http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081129105653810
Sundown ID theft not much of a haul (follow-up)
Saturday, November 29 2008 @ 10:56 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
There doesn't appear to be any personal gain for whoever hacked into Sundown Mountain's Web site last week and stole credit card information, authorities say.
A T-shirt, Playboy subscription and photo proofs were among some of the quirky, unauthorized purchases that ended up in cardholders' mailboxes. One victim received a $4.95 box of Chinese fat-burning tea, and the box boasted that monkeys handpicked the tea leaves.
The unauthorized purchases were all low-dollar items, some of which were sent directly to the victims, said Capt. Bob Lynn, of the Dubuque Sheriff's Department.
Source - THonline.com
What price security?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081129073424272
Lesson learned: NC DHHS secures 3,829 laptops
Saturday, November 29 2008 @ 07:34 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Nearly 4,000 agency laptops have been loaded with security software to protect confidential information, the state Department of Health and Human Services says.
The agency had been under pressure to meet state security standards after a laptop theft in late October exposed tens of thousands of residents to identity theft.
The agency laptop had residents' Social Security numbers on it when it was stolen from an employee who had it on a training trip in Atlanta. The laptop had not been loaded with software that makes data incomprehensible to unauthorized users.
... It cost $101,085 to encrypt 3,829 machines. [I make that $26.40 per machine. Bob] About 273 laptops that are not being used have not been encrypted.
Source - The News & Observer
I've mentioned an increased awareness of Privacy issues. We're even starting to see media interest – but still more as “Look what the funny scientists are doing” than “This is outrageous!” (We're thinking about adding “Data Mining” to our curriculum.)
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008113006500684
You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy?
Sunday, November 30 2008 @ 06:50 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
... Propelled by new technologies and the Internet’s steady incursion into every nook and cranny of life, collective intelligence offers powerful capabilities, from improving the efficiency of advertising to giving community groups new ways to organize.
But even its practitioners acknowledge that, if misused, collective intelligence tools could create an Orwellian future on a level Big Brother could only dream of.
Collective intelligence could make it possible for insurance companies, for example, to use behavioral data to covertly identify people suffering from a particular disease and deny them insurance coverage. Similarly, the government or law enforcement agencies could identify members of a protest group by tracking social networks revealed by the new technology. “There are so many uses for this technology — from marketing to war fighting — that I can’t imagine it not pervading our lives in just the next few years,” says Steve Steinberg, a computer scientist who works for an investment firm in New York.
In a widely read Web posting, he argued that there were significant chances that it would be misused, “This is one of the most significant technology trends I have seen in years; it may also be one of the most pernicious.”
Source - NY Times
[From the article:
Dr. Pentland calls his research “reality mining” to differentiate it from an earlier generation of data mining conducted through more traditional methods.
... People and organizations, he said, are increasingly choosing to interact with one another through digital means that record traces of those interactions.
... Citing the epidemic involving severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in recent years, he said technology would have helped health officials watch the movement of infected people as it happened, providing an opportunity to limit the spread of the disease.
“If I could have looked at the cellphone records, it could have been stopped that morning rather than a couple of weeks later,” he said. “I’m sorry, that trumps minute concerns about privacy.” [Will we mandate cellphones for citizens? Bob]
Related Could be an interesting read. I'll get a copy from the library...
http://digg.com/tech_news/What_the_data_miners_are_digging_up_about_you
What the data miners are digging up about you
newscientist.com — In today's technological world we leave electronic traces wherever we go, whether shopping online or on the high street, at work or at play. That data is the raw material for a new industry of number crunchers trying to explain and influence human behaviour, as Stephen Baker explains in his new book The Numerati.
[Article: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16162-what-the-data-miners-are-digging-up-about-you.html
[Book Review: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026842.200-review-ithe-numeratii-by-stephen-baker.html
As the mathematicians explain to Baker what they are doing and how, it becomes clear that their subjects have little choice about participating in what Baker calls "the mathematical modelling of humanity".
[Book website: http://thenumerati.net/index.cfm?catID=18
There is real money to be made in the pseudo-scientific!
Firm offers DNA testing for child athletes
Published: Nov. 29, 2008 at 8:46 PM
BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 29 (UPI) -- A Colorado company is offering a new service for parents -- genetic testing to determine if they should steer their toddlers toward speed or endurance sports.
Atlas Sports Genetics in Boulder charges $149 to determine what variants a child carries of the ACTN3 gene, The New York Times reported Saturday. An Australian company, Genetic Technologies, has been offering the test since 2004.
As of Monday, Atlas will be marketing the test in the United States.
A 2003 study of elite athletes found that speed athletes were more likely to have two copies of the R variant of the gene, while endurance athletes were more likely to have two copies of the X.
But critics of such testing say the ACTN3 gene is one of about 200 that influence athletic performance.
Carl Foster, director of the human performance laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and one of the authors of the study, pointed to a Spanish Olympic long jumper who has no copies of the R variant. Foster suggested a more reliable way to determine children's athletic ability.
"Just line them up with their classmates for a race and see which ones are the fastest," he said.
Related The consensus seems to be: Order a used copy, then download a pirated electronic version.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/29/2036204&from=rss
An Ethical Question Regarding Ebooks
Posted by kdawson on Saturday November 29, @08:49PM from the cui-bono dept. Books
tytso writes
"Suppose there is a book that you want to read on your ebook reader, but it is out of print (so even if you purchase the dead-tree version of the book used, the author won't receive any royalties) and the publisher has refused to make it available as an ebook. You can buy it from Amazon as a used book, but that isn't your preferred medium. It is available on the internet as a pirated etext, however. This blog post outlines a few possibilities, and then asks, 'What is the right thing to do? And why?' I'm also curious if the answers change depending on whether you are a Baby Boomer, or a Gen X, Gen Y, etc. — I've noticed that attitudes around copyright seem to change depending on whether someone is a college student or a recent college graduate, versus someone who can remember a time when the Internet did not exist."
While we're feeling bookish...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019934.html
November 29, 2008
New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2008
100 Notable Books of 2008 - New York Times: "The Book Review has selected this list from books reviewed since Dec. 2, 2007, when we published our previous Notables list." Includes Fiction and Poetry, and Nonfiction.
Is this better?
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019935.html
November 29, 2008
Article: Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship
Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship, James A. Evans, Published 18 July 2008, Science 321, 395 (2008) [Subscription only - Supporting Online Material available free]
"Online journals promise to serve more information to more dispersed audiences and are more efficiently searched and recalled. But because they are used differently than print—scientists and scholars tend to search electronically and follow hyperlinks rather than browse or peruse—electronically available journals may portend an ironic change for science. Using a database of 34 million articles, their citations (1945 to 2005), and online availability (1998 to 2005), I show that as more journal issues came online, the articles referenced tended to be more recent, fewer journals and articles were cited, and more of those citations were to fewer journals and articles. The forced browsing of print archives may have stretched scientists and scholars to anchor findings deeply into past and present scholarship. Searching online is more efficient and following hyperlinks quickly puts researchers in touch with prevailing opinion, but this may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon."
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