Tuesday, February 07, 2012


See? It can be done. And the article tells readers how it works (“it scrambles”) and where they can get it...
IN: Computers stolen from government office had encryption in place
February 7, 2012 by admin
Daniel Miller reports that 10 laptops loaded with classified and personal information were swiped over the weekend from the Department of Child Services in Hendricks County, Indiana, but thankfully, they were encrypted.
Read more on WISH.


Local Oops! Passwords & pass-phrases are forgotten. Write them down and store them someplace safe.
Wouldn't her lawyer have had a duty to ensure the password was preserved?
Defendant Ordered to Decrypt Laptop May Have Forgotten Password
February 6, 2012 by Dissent
David Kravets reports:
A Colorado woman ordered to decrypt her laptop so prosecutors may use the files against her in a criminal case might have forgotten the password, the defendant’s attorney said Monday.
The authorities seized the Toshiba laptop from defendant Ramona Fricosu in 2010 with a court warrant while investigating alleged mortgage fraud. Ruling that the woman’s Fifth Amendment rights against compelled self-incrimination would not be breached, U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ordered the woman in January to decrypt the laptop.
Read more on Threat Level.
Since I am personally struggling to recall an encryption key that I did not write down, I am prepared to believe any claims of forgetting. But what will the court do?


Have I already mentioned this?
Privacy in the Age of Big Data: A Time for Big Decisions
By Peggy Garvin Source: Stanford Law School
From the article:
We live in an age of “big data.” Data has become the raw material of production, a new source of immense economic and social value. Advances in data mining and analytics and the massive increase in computing power and data storage capacity have expanded, by orders of magnitude, the scope of information available to businesses, government, and individuals. … Data create enormous value for the global economy, driving innovation, productivity, efficiency, and growth. At the same time, the "data deluge" presents privacy concerns that could stir a regulatory backlash, dampening the data economy and stifling innovation. In order to craft a balance between beneficial uses of data and the protection of individual privacy, policymakers must address some of the most fundamental concepts of privacy law, including the definition of "personally identifiable information," the role of consent, and the principles of purpose limitation and data minimization.
[Stanford Law Review Online, 2 February 2012]
+ Link to full article (PDF; 111.46 KB) or HTML version


Are these used to vet people you meet on those dating websites?
February 06, 2012
FTC Warns Marketers That Mobile Apps May Violate Fair Credit Reporting Act
News release: "The Federal Trade Commission warned marketers of six mobile applications that provide background screening apps that they may be violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The FTC warned the apps marketers that, if they have reason to believe the background reports they provide are being used for employment screening, housing, credit, or other similar purposes, they must comply with the Act. According to the FTC, some of the apps include criminal record histories, which bear on an individual's character and general reputation and are precisely the type of information that is typically used in employment and tenant screening."


eLaw: Sort of the electronic equivalent of flashing your lights at oncoming traffic or listening to “traffic reports” – are either of those things illegal?
Brazil sues Twitter users over speed trap and traffic tweets
Twitter might have to decide quickly whether to start its new policy of removing tweets on a country-by-country basis.
Today, the attorney general of Brazil filed a preliminary injunction to block tweets and suspend the accounts of Twitter users who use the social-networking site to warn people about radar locations, speed traps, and DUI checkpoints in the Brazilian state of Goias, according to the news group O Globo.


Another eLaw case: There's “Social” and then there's “Social for Hire”
Employee or Employer: Who Owns the Twitter Followers?
A blogger might be on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in economic damages after allegedly hijacking his former employer’s Twitter followers.
A lawsuit brought by South Carolina-based PhoneDog Media, a mobile-phone review site, raises a novel legal issue asking the simple question: Who owns an account’s Twitter followers, the employee or employer? For the moment, it looks like the employer does.
The PhoneDog website sued a former blogger, Noah Kravitz of Oakland, California, alleging that when Kravitz resigned in 2010 he took the company’s more than 17,000 followers with him to a new job at TechnoBuffalo, a PhoneDog competitor. The lawsuit accuses Kravitz of changing his username from @PhoneDog_Noah to @noahkravitz. [Surely changing your username isn't a crime (is it a tort?) Bob]
… PhoneDog says it provided Kravitz with the original Twitter username. The company says its staff is given Twitter handles in the pattern of @PhoneDog_(name).
“As a direct and proximate result of defendant’s wrongful acts, PhoneDog has suffered damage to its business by way of lost advertising revenue,” according to PhoneDog’s suit (.pdf) against Kravitz in San Francisco federal court.


Since the rule is “I know it when I see it” we'll need a few thousand examples to confirm that none rise to the level of Art and no new scientific principles are being documented.
Copyright defendant: Porn may be, um, unprotected
As Torrent Freak uploads the tale--backed up by a court-filed complaint (see below)--not long ago, an outfit calling itself Hard Drive Productions sued one Liuxia Wong over her alleged illegal download. Hard Drive later allegedly sought to drive a hard bargain by offering to settle its complaint with Wong for a mere $3,400.
The good lady was unimpressed. So she decided to sue, accusing Hard Drive--among other things--of harassment.
She also wonders whether Hard Drive could even have a case, arguing as she does that porn cannot be copyrighted.
Wong and her lawyers lean heavily on Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which empowers Congress to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."
The question that might trouble some is whether porn promotes the progress of science and the useful arts


A complement for TED?
"Google on Monday released a website and video regarding its Solve for X project, which the company says is 'a place where the curious can go to hear and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems.' It's got a TED-like think tank feel to it, but possibly with oodles of Google resources behind it. It appears related to Google's up-to-now largely secretive Google X research lab that the New York Times recently shed some light on."


Another useful(?) Google site
This website provides links to webinars, events, and usergGroups enabling you to connect with Google's Education team, their partners, and other educational institutions using Google Apps.


For my students
… For several years now, colleges and universities have posted for free academic courses via iTunes podcasts. But now in iTunes U, Apple is expanding the service by providing access to complete courses from leading universities and other schools.
For now the courses are completely free–requiring only your time to work through the lectures and assignments.
… You can access and view all the courses in iTunes U either through the iTunes U application itself, or in iTunes on your Mac or PC.


Simple tools...
Monday, February 6, 2012
It is no secret that I am a Google fan boy which is why I use Chrome as my primary web browser. Chrome is my browser of choice in part because of the numerous useful browser extensions and add-ons that are available for it. In the video below I demonstrate my three favorite Chrome extensions that I think every teacher can benefit from using. These extensions are also available for Firefox and Safari.


Just in case everyone who tells me “I'm gonna start a Blog some day” actually means it...

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