If I
was running one of these companies, I would have my own team
rummaging through my network before something evil happens.
Chris
Strom reports:
Companies that do business with the Defense Department are bracing
for new U.S. rules requiring them to report computer breaches to the
Pentagon and give the
government access to their networks to analyze the
attacks.
Groups representing the contractors are raising concern about the
Pentagon rooting around their data, and say smaller
companies may not even have the cybersecurity protections needed to
comply. [How
would they qualify for a contract in the first place? Bob]
A report that was to be released today on the rules has been pushed
back until Sept. 24, according to a person familiar with the matter
who isn’t authorized to speak publicly.
Read
more on Bloomberg.
Sounds
like a fire alarm to me. Does not care about individual messages,
looks at traffic flows. Like looking at cars, not drivers.
Snowden
Blows NSA's MonsterMind
The
United States National Security Agency is working on a new program
codenamed "MonsterMind" that will automate the monitoring
of traffic patterns on the Internet to
look for attacks, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden told Wired.
When
it detects an attack, MonsterMind will automatically block it from
entering the U.S. cyberinfrastructure.
It
also will automatically fire back at the server from which the attack
was launched. [Like
turning on a sprinkler? Bob]
…
MonsterMind will require the NSA to access just about all electronic
communications coming into the U.S. from abroad, which violates our
Fourth Amendment rights, he pointed out.
Because
not everyone has just one device? More likely, those NSA stories
struck a chord.
Sarah
Frier reports:
Facebook Inc. (FB) will let advertisers know where
a promotion was first viewed [Meaning
they will be tracking you even before
you connect to Facebook, and probably even if you never do. Bob]
and when it led to a purchase by tracking users between their
electronic devices, a tool that may reignite privacy concerns.
Marketers will be able to see the number of users that clicked on an
ad, whether they used a smartphone, tablet or desktop computer, and
which device was used to buy a product, Menlo Park, California-based
Facebook said in a blog post today.
Read
more on Bloomberg
News.
I
doubt this is true, but it is food for thought. Worth a read.
Why
It's Now Impossible to Control Information
Information
is power. That maxim has always been true.
But
in the past five years, social media has completely changed who can
control information. For business and IT managers, it's vital to
understand this new reality. Sadly, most companies don't grapple
with how things have changed, and they continue to operate under
outmoded assumptions.
The
following three truths, illustrated by recent stories in the news,
make this new reality concrete.
1. Every individual is a newspaper.
2. Anything can end up in the court of public opinion.
3. Twitter is the world's most important medium.
Further
food for thought, but extend this to the music industry and we have a
blueprint for a killer competitor.
E-Commerce
Is Not Eating Retail
The
recent headlines about retailing are nothing if not provocative.
“Shoppers
Are Fleeing Physical Stores.” “The
Great Mall Exodus.” “Macy’s
Confronts the Crisis of the American Mall.” They seem to
bolster Marc Andreessen’s prediction that by the end of this decade
“retail
guys are going to go out of business and e-commerce will become the
place everyone buys.”
Regrettably,
the scary articles
completely miss the real story. And panicked retailers
who get confused about what’s really happening will head off in
dangerous directions.
…
The current hyperbole also misses the mark in other important ways:
About half of those e-commerce sales are actually going to retailers
with physical stores. Brick and mortar retailers still control
between 94% and 97% of total retail sales. Several large store-based
retailers (including Apple and Macy’s are growing their e-commerce
sales even faster than Amazon.
…
In most industries, digital technologies are transforming physical
businesses rather than annihilating them. Indeed, the fusion of
digital and physical innovations—we call them “digical”—creates
opportunities that most businesses have barely begun to tap. A
digical experience is what consumers want and have come to expect. A
digical strategy, when well executed, almost always outperforms
competitors and turbocharges profitable growth. Retailers may be on
the front line of these changes, but no company can afford to ignore
them.
I've
been asking my students this question. Causes some interesting
debates.
If
a Self-Driving Car Gets in an Accident, Who—or What—Is Liable?
On
first contact with the idea that robots
should be extended legal personhood, it sounds crazy.
Robots
aren't people!
And
that is true.
But
the concept of legal personhood is less about what is or is not a
flesh-and-blood person and who/what is or is not able to be hauled
into court.
And
if we want to have robots do more things for us, like drive us around
or deliver us things, we might need to assign them a role in the law,
says lawyer John Frank Weaver, author of the book Robots Are
People, Too, in
a post at Slate.
…
Here's the problem: If we don't define robots as entities with
certain legal rights and obligations, we will have a very difficult
time using them effectively. And the tool that we have for assigning
those things is legal personhood.
…
Right now, companies like Google, which operate self-driving cars,
are in a funny place. Let's say Google were to sell a self-driving
car to you. And then it got into an accident. Who should be
responsible for the damages—you or Google? The algorithm that
drives the car, not to mention the sensors and all the control
systems, are Google's products. Even the company's own people have
argued that tickets
should not be given to any occupant of the car, but to Google itself.
But
in a real world situation, a self-driving car might require
particular kinds of maintenance or to be operated only in certain
zones. So, it could be that the software was not responsible, but
the owner is.
…
But as Wendy Kaminer warned on our site, limiting personhood to
"natural people" would have a
host of unintended consequences. That is to say, pulling
personhood back may be impossible, so instead, the most sensible
thing may be to keep extending it... to robots.
This
will (probably not) interest my Math students.
Stanford
professor is first woman to win the 'Nobel' for math
A
Stanford mathematician has won the coveted 2014 Fields Medal for her
original work understanding the mathematical symmetry of curved
surfaces and saddle-shaped spaces.
Maryam
Mirzakhani is the first woman ever to win what scientists around the
world call the "Nobel Prize for mathematics." She is the
second person from Stanford to win the award.
Mirzakhani,
who was born in Iran, has been professor of mathematics at Stanford
since 2008. She received her award Wednesday at the International
Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul.
For
my App writing students.
–
is a crawler which extracts coding patterns from a vast number of
Android apps. Search or browse to get the best example code from over
7 million sources, including GitHub, Google Code, and StackOverflow.
To help obtain broader and deeper knowledge, Codota shows the
corresponding tutorials and forum threads right next to the code
snippet.
For
the student Gaming Club
6
Of The Hardest, Most Unforgiving Strategy Games Ever
For
my students who read...
Project
Gutenberg offers 46,483 free ebooks to download
by
Sabrina I.
Pacifici on Aug 13, 2014
“Project
Gutenberg offers over 45,000 free
ebooks: choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download
them or read them online. We carry high quality ebooks: All our
ebooks were previously published by bona
fide publishers. We digitized and
diligently proofread them with the help of thousands of volunteers.
No fee or registration is required, but if you find Project Gutenberg
useful, we kindly ask you to donate
a small amount so we can buy and
digitize more books. Other ways to help include digitizing
more books, recording
audio books, or reporting
errors. Over 100,000 free ebooks
are available through our Partners,
Affiliates and Resources.
- Outernet Goes Live - Outernet is launched on August 11 2014. Outernet broadcasts Project Gutenberg and other free content via satellite. This effort is intended to help boost worldwide literacy and access to information, while bypassing impediments such as censorship and fees for access. Project Gutenberg is proud to be a launch partner for Outernet.
- Bookshelves - In mid-2014, Project Gutenberg volunteers undertook a significant revitalization of our bookshelves. These are groupings of eBooks on particular topics, or in particular genres, or otherwise having something in common. This can be a great way to discover books you were unaware of, and it is also an efficient way of finding some of the collection of particular interest. Visit bookshelves to see for yourself!”
Something
for “Ye Olde PowerPoint Presentation?”
Highlights
from Folger Shakespeare Library’s Release of almost 80,000 Images
by
Sabrina I.
Pacifici on Aug 13, 2014
“Folger
Shakespeare Library announced
yesterday (12th August 2014), that they have released the contents of
their Digital Image Collection under a Creative Commons Share-Alike
(CC-BY-SA) license – basically meaning that the images are free to
re-use for any purpose as long as you credit the Folger Shakespeare
Library as the source and share under a similar license. This is a
huge injection of some wonderful material into the open digital
commons. Of course, there is plenty of brilliant Bard related
content, but also many other gems from the history of theatre…here
you will find our highlights.”
[The
Library:
http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/FOLGERCM1~6~6
Not
the Internet, they talking about the WWW. Big difference. Still, a
cute timeline.
25
Years Of Glorious Internet
In
celebration of the Internet’s 25th birthday, Onyx
created an interactive website highlighting some Internet and
technology favourites.
Moving
beyond the car radio.
NPR
One Brings The Best Of US Public Broadcasting To iOS & Android
NPR
One, the latest free app available
on iTunes and Android.
Read on to find out what makes this app awesome.
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