http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8021661.stm
Home Office 'colluded with Phorm'
By Darren Waters Technology editor, BBC News website
The Home Office has been accused of colluding with online ad firm Phorm on "informal guidance" to the public on whether the company's service is legal.
E-mails between the ministry and Phorm show the department asking if the firm would be "comforted" by its position.
Nothing new about people reacting more to tabloid headlines (Elvis is alive and practicing law in Anchorage.) than to dull, boring facts.
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/28/000200&from=rss
Twitter Considered Harmful To Swine-Flu Panic
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 28, @02:36AM from the you-have-the-flu-swine dept. Social Networks Medicine
judgecorp writes
"Twitter is being criticized for spreading panic about swine flu. This is not just knee-jerk Luddism 2.0: it's argued that Twitter's structure encourages ill-informed repetition, with little room for context, while older Web media use their power for good — for instance Google's Flu Trends page (which we discussed last winter), and the introduction of a Google swine flu map."
On a related note, reader NewtonsLaw suggests that it might be a good idea, epidemiologically speaking, to catch the flu now vs. later.
I've mentioned before that the Copyright argument has become a political football in Sweden. I think we need to keep an eye on this.
http://torrentfreak.com/swedish-isps-obstruct-new-anti-piracy-legislation-090427/
Swedish ISPs Obstruct New Anti-Piracy Legislation
Written by Ernesto on April 27, 2009
While all eyes were on the Pirate Bay trial, Swedish parliament passed the IPRED law, making it easier for copyright holders to go after illicit file-sharers. The law has only been in effect for one month and anti-piracy outfits are already facing problems using it, as ISPs take measures to protect their customers.
… Peter Danowsky, IFPI lawyer and legal representative in the first IPRED case, is not impressed with the ISPs opposition, and claims he can change the law. “Everyone in the parliament has been operating under the assumption that the ISPs are loyal to the legislation and don’t want to participate in breaking the law. If Tele2 takes this attitude and other operators follow, there will be a stronger law in the future,” he stated.
This is going to be a big area in the next few years... We might as well start learning the risks and benefits... (Some very interesting comments.)
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/28/1229225&from=rss
Why Digital Medical Records Are No Panacea
Posted by timothy on Tuesday April 28, @09:06AM from the stop-shaking-the-bandwagon-you dept. Medicine
theodp writes
"As GE, Google, Intel, IBM, Microsoft and others pile into the business of computerized medical files in a stimulus-fueled frenzy, BusinessWeek reminds us that electronic health records have a dubious history. Under the federal stimulus program, hospitals can get several million dollars apiece for tech purchases over the next five years, and individual doctors can receive up to $44,000. There's also a stick: The feds will cut Medicare reimbursement for hospitals and practices that don't go electronic by 2015. But does the high cost and questionable quality of products currently on the market explain why barely 1 in 50 hospitals have a comprehensive electronic records system, and why only 17% of physicians use any type of electronic records? Joe Bugajski's chilling The Data Model That Nearly Killed Me suggests that may be the case."
An area ill served...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021217.html
April 27, 2009
New on LLRX.com: E-Discovery in the $50,000 Case
E-Discovery Update: E-Discovery in the $50,000 Case - Conrad J. Jacoby's focus for this column is smaller legal disputes that may involve electronic evidence, including divorce proceedings and child custody matters, as well as criminal cases, all of which may require review of cell phone call records, SMS and e-mail exchanges.
[From the article:
We now have a system of discovery in which parties are entitled to discover all facts, without limit, unless and until courts call a halt, which they rarely do. As a result, in the words of one respondent, discovery has become an end in itself and we routinely have “discovery about discovery.” Report at 16.
Listen to yourselves! You have customers rabid for your content and you don't know how to monitize that? What are you, a newspaper?
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/28/0014237&from=rss
Developing World Is a Profit Sink For Web Companies
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 28, @08:17AM from the international-paradox dept.
The NYTimes is running a piece on the dilemma faced by Web entrepreneurs, particularly in social media companies: the developing world is spiking traffic but not contributing much to revenues. The basic disconnect when Web 2.0 business models meet Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East is that countries there are not good prospects for the advertisers who pay the bills. [Translation: “Not everyone wants Lexus.” What do they want? Bob]
"Call it the International Paradox. Web companies that rely on advertising are enjoying some of their most vibrant growth in developing countries. But those are also the same places where it can be the most expensive to operate, since Web companies often need more servers to make content available to parts of the world with limited bandwidth. And in those countries, online display advertising is least likely to translate into results. [What is that in actual numbers? Bob] ... Last year, Veoh, a video-sharing site operated from San Diego, decided to block its service from users in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, citing the dim prospects of making money and the high cost of delivering video there. 'I believe in free, open communications,' Dmitry Shapiro, the company's chief executive, said. 'But these people are so hungry for this content. They sit and they watch and watch and watch. The problem is they are eating up bandwidth, and it's very difficult to derive revenue from it.' ... Perhaps no company is more in the grip of the international paradox than YouTube, which [an analyst] recently estimated could lose $470 million in 2009, in part because of the high cost of delivering billions of videos each month."
You can put stuff online, but then you can view and copy the code for you own use...
File2.ws
File2.ws is a website that allows you to convert any file into an online web site. Currently supports conversion of:
* image/photo files (jpeg, gif, png, svg…)
* audio formats (mp3, ogg…)
* documents (doc, pdf, odt, txt, rtf…)
* programming source code (java, php, cpp…)
* web documents (html, htm, swf…)
* archive (zip, rar, tar…)
* video, fonts, chemical file formats and more
[I had a really smart guy in my last math class... http://file2.ws/endorsement
One more (very limited) tool for turning Youtube videos.into mp3s for your iPod.
Video2mp3
Video2mp3 is a free YouTube to MP3 Converter and allows you convert and download a YouTube Video to MP3 file online. So you are able to listen to your favorite YouTube tracks on every MP3 player.
A tool for Cindy's “Sex & Power” class, brought to you by “Perverts R Us”
NSFW YOUTUBE
Watch NSFW (not safe for work, adult, mature, flagged, inappropriate for some etc) YouTube videos without signing in or signing up for YouTube account.
Fodder for my statistics students
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021218.html
April 27, 2009
Census Bureau Releases Data Showing Relationship Between Education and Earnings
News release: "The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that workers with a bachelor’s degree earned about $26,000 more on average than workers with a high school diploma, according to new figures that outline 2008 educational trends and achievement levels. The tables also show that in 2008, 29 percent of adults 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree, and 87 percent had completed high school. That compares with 24 percent of adults who had a bachelor’s degree, and 83 percent who had completed high school in 1998. Educational Attainment in the United States: 2008 is a series of tables containing data by characteristics such as age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, occupation, industry, nativity, citizenship status and period of entry. The tabulations also include historical data on mean earnings by educational attainment, sex, race and Hispanic origin."
I'd like to have the What Hat Hackers Club do something like this, but unbiases and without the sales pitch.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10228520-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
McAfee launches free online cybercrime help center
by Elinor Mills April 27, 2009 9:01 PM PDT
… The new Cybercrime Response Unit offers a forensic scanning tool that checks for malware on the computer and cookies left by suspicious Web sites to help determine if the machine has been compromised. A toll-free number is available for people whose scan results are worrisome.
… However, the tool does not run on Firefox...
It's good to have a famous librarian (Gary Alexander) keeping an eye out for information related to my hobbies. This may even keep some of the White Hat Hacker Club members out of jail!
The legal risks of ethical hacking
Good guys’ actions sometimes indistinguishable from criminal activity, researchers say
By Jon Brodkin , Network World , 04/24/2009
When ethical hackers track down computer criminals, do they risk prosecution themselves?
Security researchers at this week’s Usenix conference in Boston believe this is a danger, and that ethical hackers have to develop a uniform code of ethics for themselves before the federal government decides to take action on its own.
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