Apparently there is no
need for an “adversary” to justify withholding. Even when they
do it for me, they don't need to tell me what they are doing. Even
when they ignore their own lawyers, they don't need to tell me what
they aren't doing. Perhaps they are the “Secret Police?”
From the good folks at
EPIC:
The
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ruled
that the FBI may withhold a memo prepared by the Office of Legal
Counsel concerning the law governing “exigent letter” requests to
telephone companies for call records. The decision affirmed an
earlier opinion
that the memo was privileged advice, and exempt from disclosure under
the Freedom information Act. The Electronic Frontier Foundation
argued that the memo was “working law” and not simply advice from
government lawyers. However, the Court of Appeals
found that the FBI had not itself adopted the advice of government
lawyers. In a different case where the Department of
State followed the guidance of Justice Department lawyers, EPIC filed
a “friend”
of the court brief in support of the New York Times and the ACLU
and argued for the release of opinions of the Office of Legal
Counsel. For more information, see EPIC
v. NSA: Cybersecurity Authority and EPIC:
New York Times v. DOJ.
“...there being no
objections before the court...” Also, any “Cost/Benefit
Analysis” conducted in Washington starts with the political value,
which exists only in the eye of the office holder.
From the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence:
On
several prior occasions, the Director of National Intelligence has
declassified information about the telephony metadata collection
program under the “business records” provision of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, 50 U.S.C. Section 1861 (also referred
to as “Section 215”), in order to provide the public a more
thorough and balanced understanding of the program. Consistent with
his prior declassification decisions and in light of the significant
and continuing public interest in the telephony metadata collection
program, DNI Clapper has decided to declassify and disclose publicly
that the government filed an application with the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking renewal of the authority to
collect telephony metadata in bulk, and that the
court renewed that authority on January 3, 2014.
Read more on ODNI
In related news,
Jaikumar Vijayan reports:
The
National Security Agency (NSA) has often claimed that its data
collection programs have helped thwart dozens of terrorist plots in
the U.S. But an analysis of one such program, the NSA’s
controversial bulk telephone records collection initiative, suggests
that the cost of running and maintaining the effort
may far outweigh any benefits.
Read more on
Computerworld.
Only 250? Not as
popular as my petition to bring back student flogging.
David Meyer writes:
Around
250 leading academics from around the world have decried the online
spying activities of U.S. and European intelligence services in an
“Academics
Against Mass Surveillance” manifesto, published on Friday.
Read more on GigaOm.
Apparently this is an
increasingly common topic of debate. This might help.
UK
Gov’t Guide – Bring your own device (BYOD)
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on January 2, 2014
“Bring your own
device is a term which refers to when employees use their personal
computing devices (typically smart phones and tablets) in the
workplace. Permitting devices which you do not have sufficient
control over to connect to the corporate IT systems can introduce a
range of security vulnerabilities and other data protection concerns
if not correctly managed. This guidance explores what you need to
consider if permitting the use of personal devices to process
personal data for which you are responsible. Bring
your own device guidance (pdf).”
Unfortunately, it only
works new-to-old. I propose a “geezer translator” so my students
can look up such useful and exciting phrases as “the bee's knees”
and “RTFM.”
Crowd-sourced
online dictionary maintains status as archive of new terms
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on January 3, 2014
A
Lexicon of the Internet, Updated by Its Users By JENNA WORTHAM-
“Urban Dictionary has become a real-time archive for new and slang
terms, particularly those that have risen because of social media and
the Web.”
[From
the article:
It has even become a
source for judges trying to figure out the latest slang.
I might integrate this
into my website class...
Vagrant:
A Quick, Effortless Way to Create Virtual Machines for Local Web
Development
If you’ve ever worked
on a Web development project, you know just getting started can be
tough. Even if you’re just making
a simple WordPress widget, you’re going to need a WordPress
instance to work with. That often means working on one somewhere in
the cloud, or maybe setting
up a local Web server. And if you’re collaborating with
anyone, they’ll have to create exactly the same setup, too.
That’s annoying, but
it gets worse: If you happen to be working on more than one project
at the same time, and both projects use slightly different stacks
(different Web servers, versions of PHP, etc.) you may find yourself
with a lot to keep track of. Thankfully, there’s a better way:
Meet Vagrant,
a free and powerful way to create project-specific virtual machines.
… You basically
spin up a VM that runs your Web server and any related scripts, but
your project folder is outside
the VM. So you can use whatever text editor and browser
you usually work with, and don’t have to put up with a slow VM GUI.
The VM just does the heavy lifting: It runs a local Web server and
serves whatever files you need.
The appeal is ease of
use: Once you have a Vagrant box configured for your project, when
it’s time to get coding, you simply go to the project folder and
type vagrant up. This boots up the VM, and off you
go. When you’re done, shut the VM down with vagrant halt
and that’s it – nothing polluting your hard drive and system
configuration, it’s all self-contained.
This ought to drive my
students crazy! I can't wait to try it.
– is about algebra in
the real world. See how professionals use math in music, fashion,
videogames, restaurants, basketball, and special effects. Then take
on interactive challenges related to those careers. Get the Math
combines video and web interactivity to help middle and high school
students develop algebraic thinking skills for solving real-world
problems.
Giggles
… The Kansas
Board of Regents will reconsider
its new social media policy, in the wake of
controversy over the policy’s reach and anti-free speech
implications.
Under
it, a university chief executive officer can discipline employees, up
to termination, for social media communications that affect the
university's ability to carry out its functions.
But
faculty and education groups have criticized the policy, saying it is
too broad and will stifle free speech.
… Version 2 of the
Peeragogy
Handbook – a guide for tech-enhanced collaborative
learning, edited by Howard
Rheingold – was released January 1. And released into the
public domain to boot.
Download
and Read Your Copy for Free Click here
to download and read your FREE copy of Version 2 of the Peeragogy
Handbook.
… PandoDaily
reports
that Neverware has raised $3 million in equity
funding. The startup makes a virtualization device that helps schools
use old computers like they were new ones.
… Barbara Ericson
has compiled
data on the 2013 Computer Science AP exam.
Among her findings: “No females took the exam in Mississippi,
Montana, and Wyoming.” And “11 states had no Black students take
the exam: Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana,
Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.”
You
can download the spreadsheet from
http://home.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/556
Funny, We're already
teaching most of these... Infographic
The
5 Degrees Of The Future
Dilbert explains why I
bring cookies.
