http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10303457-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Some tweets now of out bounds at ESPN
by Steven Musil August 4, 2009 11:50 PM PDT
… The sports network has apparently banned its workforce from posting any sports-related content on social-networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook without its permission. The news first came to light Tuesday when Ric Bucher, an NBA analyst for ESPN, tweeted that he had just received an network memo regarding tweeting:
The hammer just came down, tweeps: ESPN memo prohibiting tweeting info unless it serves ESPN.
… According to a purported copy of the memo posted on the sports blog The Big Lead, Bucher may just be violating the new policy (one point begins "Avoid discussing internal policies...").
In the memo, ESPN tells employees that is "currently building and testing modules designed to publish Twitter and Facebook entries simultaneously" on ESPN Web sites and mobile platforms, and it plans to roll out the modules this fall.
(Related) Concerns about external competition.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10302980-71.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Marines, NFL in assault on Twitter, Facebook?
by Chris Matyszczyk August 4, 2009 1:13 PM PDT
… Let's start with the Marines. According to CNN, a Marine Corps order has made the Corps' feelings known with characteristic subtlety: "These Internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user-generated content, and targeting by adversaries."
… Which leads us to the pioneers, at the NFL. The New York Times informs us that certain NFL teams appear to be chop-blocking social networking square in the back of the knees.
At the beginning of training camp, Green Bay Packers players were apparently told that they would be fined $1,701 (the NFL maximum) for texting or tweeting during a team function.
Hey, I went to law school and everything. What's wrong with that judge? Wait, who did his taxes? Is he an illegal alien?
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2548
Prosecutor denies violating rights in ID probe
August 4, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Breaches, Court, Govt, U.S.
Colorado authorities say they did not violate anyone’s privacy rights when they seized thousands of tax documents to investigate undocumented immigrants for identity theft.
In a late Monday filing, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck and Sheriff John Cook also said a judge erred in halting the probe.
Read more from the Associated Press via SunNews.com
[From the article:
Weld County argued in its appeal it was impossible to identify individual suspects in the search warrant because the case centered on identity theft. [So we grabbed everyone's tax return. If you're innocent, you have nothing to worry about. Bob]
The closest pre-Internet parallel would have been a fire/flood/other natural disaster, but it would not have global impact.
http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/20563/paypal-suffers-global-outage
PayPal Suffers Global Outage
August 05, 2009 by Christopher Nickson
Online payment service PayPal suffered a global outage on Monday that took it offline for a few hours.
… PayPal processes around $2,000 per second in payments, meaning that the outage, which lasted at least two hours, took over $14 million out of the system, at least for a while.
Saving California! In one swell foop, this decision reduces the cost of housing prisoners and stimulates the (underground) economy! They could save even more by letting them all go!
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021971.html
August 04, 2009
FindLaw: Judges Order California to Reduce State Prisoner Population
Joel Zand, FindLaw: "A panel of three federal judges ordered the State of California to reduce its inmate population because of prison overcrowding, resulting in the release of approximately 43,000 prisoners during the next two years so that the state's prisons can operate at 137.5% of their design capacity. In a 184-page opinion, the panel ordered California to provide an inmate reduction plan within 45 days to carry out the court's directive "in no more than two years."
Interesting. Seems to support the open/free professional journal concept.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021970.html
August 04, 2009
Ensuring the Integrity, Accessibility, and Stewardship of Research Data in the Digital Age
Ensuring the Integrity, Accessibility, and Stewardship of Research Data in the Digital Age, Committee on Ensuring the Utility and Integrity of Research Data in a Digital Age; National Academy of Sciences
"As digital technologies are expanding the power and reach of research, they are also raising complex issues. These include complications in ensuring the validity of research data; standards that do not keep pace with the high rate of innovation; restrictions on data sharing that reduce the ability of researchers to verify results and build on previous research; and huge increases in the amount of data being generated, creating severe challenges in preserving that data for long-term use. Ensuring the Integrity, Accessibility, and Stewardship of Research Data in the Digital Age examines the consequences of the changes affecting research data with respect to three issues - integrity, accessibility, and stewardship-and finds a need for a new approach to the design and the management of research projects. The report recommends that all researchers receive appropriate training in the management of research data, and calls on researchers to make all research data, methods, and other information underlying results publicly accessible in a timely manner. The book also sees the stewardship of research data as a critical long-term task for the research enterprise and its stakeholders. Individual researchers, research institutions, research sponsors, professional societies, and journals involved in scientific, engineering, and medical research will find this book an essential guide to the principles affecting research data in the digital age.
For my (Canadian?) Computer Security students (Imagine being a hacker with a badge...)
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2544
Job opening for tech geek with privacy chops
August 4, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Featured Headlines, Non-U.S.
Must love geese? Here’s a job opening from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada that could be right up some reader’s alley:
We’re looking for an Information Technology Research Analyst – and the competition is open to the public. You can find a detailed list of requirements at jobs.gc.ca, but we can boil it down to these three basic requirements:
a university degree in computer science or information technology (or a suitable combination of education and experience, for all you hacker dropouts)
an overwhelming interest in emerging technologies and an impulse to tear them apart
an ability to analyze the pieces piled up before you and explain their importance to non-technical people.
It would help if you were obsessive about a technology in particular, like video surveillance, RFID and locational technology, information security, the convergence of surveillance systems and biometrics, or mobile technology, but it’s not mandatory.
The position is based in Ottawa, and it’s full time. Cubicles are involved. We can understand if you bring a moderate amount of cynicism about bureaucratic processes and unnecessary hierarchies to the job – although we think you’ll find our Office less burdensome than most federal or provincial agencies.
Global Warming! Global Warming!
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/newbloom/
Satellite Data Could Overturn Plankton Bloom Hypothesis
By Alexis Madrigal Email Author August 4, 2009 2:01 pm
Every year, the north Atlantic ocean turns green with plankton, and for more than fifty years, scientists thought they knew why. Now, a decade’s worth of satellite measurements suggest they were wrong.
The common-sense idea that in the spring, the sun warms up the water column until it hits a key threshold and suddenly comes alive was formalized in 1953 by Norwegian oceanographer Harald Sverdrup. But the true beginning of the plankton blooms probably begins in the dark of winter.
“We found that the north Atlantic bloom was starting much earlier than we thought and it didn’t coincide with an improvement in the growth conditions from the phytoplankton,” Michael Behrenfeld, an phytoplankton ecologist at Oregon State University. “It started in January.”
Plankton blooms are a hot topic in the earth sciences because they are one determinant of how big a carbon reservoir the oceans can be. That’s important for climate science generally, and for would-be geoengineers specifically. A new fundamental understanding of plankton blooms could change the way we model our climate now and long into the future.
Too girly? I suspect this is a gold mine waiting to be exploited. An example for the e-commerce class.
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/invity-com-create-a-wedding-website-of-your-own
Invity.com - Create A Wedding Website Of Your Own
An Indian startup, this will let any couple who is about to tie the knot publish an online wedding invitation. Invity, then, is an e-invitation platform that makes for announcing wedding plans and it also enables users to share media as regards the big event itself.
On the site, the couple can include detailed description about the upcoming ceremony and share it with those they want, be it their families or their circle of friends. The site can likewise be employed by the couple to tell the story of how they met, how they are “made for each” other and let everybody know about their conviction that they are going to last forever.
Retro cute (but a bit pricy) Perhaps we could go Older School and deliver scrolls?
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/telegramstop-send-telegrams/
TelegramStop: Send Telegrams From The Web
TelegramStop is a unique website which, as the name suggests lets you send telegrams. Yes, telegrams. Remember those good old days when you would walk to the post office just to send a few lines of message. This tool can bring those memories back.
The idea is simple. Enter a few lines of message, preview your telegram, make the payment and they take care of the rest. There is flat fee of $4.70 per telegram irrespective of your location and where you are sending the telegram. You can save on bulk orders though. Payments can be made through Paypal.
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