1.2 billion as part of an ongoing fundraising round, the U.S. ride-hailing service's CEO Travis Kalanick said on Monday, even as its Chinese rival Didi Kuaidi raises $3 billion.

Perspective. (and a quote for my students)

http://www.bespacific.com/pew-8-facts-about-american-workers/

Pew – 8 facts about American workers

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Sep 6, 2015

“Although the U.S. economy is recovering and appears to be on stable ground compared with other parts of the world, there’s still a lot of debate over how to best secure the future for American workers. Some Democrats have pushed for raising the federal minimum wage, and the Obama administration has proposed new overtime rules that would make millions of Americans eligible for extra pay. Meanwhile, some Republican presidential candidates have maintained that labor unions are too powerful and impede business. Just in time for Labor Day, here are eight facts about the state of American workers….”

[From the report:

5 On virtually every measure of economic well-being and career attainment, young college graduates are outperforming their peers with less education to a greater extent than in the past.

Might make an interesting App to transcribe my lectures for my students.

http://www.programmableweb.com/news/how-to-create-advanced-transcription-and-analytics-voicebase-and-tropo/how-to/2015/09/06?google_editors_picks=true

How To Create Advanced transcription and analytics with Voicebase and Tropo

… Tropo provides an API for automating communications by connecting code to a phone network for both voice and messaging. This service is able to transcribe any recording, including multi-party conference calls. This tutorial by Adam Kalsey on the Tropo blog guides followers through creating advanced transcription with analytics using Tropo with VoiceBase’s audio indexing and transcription API.

Something to point to in several classes? Could amuse my students.

http://www.bespacific.com/our-world-in-data/

Our World in Data

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Sep 6, 2015

“Life around the world is changing rapidly – here you find the data visualizations that show you how. Poverty, violence, health, education, the environment and much more. Our World In Data covers a wide range of topics and visualizes the empirical evidence of how living standards changed over the last decades, centuries, and millennia. A web publication authored by Max Roser. (work in progress)”

Entirely too much fun for too many people.

Ashley Madison users sue Amazon Web Services, GoDaddy, and web site operators

Three John Doe plaintiffs who were paying customers of AshleyMadison.com have sued Amazon Web Services, GoDaddy, and unnamed John Roe web site owners/operators who created sites allowing people to search for individuals who might be in the database.

In a complaint filed in Arizona federal court, the plaintiffs – one from California, one from New Jersey, and one from Maryland – allege that AWS and GoDaddy hosted stolen data for the other John Roe defendants (the owners/operators of ashleymadisonpowersearch.com, adulterysearch.com, ashleymadisoninvestigations.com, and greyhatpro.com).

All of the John Roe sites allegedly attempted to monetize use of the stolen data.

The complaint alleges, for all defendants (ISP and web site owners/operators):

• violation of California Penal Code §496 (Receipt of stolen property)
• violation of California Business & Professions Code §17200 (Unfair competition)
• Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress
• Violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030

And additionally, for John Roe web site owner/operators:

• Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

The plaintiffs are represented by Kronenberger Rosenfeld, LLP, a San Francisco law firm. The plaintiffs seek $3 million and a jury trial.

But here’s the thing: do the plaintiffs have standing? Yes, information about them may have been stolen and sites may have then used that stolen information, but do they have standing to sue the defendants for receipt of stolen property when it wasn’t their property that was stolen? Do they have standing to make any CFAA claims if it was not their database that was hacked or stolen or exposed? And doesn’t Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunize Amazon Web Services and GoDaddy for this type of situation?

And even though the plaintiffs might potentially have standing for the emotional distress claims, the complaint does not allege any particularized concrete harm or imminent harm. The complaint asserts that information on all three plaintiffs was in the data dump, but is silent on the nature of the information for each plaintiff. It then claims:

Like most users, Plaintiffs have suffered damages, including severe emotion distress, due to the ability of Plaintiffs’ spouses, children, family members, community connections, business associates, and the public at large to identify Plaintiffs as Users of Ashley Madison. By this action, Plaintiffs seek compensatory damages in an amount to be proven at trial, but not less than three million dollars ($3,000,000).

So they’re not claiming that others have already identified them through these sites or that they have experienced any consequences at all of such identification. This seems to be about what might happen and the worry customers have about what might happen. Is this enough to survive a challenge to standing? I wouldn’t think so, but then, I am not a lawyer.

There’s a lot about this complaint that puzzles me, and I will be watching for updates.

Great thanks to Alexander J. Martin for providing this site with a copy of the complaint.

“To err is human, to really screw up takes a computer!” Perhaps a flawed backup process? Perhaps someone tried to backup the data manually? Unlikely their insurance will cover this.

Heritage Foundation wasn’t attacked; they leaked their own data – sources

On September 2, Heritage Foundation spokesman Wesley Denton issued the following statement:

We experienced a malicious, unauthorized data breach of six-year-old documents on an external server that appear to contain personal information of private donors, who we are notifying. We are unable to verify the authenticity of files circulated online.

All Americans have the right to support causes without fear of harassment, and that is why we respect and work to safeguard our supporters’ privacy. The Heritage Foundation has over half-a-million members with diverse views who are united with a passion to advance conservative policies that make life better for all Americans.

Heritage is a nonpartisan research and educational institution and has a longstanding policy that we do not comment on private donor or internal staff communications.

Our internal servers were not part of this breach, and we have taken – and will continue to take – all appropriate steps to ensure that our members have the ability to support public policy organizations free from intimidation.

But their claims of a malicious breach or any attempt to intimidate [??? Bob] are disputed by other details and evidence that subsequently came to this site’s attention. DataBreaches.net was sent a link to the torrent on Pirate Bay, which is prefaced with the following comments:

All the juiciest docs from the recent Heritage Foundation data leak.

And just so we’re clear, it wasn’t a hack. Heritage backed up an email archive to a PUBLIC Amazon server and it got downloaded. Big surprise.

They fucked up. Big time.

Enjoy

DataBreaches.net reached out to Heritage Foundation for a response to the allegations, but has received no response as yet.

In the interim, a commenter provided additional information that supports the claim above. On August 28, five days before Heritage announced the breach, Jay Fuller had tweeted:

jay fuller

‏@jfuller290

Hey @cnn I have a story for you! Heritage Foundation leaks email archive: http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/Debuhr/backup.zip

6:29 PM - 28 Aug 2015

That link is now 404, as Heritage reportedly took the file down, but the subdomain (thf_media) supports the claim that this was the Heritage Foundation’s subdomain. Steve DeBuhr is an assistant director at the Heritage Foundation. Whether he was responsible for uploading the backup file to his directory or for the perms on the directory is unknown to DataBreaches.net. In any event, however, it now seems clear that the foundation wasn’t attacked, but had exposed their own backup file.

Update: Post-publication, I received a note that there was another archive that was exposed on the Amazon server – this one an email archive from Steve DeBuhr. DataBreaches.net is in the process of obtaining it to inspect it, but even the first leaked backup contains a wealth of personal details about donors, including their names, addresses, phone numbers (including cell phone numbers), the amounts of their donations to the foundation, and personal notes about their health or family details (such as “married to , who is his second wife”).

It is much cheaper and easier to monitor everyone 24/7 than to constantly adjust the hours of coverage for each employee. Thinking managers would have tied this system into Payroll – did the employee move to 2^nd shift? Is the employee on vacation? Etc.

Argentina: Data Protection and Privacy in the workplace – new ruling

Data Privacy Laws reports:

The Labor court of Appeals of Buenos Aires (Argentina) issued a new ruling related to labor privacy.

The case started when the company Fischer Argentina installed in all the smart phones of its vendors a software app (called Show position) that allowed the company to monitor the physical location of the employee. The software was monitoring location of the employee even after the end of the work time in the company including weekends.

Several employees sued the company requesting a ruling declaring the illegality of this practice and to have the conditions of the working relationship free of this surveillance.

Read more on Data Privacy Laws.

These are so popular I expect the auto manufacturers to build them in by default. I also expect to hack it so it proves I was driving responsibly.

A Benefit Or Big Brother? NYC Unveils Pilot Program To Track Driving Habits

CBS New York reports that the Dept of Transportation (DOT) is looking for 400 drivers to pilot a new program. PogoWasRight.org thinks you’re nuts if you sign up.

It’s a tiny black box about the size of a pack of gum that is installed right under the steering wheel. It will allow city officials under a program called “Drive Smart” to collect and access data about how you drive — if you drive like a maniac, or if you’re Mr. or Mrs. Slow Poke.

“It can tell the g-force of hard stopping or hard acceleration and a hard turn,” DOT senior project manager Alex Keating said. “So the driver, as well as the service provider, are able to look at speeds, hard-breaking events, time of day and basic GPS.”

City officials say they’ll use to information to make the streets safer, but drivers can also allow various DOT partners to use the information. Allstate, for example, will give you insurance discounts of 10-30 percent, and Metropia will get you home faster with less congested routes — all of it hooked up to smartphone apps.

Read more on CBS.

Gee golly wollopers, Batman! Maybe Amazon does know more about selling ebooks online than the publishers! (Or maybe it was just too late.)

http://www.wsj.com/article_email/e-book-sales-weaken-amid-higher-prices-1441307826-lMyQjAxMTE1MzAxNDUwMjQ2Wj

E-Book Sales Fall After New Amazon Contracts

When the world’s largest publishers struck e-book distribution deals with Amazon.com Inc. over the past several months, they seemed to get what they wanted: the right to set the prices of their titles and avoid the steep discounts the online retail giant often applies.

But in the early going, that strategy doesn’t appear to be paying off. Three big publishers that signed new pacts with Amazon— Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group, News Corp ’s HarperCollins Publishers and CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster—reported declining e-book revenue in their latest reporting periods.

“The new business model for e-books is having a significant impact on what [the big] publishers report,” said one publishing executive. “There’s no question that publishers’ net receipts have gone down.”

A recent snapshot of e-book prices found that titles in the Kindle bookstore from the five biggest publishers cost, on average, $10.81, while all other 2015 e-books on the site had an average price of $4.95, according to industry researcher Codex Group LLC.

“Since book buyers expect the price of a Kindle e-book to be well under $9, once you get to over $10 consumers start to say, ‘Let me think about that,’” said Codex CEO Peter Hildick-Smith.

The 21^st Century Meat Market. Could this hold for companies or products?

http://www.pppfocus.com/instagram-predicts-future-of-modeling-popularity-304312/

Instagram Predicts Future Of Modeling Popularity

“Popularity” was defined as the number of runway walks in which a new model participated during the Fall/Winter 2015 season in March. The use of Instagram data and computational methods on a database of professional female fashion models will figure out various parameters including hip, waist, height, dress and shoe size, runways walked, modeling agency and eye color, before coming up with the popularity level of a particular model.

The team disclosed that a high activity on the site boosted by 15 percent the model’s odds of getting anew contract. Studies have revealed that the more popular a model was on Instagram, the more chances she had to take part in runway presentations.

Third, the scientists turned their attention to the models’ Instagram accounts.

Generally speaking, a model will be in a greatly disadvantaged position if she does not have an Instagram account, or has one with a low number of likes and comments, as that will often translate to a poorer performance on the runway. The survey focused on qualitative data determining whether the comments were positive or negative.

… The researchers also looked at the Instagram accounts of the more established models.

“Being more active played in your favor”, said Ferrara.

Models who posted more photos on Instagram were more likely to be billed as top models. Meanwhile, the positivity or negativity of the comment did not impact popularity. The tone of the comments did not affect popularity. An above the average number of likes was able to lower these odds by 10 percent, but the researchers couldn’t tell for sure why.

Our analysis suggests that Instagram is as important as being cast by a top agency in terms of its ability to predict success on the runway.

It shows for instance, that an additional inch over the average height doubles a model’s chances of walking a runway.

(Related) Looks like the candidates think it's true for them.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/252821-candidates-compete-to-go-viral

Candidates compete to go viral

Candidates are competing hard to go viral on social media in 2016.

President Obama may be big on selfie sticks, which he recently took to the Alaskan wilderness, but campaigns are looking for even more creative ways to court voters and drum up enthusiasm.

On the Democratic side, the hashtag #FeelTheBern has become synonymous with Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) upstart campaign and helped translate the online presence to large crowds on the trail.

… Here’s a look at some of the most memorable attempts by campaigns to go viral this summer:

One of the more memorable viral attempts came with Sen. Rand Paul’s (Ky.) mid-July video taking a chainsaw to the tax code in an effort to “kill” it. In the clip, which got more than 150,000 YouTube views and was teased more than a week earlier on Instagram, Paul also torched stacks of papers and fed them to a wood chipper to sell his plan for a simplified tax code and flat tax rate of 14.5 percent.

Following that stunt, Paul’s campaign released a smartphone app allowing Apple and Android users to create memes and selfies bearing his likeness. The app reportedly contains a hidden arcade game letting players zap the campaign logos of Paul’s rivals.

… After Donald Trump revealed Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-S.C.) cell phone number in late July, the senator starred in an elaborate video with IJReview instructing people on "how to destroy your cell phone."

… Donald Trump towers over the 2016 field in social media, using it as a weapon against political and media foes. The outspoken billionaire is particularly active on Twitter, using it several times daily for personally criticizing opponents, sharing flattering polls and engaging supporters.

Trump’s affinity for the social network is reaping big buzz online as he creeps toward Hillary Clinton’s 4.17 million followers. Trump has also more recently embraced Instagram as his platform of choice for launching broadsides against his 2016 rivals.

I heard a similar story on AgriBusiness TV while waiting for the local news to come on. (Yes I get up early) Got me thinking that there might be a market for analysis tools for home gardeners, even if you had to hire someone to analyze your soil.

http://www.bespacific.com/wsj-startups-put-data-in-farmers-hands/

WSJ – Startups Put Data in Farmers’ Hands

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Sep 5, 2015

Big data moves into the collective sphere of farmers who use it now directly to plan and manage all phases of crop production – WSJ.com: “Farmers and entrepreneurs are starting to compete with agribusiness giants over the newest commodity being harvested on U.S. farms—one measured in bytes, not bushels. Startups including Farmobile LLC, Granular Inc. and Grower Information Services Cooperative are developing computer systems that will enable farmers to capture data streaming from their tractors and combines, store it in digital silos and market it to agriculture companies or futures traders. Such platforms could allow farmers to reap larger profits from a technology revolution sweeping the U.S. Farm Belt and give them more control over the information generated on their fields. The efforts in some cases would challenge a wave of data-analysis tools from big agricultural companies such as Monsanto Co. , DuPont Co. , Deere & Co. and Cargill Inc. Those systems harness modern planters, combines and other machinery outfitted with sensors to track planting, spraying and harvesting, then crunch that data to provide farm-management guidance that these firms say can help farmers curb costs and grow larger crops. The companies say farmers own their data, and it won’t be sold to third parties…”

For my Math students.

https://colleenyoung.wordpress.com/2015/09/06/a-classroom-toolkit/

Top of the everyday tools list has to be Desmos and Wolfram Alpha; there are also numerous calculators and resources available; this collection is on Mathematics for students which means students can use anything themselves at home having seen it demonstrated in class. I also like to display definitions, the Reference page on Mathematics for students has very useful dictionaries and glossaries.

Be careful when using all that cheap gas.

Credit card information stolen at gas stations

I’m seeing a rash of reports involving card skimmers at gas stations, most of which I’m not posting to this blog. Here are two such reports as examples, though:

Michigan State Police and the Ionia County Sheriff’s Office are investigating reports of fraudulent credit card activity.

There have been at least 12 credit card skimmers found at Michigan gas stations within the past month. Most of them in West Michigan. Read more on WZZM.

And 127 skimmers have already been detected at Florida gas pumps this year:

Skimming devices used to steal credit and debit card data are still being found on pumps at Florida gas stations, including a Chevron station in Riviera Beach where two skimmers were found recently, the Florida Department of Agriculture said Wednesday.

The station at 4128 Blue Heron Blvd. had skimmers at two pumps. Seven other skimmers were found and removed at stations in Brevard, Broward, Lake, Miami-Dade, Seminole, and Washington counties in the last two weeks. Read more on Palm Beach Post.

But will they?

5 things the FTC should do to improve data security in the wake of Wyndham

Dan Solove and Woody Hartzog have 5 suggestions for how FTC could use its authority to improve data security:

Here’s how we think the FTC should use its authority to drive important change:

1. Do more proactive enforcement
2. Take on more data security cases
3. Push companies toward improved authentication – moving beyond mere passwords
4. Restrict the use of Social Security numbers for authentication purposes
5. Develop a theory of data stewardship for third parties

Read their article on FierceITSecurity for their explanation and comments.

I agree with Open State. Political speech is largely advertising, “See how smart I am?” We should hold them accountable for “false advertising” and all example of stupid.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3050785/tech-forecast/human-rights-watch-transparency-groups-condemn-twitters-politwoops-ban

Human Rights Watch, Transparency Groups Condemn Twitter's Politwoops Ban

Last month, Twitter revoked access to its API from Politwoops, a network of sites that automatically archived the deleted tweets of politicians.

Twitter's rationale was that deleting tweets is an "expression of the user's voice" and that "no one user is more deserving of that ability than another," the company wrote in a note to Open State Foundation, creator of Politwoops.

Open State Foundation, however, argues that the social media posts of politicians should be part of the public record, whether or not they are later deleted.

Twitter's protest that everyone has the right to expunge a tweet is somewhat disingenuous; because tweets can easily be copied, quoted, and captured by screenshot, nothing posted to Twitter is truly retractable.

Politicians don't recognize parody.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/09/man-arrested-for-parodying-mayor-on-twitter-gets-125k-in-civil-lawsuit/

Man arrested for parodying mayor on Twitter gets $125K in civil lawsuit

An Illinois man arrested when his residence was raided for parodying his town's mayor on Twitter is settling a civil rights lawsuit with the city of Peoria for $125,000. The accord spells out that the local authorities are not to prosecute people for parodies or satire.

Plaintiff Jon Daniel, the operator of the @peoriamayor handle, was initially accused last year of impersonating a public official in violation of Illinois law. However, the 30-year-old was never charged. His arrest was kicked off after the local mayor, Jim Ardis, was concerned that the tweets in that account falsely portrayed him as a drug abuser who associates with prostitutes. One tweet Ardis was concerned about said, "Who stole my crackpipe?"

As part of the agreement, (PDF) which includes legal fees, his attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union said Peoria will publish a "directive" to the police department making it clear that Illinois law criminalizing impersonation of a public official does not include parody and satire.

"The directive makes clear that parody should never be the predicate for a criminal investigation and that the action against Mr. Daniel should never be repeated again," Karen Sheley, an ACLU attorney, said in a statement.

No doubt there will be speculation that Amazon (or Alibaba?) will buy Uber.

http://qz.com/495912/uber-is-just-what-retailers-need-to-take-on-amazon/

Uber is just what retailers need to take on Amazon

Uber may have started as a ride-sharing app but it’s trying to morph into a full-blown transportation company, applying its knowhow of moving millions of people around to delivering groceries, clothes, and other packages.

This fall, Uber is planning to announce a partnership with dozens of popular retailers and fashion brands to speedily deliver their goods, reports Recode’s Jason Del Ray.

This is not going away.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clintons-personally-paid-state-department-staffer-to-maintain-server/2015/09/04/b13ab23e-530c-11e5-9812-92d5948a40f8_story.html

Clintons personally paid State Department staffer to maintain server

Hillary Rodham Clinton and her family personally paid a State Department staffer to maintain the private e-mail server she used while heading the agency, according to an official from Clinton’s presidential campaign.

… according to the campaign official, it also ensured that taxpayer dollars were not spent on a private server that was shared by Clinton, her husband and their daughter as well as aides to the former president.

That State Department staffer, Bryan Pagliano, told a congressional committee this week that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination instead of testifying about the setup.

The private employment of Pagliano provides a new example of the ways that Clinton — who occupied a unique role as a Cabinet secretary who was also a former and potentially future presidential candidate — hired staff to work simultaneously for her in public and private capacities.

(Related)

http://www.gallup.com/poll/185324/hillary-clinton-favorable-rating-one-worst.aspx

Hillary Clinton's Favorable Rating One of Her Worst

… Currently, 41% of U.S. adults say they have a favorable opinion of the Democratic front-runner, while 51% hold an unfavorable view.

(Related) I just find the quote amusing.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-hillary-clinton-emails-20150904-story.html

Clinton: Email system not 'best choice' but she didn't 'stop and think' about it

These are the ones my Business Intelligence students should be tracking.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-fastest-growing-social-networks-according-google-trends/

Here Are the Fastest Growing Social Networks You Need to Join

My geeks will love this. I'll need to look into how I can use it with my non-geek students.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/04/linkedin-open-sources-featurefu-a-toolkit-for-building-machine-learning-models/

LinkedIn Open-Sources FeatureFu, A Toolkit For Building Machine Learning Models

My industry constantly amuses me.

http://hackeducation.com/2015/09/04/hack-education-weekly-news/

Hack Education Weekly News

… A law protecting student data has been signed in Delaware – privacy legislation is a “trend,” says Education Week.

… The Department of Education announced it was awarding $25 million in grants to Twin Cities Public Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for kids’ TV. [Perhaps they have not heard that kids don't watch TV any longer. Bob]

… The Washington State Supreme Court has just ruled that charter schools are unconstitutional.

… Public school parents do not have a constitutional right to decide where to send their children to school (unless they choose to enroll their child in a private school), the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week.

… “The family of a student at the Fay School in Southboro has filed a lawsuit claiming the school’s strong Wi-Fi signal caused the boy to become ill,” the Worcester Telegram reports.

… “New report finds ongoing iPad and technology problems at L.A. Unified,” reports The LA Times’ Howard Blume. (And according to the LA School Report, there are hints there may be more problems arising from the FBI’s investigation into the Pearson/Apple/LAUSD deal.)

… “Taylor Swift’s website an example of poor privacy practices for children.”

… According to a survey conducted by the University of Phoenix, “K–12 Teachers Use Social Media at Home, But Not in Class.”

… Via the School Library Journal: “The State of the School Ebook Market.”

… Elsewhere: another year, another survey that finds students prefer printed textbooks.

For my Computer Security students. An article to think about.

http://www.securityweek.com/cyber-intelligence-competitive-intelligence-any-other-name%E2%80%A6

Cyber Intelligence: Competitive Intelligence By Any Other Name…

The current environment around cybercrime is quickly becoming a forcing function that’s causing businesses to begin evaluating how they’re doing cybersecurity across the board.

Most importantly of all, it’s forcing companies to start thinking about how to measure and prepare for the real, business impacts of cyber threats lest they be held legally accountable by, say, the fine folks at the FTC. Or any number of voracious civil suit-seeking lawyers [Hee, hee. Bob] closely monitoring their failings and foibles.

But words and phrases like “begin evaluating” and “start thinking about” don’t equate to decision-making or “doing” anything real about it at all.

In fact, despite a cyber and business “pop culture” zeitgeist brimming with signs and indicators that people really are starting to notice cyber insecurity (Mr. Robot’s ratings anyone?), an alarming number of companies put some very considerable roadblocks in front of themselves for not getting started on the same sorts of “competitive intelligence” programs for cyber that have become widely used and benefited from across industry.

(Related) Microsoft gathers data about you to keep itself competitive.

http://www.securityweek.com/microsoft-boosts-remote-data-collection-windows-7-and-8

Microsoft Boosts Remote Data Collection in Windows 7 and 8

Following a series of updates meant to prepare Windows 7 and Windows 8 for the impending upgrade to Windows 10, Microsoft pushed the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to existing devices and began collecting more data on them, as Winaero notes in a recent article.

A quick look at the Windows 8.1 Feature Supplement reveals that Microsoft is already collecting details on how the platform, application, computers, and connected devices, are used, as part of its Windows Customer Experience Improvement Programs (CEIP).

As long as you don't collide with planes, do whatever you want?

https://news.vice.com/article/faa-approves-corporations-use-of-drones-to-collect-data-prompting-protest-from-privacy-advocates

FAA Approves Corporation's Use of Drones To Collect Data, Prompting Protest from Privacy Advocates

The August 28 decision allows a Washington, DC-based company, called "Measure," to fly the largest fleet of commercial drones on record, a FAA spokesman told VICE News. The company has produced reports with the American Red Cross and the American Farm Bureau on how bird's eye views could help first responders in a disaster or farmers seeking to maximize their harvests.

… It's important to note that the FAA granted Measure an exemption to fly its drones. That's because, currently, it's technically illegal for businesses to fly unmanned aerial vehicles unless they obtain a FAA waiver. The FAA has granted more than 1,000 exemptions so far as it drafts regulations to govern drones.

But the FAA's proposed rules, as currently written, address only safety. The National Telecommunications & Information Administration, meanwhile, is considering how the federal government might address drones and privacy.

… While the federal government drafts its regulations, state governments are instituting a hodgepodge of rules.

The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that 26 states have enacted laws regulating drones, often with the aim of dissuading peeping toms whose drone use has prompted violent reactions, like the Kentucky father who shot down a drone he thought was spying on his sunbathing daughters. (The pilot claimed he was snapping photos of a friend's nearby house).

For Hillary: An article to think about? (No doubt Hillary will suggest that Snowden isn't an objective observer, but she won't dispute the conclusions.)

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/252663-snowden-clintons-email-server-a-problem

Snowden: Clinton's email server 'a problem'

National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden said on Thursday that 2016 Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is likely aware her personal email server exposed sensitive national intelligence.

Snowden added that lesser employees would have lost their jobs for copying Clinton’s actions during her tenure as secretary of State.

“This is a problem because anyone who has the clearances that the secretary of State has, or the director of any top level agency has, knows how classified information should be handled,” he said, according to excerpts of an Al Jazeera interview airing Friday.

Sometimes you learn what a tool/technology can do when you see what they promise not to do.

http://www.bespacific.com/justice-department-announces-enhanced-policy-for-use-of-cell-site-simulators/

Justice Department Announces Enhanced Policy for Use of Cell-Site Simulators

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Sep 3, 2015

“The policy, which goes into effect immediately and applies department-wide, will provide department components with standard guidance for the use of cell-site simulators in the department’s domestic criminal investigations and will establish new management controls for the use of the technology… Cell-site simulators are just one tool among many traditional law enforcement techniques and are deployed only in the fraction of cases in which the capability is best suited to achieve specific public safety objectives. To enhance privacy protections, the new policy establishes a set of required practices with respect to the treatment of information collected through the use of cell-site simulators. This includes data handling requirements and an agency-level implementation of an auditing program to ensure that data is deleted consistent with this policy. For example, when the equipment is used to locate a known cellular device, all data must be deleted as soon as that device is located, and no less than once daily. Additionally, the policy makes clear that cell-site simulators may not be used to collect the contents of any communication in the course of criminal investigations. This means data contained on the phone itself, such as emails, texts, contact lists and images, may not be collected using this technology. While the department has, in the past, obtained appropriate legal authorizations to use cell-site simulators, law enforcement agents must now obtain a search warrant supported by probable cause before using a cell-site simulator. There are limited exceptions in the policy for exigent circumstances or exceptional circumstances where the law does not require a search warrant and circumstances make obtaining a search warrant impracticable. Department components will be required to track and report the number of times the technology is deployed under these exceptions. To ensure that the use of the technology is well managed and consistent across the department, the policy requires appropriate supervision and approval.”

[The policy: http://www.justice.gov/opa/file/767321/download

Legal arguments are fun!

The Microsoft Warrant Case: A Response to Orin Kerr

With less than a week before the Second Circuit considers the dispute between Microsoft and the government over emails stored in Ireland (an issue I have blogged about here, here, and here), I thought it worth responding to Orin Kerr’s novel suggestions as to how to understand the case. Over at the Washington Post, Kerr explains why both parties have the analysis all wrong. He then suggests that, under the (erroneous) theory being pursued, the government ought to win. I disagree with both points.

Is Google automating doctors? (auto-diagnosis?)

http://www.bespacific.com/google-increases-health-information-available-via-search/

Google increases health information available via search

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Sep 3, 2015

Google Inside Search: “In early August, New York City saw an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, a very rare and sometimes deadly form of pneumonia. As more outbreaks came to light, Google searches for Legionnaires’ disease spiked over 1,000%. People wanted to know what this disease is, why it’s spreading, and how to prevent it. So we quickly updated our health conditions feature (first launched last February) to provide information on Legionnaires’ right up front, from a simple search. Indeed, health conditions continue to be among the most important things people ask Google about, and one of our most popular features. So today we’re announcing broader updates—over the next few weeks, you’ll notice:

• Hundreds more health conditions (soon over 900 total, more than double the number we started with) where you’ll get quick at-a-glance info on symptoms, treatments, prevalence, and more
• Visual design improvements and some more specific triggering so it’s quicker and easier to get the info you need (for example, you can now search for “pink eye symptoms” and you’ll get straight to the symptoms tab)
• A ‘Download PDF’ link so you can easily print this information for a doctor’s visit—this has been a top request from doctors.”

This is not an explanation.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250293?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=google-editors-pick&google_editors_picks=true

SAT Scores Fall to Lowest Level in 10 Years

There's no obvious reason why average SAT scores continue to fall, but continue to fall they do.

… Across all three sections, scores slumped slightly from last year's averages. For math, the mean was 511, down from 513 last year. For reading, it was 495 (down from 497) and for writing it was 484 (down from 487).

Unfortunately, this year's decrease isn't a one-off: Overall, SAT scores have been falling slightly but steadily since 2010, when students averaged 515 in math, 500 in reading and 491 in writing.

… This percentage varied drastically across racial groups, however. While only 16 and 23 percent of African-Americans and Hispanics, respectively, hit the benchmark, 61 percent of Asians and 53 percent of white test-takers did so. In general, students' scores have been shown to consistently rise with family income.

(Related) Can Facebook help educate students?

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/252696-facebook-working-with-charter-schools-on-software

Facebook working with charter schools on software

Facebook is developing software, which it hopes to one day make available to any school that wants it, that helps teachers run personalized lesson plans for students, the company said Thursday.

The company is helping to further develop the software used by charter school operator Summit Public Schools, which says it tailors lessons to each student.

“They told us that while this model was changing the way kids learn, the technology just wasn’t good enough,” said Chris Cox, the company’s product head, in a blog post. “So what if we could build this together and then give it away for free?”

The product appears to allow teachers to craft curriculums for students and for students to track their progress, according to screenshots offered by Facebook. Cox said that the technology gives teachers more time to work one-on-one with students in the classroom.

… Cox looked to calm potential fears about the privacy of students who use the software. He said that it does not require students to have Facebook accounts, and that the team developing the program is separate from the social giant’s main operations.

For my entrepreneurial students.

This jacket will change the way you travel

… A 15-feature “travel jacket,” which launched two months ago, just made a killing in a Kickstarter campaign that ended at 1 p.m. this afternoon. Originally aiming for a $20,000 goal, a total of 44,949 project backers pledged a whopping $9.19 million for the garment, which makes it the crowd-funding website’s most successful clothing campaign, according to reports. The $20,000 goal was met in a matter of hours, when the original intent was to raise the sum in a 58-day period.

Perspective. Some interesting App stats. Compare “most downloaded” to “most revenue”

http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/02/facebook-google-apple-dominate-top-apps-of-all-time-lists-candy-crush-and-clash-of-clans-are-top-games/

Facebook, Google, Apple Dominate Top Apps Of All Time Lists; Candy Crush And Clash Of Clans Are Top Games

A new report from app store analytics firm App Annie this morning offers insight into the most popular – and profitable! – iOS applications of all time. Not surprisingly, the most downloaded app to date is Facebook, which also places elsewhere in the top 10 list thanks to its other mobile properties like Facebook Messenger (#2), Instagram (#4) and WhatsApp Messenger (#6).

Meanwhile, King’s Candy Crush Saga is the world’s most downloaded game, but Supercell’s Clash of Clans edged it out in terms of revenue.

Prepackaged App tools?

http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/emarketing/plyfe-brings-interactive-tools-to-small-business.html?google_editors_picks=true

Plyfe Brings Interactive Tools to Small Business

You've seen all the great interactive Web tools that big companies use—trivia games, polls, and image carousels that keep site visitors engaged. It's difficult for small businesses to offer those same experiences, because the coding requirements often lie outside their reach. Unless your core business relates to technology or Web design, you probably don’t have that kind of expertise in-house.

The Plyfe platform changes all that by offering ready-to-use interactive cards for websites, social media channels, and mobile devices—all without any coding needed and all for free.

Dilbert shows us what females think is a defect.

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-09-04

So, the manufacturers send their phones to “middlemen” who install spyware, then return the phones for packaging?

26 Mobile Phone Models Contain Pre-Installed Spyware

Tara Seals reports:

Over 190.3 million people in the US own smartphones, but many do not know exactly what a mobile device can disclose to third parties about its owner. Mobile malware is spiking, and is all too often pre-installed on a user’s device.

Following its findings in 2014 that the Star N9500 smartphone was embedded with extensive espionage functions, G DATA security experts have continued the investigation and found that over 26 models from some well-known manufacturers including Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi, have pre-installed spyware in the firmware.

However, unlike the Star devices, the researchers suspect middlemen to be behind this, modifying the device software to steal user data and inject their own advertising to earn money.

Read more on InfoSecurity.

[From the article:

Further, the G DATA Q2 2015 Mobile Malware Report shows that there will be over two million new malware apps by the end of the year.

Like my students, some (most?) parents don't bother reading the instructions.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/03/baby_monitors_insecure_internet_things/

IoT baby monitors STILL revealing live streams of sleeping kids

… Isolated real-world reports of hacking of baby monitors date back at least two years, so it’s not as if the problem is new.

Last year privacy watchdogs at the ICO warned parents to change the default passwords on webcams to stop perverts shopping on kids.

The warning followed a security flap created by the site, hosted in Russia, that streamed live footage ranging from CCTV networks to built-in cameras from baby monitors. The website itself – insecam.cc – accesses the cams using the default login credentials, which are freely available online for thousands of devices.

Legal doublethink. This poor, helpless minor will be charges as an adult. (Isn't the legal marrying age in the south somewhere around 12? Or is that only for first cousins?) The boyfriend was also charged.

NC Law: Teens who take nude selfie photos face adult sex charges

Paul Woolverton reports:

After a 16-year-old Fayetteville girl made a sexually explicit nude photo of herself for her boyfriend last fall, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office concluded that she committed two felony sex crimes against herself and arrested her in February.

The girl was listed on a warrant as both the adult perpetrator and the minor victim of two counts of sexual exploitation of minor – second-degree exploitation for making her photo and third-degree exploitation for having her photo in her possession.

Read more on Fay Observer.

Typical bureaucracy: When in doubt, hire more underlings, ask for a larger budget,

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/252522-faa-bolsters-drone-outreach-with-new-hires

FAA bolsters drone outreach with new hires

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Wednesday brought on two high-level officials to help lead the agency’s regulation of drone flights in the United States.

The agency hired Hoot Gibson as senior adviser on drone integration, a new position that reports to the FAA deputy administrator. The position, first announced in May, will focus on outreach to other areas of the government and airspace stakeholders.

The agency also hired Earl Lawrence to become the new director of the UAS Integration Office, which has been vacant since the retirement of Jim Williams in June. The office was created in 2013 to help create regulations to safely integrate drones into the nation’s airspace.

Just in case you missed it. Initial reports always seem to underestimate the damage. Imagine if this had been something really dangerous, like Donald Trump's hair tonic.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/09/01/pentagon-says-army-mistakenly-sent-live-anthrax-all-50-states.html

Pentagon Now Says Army Mistakenly Sent Live Anthrax to All 50 States

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work has repeatedly said the scandal over the military's mistaken shipment of live anthrax spores around the nation and the world would get worse -- and he was right.

The number of labs that received live anthrax has more than doubled to 194 since Work and Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, released a report in July on the shipments of the deadly pathogen from the Army's Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah.

The number of states receiving live anthrax also more than doubled to include all 50 states and Washington, D.C., plus Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

The world gets its news from Twits?

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/252521-survey-almost-90-percent-of-twitter-users-turn-to-platform-for-news

Nearly 9 in 10 people on Twitter use it to get news

… Eighty-six percent of users overall say they use the platform for news, according to the study, which was funded by Twitter but developed independently by the American Press Institute and released Tuesday.

… A Pew Research Center earlier this year found that use of Twitter and Facebook to consume news is on the rise, with current users seeing more news on the platforms.

(Related)

http://recode.net/2015/09/02/apple-adds-more-publishers-for-its-news-app-which-will-launch-soon/

Apple Adds More Publishers for Its News App, Which Will Launch Soon

One thing you won’t hear much about at Apple’s media event next week: Its News app, a newsreader that will work something like Flipboard, that will be included in Apple’s upcoming iOS 9 software this fall.

That doesn’t mean Apple isn’t interested in getting the word out about the app, which it has been fixing up since debuting a rough-around-the-edges beta a few months ago. It has also signed up more publishers for the launch, which will likely be in the next few weeks. When it announced News at WWDC in June, Apple had 18 publishers on board; now it says it has more than 50.

Should we consider the source and laugh at this guidance?

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/82448.html?google_editors_picks=true

White House Wants Feedback on IT Contract Security

Cybersecurity is a key component of all contracts between U.S. government agencies and information technology vendors. Yet cyberbreaches continue to occur – some of them with alarming scope and depth.

The White House is seeking input from private sector vendors and others on how to improve the cybersecurity elements involved in federal government purchases of IT equipment and services. The Office of Management and Budget recently released draft guidance dealing with that issue, and it will accept input on the proposal until Sept. 10.

Someone has to fall on his sword! Will that be the job of the staffers who will testify? What could they say? “We did it, Hillary was ignorant?”

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/hillary-clinton/former-hillary-clinton-email-staffer-subpoenaed-plans-plead-fifth-n420711

Ex-Hillary Clinton Staffer Who Set Up Email Server Plans to Plead the Fifth

A former Hillary Clinton staffer who helped set up the former secretary of state's private email server has vowed to invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions after a congressional committee subpoenaed him, MSNBC confirmed late Wednesday.

Bryan Pagliano, who worked for Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign and at the State Department, has been identified in digital records as the person who set up her email server in 2009.

… A Clinton campaign aide said in a statement to NBC News Wednesday the candidate has encouraged aides to answer any questions.

(Related) It's easy to teach Best Practices if you have plenty of really, really bad examples. It does raise yet another question: Did Hillary's server block all known security issues? Did she ever receive emails from unknown sources and open them?

http://www.securityweek.com/executive-it-security-problem-lessons-learned-hillary-clinton

The "Executive" IT Security Problem - Lessons Learned from Hillary Clinton

… Not every executive wants to dedicate space in their bathroom to an email server. But there are companies without a BYOD policy where executives insist on using personal tablets. Yahoo’s CEO famously refused to put a passcode on her personal phone. Some execs retain access to sensitive information following retirement. They insist on downloading software from any Internet site they want to. With authority and resources, convenience is easily prioritized over policy.

Further, the risks presented by privileged users, including executives, continues evolving. No longer limited to the malicious or careless user, we now are confronted with outsiders obtaining and abusing insider credentials. Spear phishing executives, or “whaling” is a rising attack vector to take advantage of the broad access attackers possess, while self-inflicted vulnerabilities make them a softer target as well.

Not analysis of bits and bytes. Using tech to record artifacts before some fanatic destroys them.

http://www.bespacific.com/institute-for-digital-archaeology/

Institute for Digital Archaeology

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Sep 2, 2015

“Digital archaeology represents the natural evolution of classical archaeology, permitting researchers to look at ancient objects in a whole new way, to uncover hidden inscriptions, invisible paint lines, the faintest palimpsests... and to share these discoveries with the world.”

The Million Image Database Project – “In collaboration with UNESCO World Heritage and the epigraphical database project at NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World and engineering specialists at Oxford University, we hope to capture one million 3D images of at-risk objects by the end of 2016. To that end, we have created a heavily modified version of an inexpensive consumer 3D camera that will permit inexperienced users to capture archival-quality scans. The camera has the facility to upload these images automatically to database servers where they can be used for study or, if required, 3D replication. It is our intention to deploy up to five-thousand of these low-cost 3D cameras in conflict zones throughout the world by the end of 2015. Each camera contains an automated tutorial package that will help field users – local museum affiliates, imbedded military, NGO employees and volunteers – both to identify appropriate subject matters and to capture useable images. This project is the first of its kind in both purpose and scale. However, it is our hope that it will become a model for future similar endeavors. All of the associated technology and software will be open-source to facilitate that goal.” This project is especially timely in light of the seemingly unstoppable destruction of antiquities, including in Palmyra, Syria.

If you thought “old stuff” disappeared you haven't tried to buy anything for your horse recently. Weak and poor quality companies are forced out of the market, but the survivors always command a premium.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-01/this-company-is-still-making-audio-cassettes-and-sales-are-better-than-ever

This Company Is Still Making Audio Cassettes and Sales Are Better Than Ever

The audiocassette tape is not dead. In fact, one Springfield, Mo., cassette maker says it has had its best year since it opened in 1969.

“You can characterize our operating model as stubbornness and stupidity. We were too stubborn to quit,” said National Audio Company President Steve Stepp.

NAC is the largest and one of the few remaining manufacturers of audiocassettes in the U.S. The profitable company produced more than 10 million tapes in 2014 and sales are up 20 percent this year.

I do want to collect articles like this. I think they would benefit my students.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/not-use-phone-phone-like-prick/

Leaving Voicemails, and Other Prickish Phone Habits

… With all the focus on what smartphones can do and how they’re affecting us, many people have lost sight of how to use our phones like an actual, original, dial-a-number phone without behaving like an ass. This isn’t an argument against buying a smartphone, but just a sad fact of life.