I'm in Chicago this week to set the Computer Security capstone requirements. Seems they wanted a few actual practitioners to go with all those PhDs.

AT&T is obsolete?

http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/03/skype-tops-all.html

Skype Tops All in International Calls

By Ryan Singel March 24, 2009 12:29:40 PM

Skype is now the largest provider of international phone calls in the world.

That's according to telecom research firm Telegeography, which estimates that Skype’s cross-border traffic shot up to 33 billion minutes in 2008, up more than 40% from the year before.

Do you think this might be why?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10203799-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

AT&T first to test RIAA antipiracy plan

by Greg Sandoval March 24, 2009 9:53 PM PDT

AT&T, one of the nation's largest Internet service providers, confirmed on Tuesday the company is working with the recording industry to combat illegal file sharing.

At a digital music conference in Nashville, Jim Cicconi, a senior executive for AT&T told the audience that the ISP has begun issuing takedown notices to people accused of pirating music by the Recording Industry Association of America, according to one music industry insider who was present.

(25% may be illegal) This was in an earlier article, but I don't think we had a link to the report yet...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/020931.html

March 24, 2009

Database State - a comprehensive map of UK government databases

Database State, Executive Summary and Full Report - By Ross Anderson, Ian Brown, Terri Dowty, Philip Inglesant, William Heath, Angela Sasse, Foundation for Information Policy Research (March 2009)

• "In recent years, the Government has built or extended many central databases that hold information on every aspect of our lives, from health and education to welfare, law–enforcement and tax. This ‘Transformational Government’ programme was supposed to make public services better or cheaper, but it has been repeatedly challenged by controversies over effectiveness, privacy, legality and cost. Many question the consequences of giving increasing numbers of civil servants daily access to our personal information. Objections range from cost through efficiency to privacy. The emphasis on data capture, form-filling, mechanical assessment and profiling damages professional responsibility and alienates the citizen from the state. Over two-thirds of the population no longer trust the government with their personal data. This report charts these databases, creating the most comprehensive map so far of what has become Britain’s Database State."

Free clouds!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10787_3-10203590-60.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Ubuntu planning move to the cloud

by Charles Cooper March 24, 2009 4:48 PM PDT

Add Canonical to the roster of companies offering technology to help enterprise customers build their own cloud computing setups. But unlike most of the better known players in this nascent market, the twist here is that the technology will be supplied by an open source shop.

Looks like we'll need another trial...

http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10203396-12.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

PirateBay to offer cheap, unlogged VPN

by Seth Rosenblatt March 24, 2009 2:04 PM PDT

Back in July 2008, torrent tracker The Pirate Bay announced plans to encrypt the Internet. That hasn't happened yet, but they plan to offer a VPN tunneling service to the public starting April 1.

Dubbing the service IPREDator after the controversial Swedish Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) that takes effect the same day. IPRED's main goal is to make it easier for copyright holders to acquire the personal data of suspected illegal file sharers.

By offering a VPN service that doesn't log its traffic, IPREDator is simultaneously setting itself apart from other Web-based VPN services and offering what looks like a way to legally evade IPRED. Without logs, users will be able to exchange data without worrying about a subpoena revealing to whom the data packets were going, or what their contents were.

Too subtle? I can't see much change.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/020929.html

March 24, 2009

Google Announces Two Improvements to Search Results Pages

Two new improvements to Google results pages : "...we're rolling out two new improvements to Google search. The first offers an expanded list of useful related searches and the second is the addition of longer search result descriptions -- both of which help guide users more effectively to the information they need."

Give me a week (I am out of town) and I'll have a “Go to the head of the line” hack...

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/qless-com-virtual-queue-management

Qless.com - Virtual Queue Management

qless.com

This is a very interesting site that was created by a company that is in charge of generating solutions using math, technology, and generally working very hard.

One of the main objectives of this company is to eliminate standing in line. This is done through telephone software that lets your clients receive text messages as well as voice calls no matter where they are located. After they receive the message they are free to communicate with you if their roaming service allows them to do that.