I doubt any country is completely
unaware that spying is an ongoing fact. More likely, this is an
attempt to calm their citezens who otherwise will be asking, “do you do that
to us?”
Brazil warned US
Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday that failure to resolve the
row over Washington’s electronic spying could sow mistrust between
the two countries, AFP reports.
Brazil was
outraged by media reports of widespread US phone and Internet
eavesdropping based on information leaked by fugitive intelligence
contractor Edward Snowden.
Read more on Tengri
News.
(Related) Don't mention it in public.
Send lower ranking 'officials' out to deny it. All of that works
just fine until the cat is let out of the bag.
Jennifer Stisa Granick and Christopher
Jon Sprigman write:
It seems that
every day brings a new revelation about the scope of the NSA’s
heretofore secret warrantless mass surveillance programs. And as we
learn more, the picture becomes increasingly alarming. Last week we
discovered
that the NSA shares information with a division of the Drug
Enforcement Agency called the Special Operations Division (SOD). The
DEA uses the information in
drug investigations. But it also gives NSA data out to other
agencies – in
particular, the Internal Revenue Service, which, as you might
imagine, is always looking for information on tax cheats.
The Obama
Administration repeatedly has assured us that the NSA does not
collect the private information of ordinary Americans. Those
statements simply are not true.
Read more on Forbes.
Amusing. Try the mindmap!
An
Educated Guess About How the NSA Is Structured
Just because the President is watched
like a hawk does not mean he understands the concerns of us “second
class” citizens.
Anita Kumar and Jonathan S. Landay
report:
In pledging to
make changes that could curtail the federal government’s ability to
spy on Americans, President Barack Obama failed to address calls by
lawmakers and experts to overhaul a law that allows the National
Security Agency to search vast databases of individual Americans’
emails without court warrants.
Read more on McClatchy.
I’m sure that was just an oversight
on his part. I mean, how many surveillance programs can we expect
him to keep in mind at any one time, right?
I'm surprised they know what Privacy
is...
Where
Teens Seek Online Privacy Advice
Many teens ages 12-17 report that they
usually figure out how to manage content sharing and privacy settings
on their own.
… At the same time, though, a
nationally representative survey of teen internet users shows that,
at some point, 70% of them have sought advice from someone else about
how to manage their privacy online. When they do seek outside help,
teens most often turn to friends, parents or other close family
members.
Can a mere MD be expected to understand
HIPAA (HIA) and contract law?
Kevin Vink rerports:
A local physician
reported the loss of control over more than 1,500 patient records
when she was unable to retrieve them upon leaving the Didsbury
Medical Clinic to start a clinic of her own, according to officials.
Following an
investigation by the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) of
Alberta, Rachel Hayward, portfolio officer for the OIPC, wrote in her
investigation report — H2013-IR-01 – that Dr. Dianne Smith did
not follow the Health Information Act (HIA), because she did not
have a direct contract with the Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
provider for the clinic, as outlined in the HIA.
“When custodians
do not directly sign agreements with their EMR vendors, they may find
themselves in the unfortunate position of not being able to exercise
control over health information they need to provide health
services,” stated Hayward.
Read more on Carstairs
Courier. This really is a teachable moment,
and I appreciate the OPIC’s decision to publish it so that others
may learn from it.
Do they offer regional franchises? (In
Denver this year!)
Aereo
CEO: Service will turn a profit before turning in 1M subscribers
Aereo Chief Executive Chet Kanojia is
keeping the lid tight on how many people have joined his service to
stream local TV broadcasts over the Internet, but he doesn't need
millions of them to turn a profit.
Kanojia said that Aereo would have a
fabulous business at 1 million registered users and an "extremely
fabulous" business at 5 million. But it would be profitable
with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, he said, speaking to a
group of local entrepreneurs in New York.
… The company, which is backed by
IAC Chairman Barry Diller, uses antenna/DVR technology to let
consumers can watch live, local over-the-air television broadcasts.
It's a capability that has provoked the ire of from broadcasts giants
including CBS, ABC, Fox, NBC Universal, and Telemundo, which are
suing Aereo for violating copyrights and skirting retransmission
fees. (Disclosure: CBS is the parent of CNET.) Aereo
says its practice is legally legit, since each user has their own
dedicated antenna.
… In January it said it would move
to 22
total cities across the U.S. over the course of this year. It
now operates in New York, Boston, and Atlanta, with Chicago, Salt
Lake City, Dallas, Houston, and Miami on the way.
Perspective
Online
searches hit 19.4 billion in the U.S. in July
According to new data released
Wednesday by digital analytics company ComScore,
people in the U.S. conducted 19.4 billion explicit core searches in
the month of July. That's up from 19.2 billion in June and 16.3
billion last September.
Of all of the top search engines,
Google remains the king. In July, 67 percent of users' core searches
were on Google, which is 0.3 percent higher than June. This equals
nearly 13 million searches.
Trailing behind were Microsoft, which
got 17.9 percent of the search market with no change from June, and
Yahoo, which came in third with 11.3 percent of the market and down
0.1 percent from June.
… The searches counted in this data
are from home and work computers, not mobile devices.
Perspective
Gartner
– Smartphone Sales Grew 46.5 Percent in Second Quarter of 2013
News
release: “Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totaled 435
million units in the second quarter of 2013, an increase of 3.6
percent from the same period last year, according to Gartner, Inc.
Worldwide smartphone sales to end users reached 225 million units, up
46.5 percent from the second quarter of 2012. Sales of feature
phones to end users totaled 210 million units and declined 21 percent
year-over-year. “Smartphones accounted for 51.8 percent of mobile
phone sales in the second quarter of 2013, resulting in smartphone
sales surpassing feature phone sales for the first time,” said
Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. Asia/Pacific,
Latin America and Eastern Europe exhibited the highest smartphone
growth rates of 74.1 percent, 55.7 percent and 31.6 percent
respectively, as smartphone sales grew in all regions. Samsung
maintained the No. 1 position in the global smartphone market, as
its share of smartphone sales reached 31.7 percent, up from 29.7
percent in the second quarter of 2012 . Apple’s smartphone sales
reached 32 million units in the second quarter of 2013, up 10.2
percent from a year ago.”
My wife is sold and she hasn't even
seen this article yet. I guess it beats milk cartons...
Finding
Rover app tracks lost dogs using facial recognition
John Polimeno … is touring the
country on a bus promoting Finding
Rover, a new smartphone app he's created.
… Polimeno started calling the
major players in facial-recognition technology and finally found a
willing partner in the Software
Development Center at the University of Utah. He funded the
research while the center cracked the nut of facial recognition for
our furry four-legged friends.
… Watch the video to see exactly
how the app works and the clever built-in photo feature that helps
you capture your pup's best side.
Finding Rover recently hit the Apple
App Store and is free to download. Android
and Web versions will be available in a few months, so you can use
the technology even if you don't own a smartphone.
… Finding Kitty is in the works.
Better tools make my job easier. The
school added some 52 inch TVs to replace the projectors, but they
block part of the white board and don't allow me to write on them.
But then, no one asked us what we wanted...
Microsoft's
'touch screen' for any surface goes on sale
Turning a wall into a touch-screen
computer has many uses -- it could help teachers instruct classes or
be used by shops to display product information. It could even be
used for fun to play interactive active games.
Once just
a prototype created by the startup Ubi
with a Microsoft Kinect for Windows sensor, this technology is now
out of beta and on sale for consumers.
Microsoft announced on Tuesday that Ubi
has worked to develop the software with more than 50 organizations
and is now accepting orders for purchase.
… To get the system to work, users
need a computer running the Ubi software, a projector, and the Kinect
for Windows sensor. The Ubi software comes in four different
packages ranging from Basic, which costs $149, to Enterprise, which
costs $1499. The Kinect for Windows sensor costs $250.
For the graphic design students.
Perhaps they'll let me use their 30” Color Printer?
A
Guide to the Web's Growing Set of Free Image Collections
For my website students
– is a plugin for live bi-directional
(editor?browser) CSS editing. Currently, it works in Google Chrome,
Safari and Sublime Text, more browsers and editors will be available
later. Instant updates – see changes as-you-type. No file
saving, no page reloading. You can open the same page in
different windows and get instant updates in all of them.
For all my Math students. (I don't
know why they bother with the grade level links, all the formulas are
the same)
eGlossary
- A Math Glossary for Middle & High School Students
Back when I was struggling through my
high school mathematics courses, I always needed a glossary of
mathematics terms. I used to tell my teachers that I needed a
"mathematics to English" translation. Today, there are
quite a few good "mathematics to English" glossaries online
for students like me. One such resource is McGraw
Hill's eGlossary.
The McGraw
Hill Mathematics eGlossary provides written and verbal
definitions and explanations of mathematics terms. The glossary is
divided by grade level. Select your grade level then the first
letter of the term for which you need an explanation. The
explanation is offered in text form as well as verbal (click the
speaker icon to listen). The eGlossary
is also available in other
languages including Spanish, Russian, and Chinese.
Applications
for Education
McGraw
Hill's Mathematics eGlossary could be an excellent resource for
students who need additional or alternate explanations of mathematics
terms. For mathematics teachers, eGlossary could be worth linking to
your classroom website or blog. Glossary could be particularly
valuable if you have mathematics students whose first language is not
English.
Dilbert points out one of the benefits
of a corporate health program...
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