Why bother with this?  Perhaps because they know of some serious problems that have not been made public yet?

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3128877/security/us-lays-blame-on-russian-government-for-election-related-hacking.html?google_editors_picks=true

U.S. lays blame on Russian government for election-related hacking

…   U.S. intelligence agencies are confident Russia was responsible, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement on Friday.

They paid more than a million dollars, and the hack only worked on one phone?  Will they pay a million for every brand and model they want to hack? 

http://hothardware.com/news/fbi-is-trying-to-force-its-way-into-another-locked-iphone

The FBI Is Trying To Force Its Way Into Another Locked iPhone

The battle between the FBI and locked phones is far from over.  The FBI is currently trying to crack into another locked iPhone that once belonged to a now deceased terrorist.  The iPhone in question belonged to Dahir Adan, who stabbed ten people in a Minnesota mall before a police officer shot and killed him.  ISIS has claimed credit for the attack over social media.

…   The FBI is currently investigating as much of Adan’s electronic footprint as possible.  The FBI has so far plowed through 780 gigabytes of data from multiple computers and mobile devices.  Thorton remarked, “We are conducting an extensive review of his social media and other online activity”.  It remains to be seen whether the FBI will also pressure Apple to unlock Adan’s iPhone.

“Cost v. Benefit” is not a government concept. 

(Updated) DHS is turning malls and stores into giant facial recognition spy centers

Joe Cadillic writes:

Malls and retailers across America, are working with DHS to install facial recognition cameras and license plate readers everywhere.  DHS is working with malls and retailers to identify people with criminal records and scan their license plates to see if a shopper is on DHS’s terrorist watch list.

Updated 10/7:

New York City is installing facial recognition cameras at bridge crossings and tunnel entrances

Read more of his post on MassPrivateI.

My students say no, but what do they know?

https://verdict.justia.com/2016/10/05/self-driving-cars-mandatory

Should Self-Driving Cars Be Mandatory?

TGIS (I teach on Friday)

http://hackeducation.com/2016/10/07/hack-education-weekly-news

Hack Education Weekly News

…   AllAfrica reports that the Kenyan government will begin distributing some 1.2 million laptops to all public primary schools.

…   Via Inside Higher Ed: “Smartphone Explodes in Rowan College Classroom.” The phone was not a Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which have been recalled because of battery explosions, but an iPhone 6 Plus.

…   “Deloitte Publishes 2016 Digital Education Survey,” says Edsurge.

Starting on a cheerful note…

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/10/the-global-economic-damage-of-internet-blackouts/503093/?google_editors_picks=true

The Global Economic Damage of Internet Blackouts

Last weekend, cellphones across Iraq lit up with the same text message.  “Dear subscriber,” the message read in Arabic.  “On instructions from the Ministry of Communications, internet access will be cut off every day between October 1 and 8,  from 6 to 9 a.m.  These instructions were issued to every internet service provider.”

The scheduled blackouts coincided with the third round of national placement exams for sixth graders in Iraq; the blackouts are intended to keep students from cheating.  The country has made a habit of interrupting internet access nationwide during the exams: I wrote about another episode in detail earlier this year.

Intentional, government-instigated internet blackouts are becoming more and more common.  And when governments choose to shut off the internet—if not to prevent cheating, then to stifle political protests, as in Egypt in 2011 or in Gabon just this month, or ostensibly to fight terrorism, as in Iraq in 2014—the downtime can have far-ranging consequences.  It prevents citizens connecting with the rest of the world.  It can make it difficult to request emergency services.  If a country’s already experiencing unrest, it can give cover to serious human-rights abuses.

The type of government that’s willing to darken the internet for hours or even days on end may not be particularly moved by the free-speech or human-rights implications of a blackout.  But it’s difficult to ignore the side effects detailed in a new report from Brookings, which studies the widespread damage even a short hiccup in connectivity can deal to a country’s economy.

A technique hackers could use to increase the impact of data they release.  In this case they might change the result of some drug tests.  If they release huge volumes of the private emails of presidential candidates, what might they change? 

http://www.securityweek.com/russian-hackers-may-have-manipulated-leaked-wada-data

Russian Hackers May Have Manipulated Leaked WADA Data

In a statement published Wednesday, October 5, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) provided an update on investigations into the August Fancy Bear hack and data leak in September.  FireEye/Mandiant has been employed to do the forensic investigation.  As of Oct. 5, the investigation is 90% complete and has found no evidence of any additional compromise.

The statement also suggests that some of the leaked data may have been manipulated by the hackers before public release.  "It should also be noted," says WADA, "that in the course of its investigation, WADA has determined that not all data released by Fancy Bear (in its PDF documents) accurately reflects ADAMS data.

A starting point.

http://www.bespacific.com/online-or-on-paper-get-the-latest-ftc-identity-theft-info/

Online or on paper, get the latest FTC identity theft info

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Oct 6, 2016

“Looking for information on dealing with identity theft?  The FTC has new and revised identity theft publications that reflect features of IdentityTheft.gov that make it easier to report and recover from identity theft.  Here’s what’s hot off the presses:

My students had a couple of interesting questions on Wednesday.  Did Yahoo know about the hack or not?  Would it make a difference to Verizon?

Verizon wants $1B discount on Yahoo deal after reports of hacking, spying

Verizon is pushing for a $1 billion discount off its pending $4.8 billion agreement to buy Yahoo, several sources told The Post exclusively.

The request comes on the heels of the web giant getting bludgeoned by bad news in the past few days.

Yahoo revealed two weeks ago that it had been hacked in 2014 and that users names and passwords for 500 million accounts were swiped.

Then, earlier this week, it was learned that Yahoo had been ordered by a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to scan emails for terrorist signatures.

“In the last day we’ve heard that Tim [Armstong] is getting cold feet.  He’s pretty upset about the lack of disclosure and he’s saying can we get out of this or can we reduce the price?” said a source familiar with Verizon’s thinking.

Surely all my students know how to do this already?

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2016/10/how-to-create-google-alerts.html#.V_eYZLNH6N0

How to Create Google Alerts

In one of yesterday's posts I mentioned using Google Alerts to track a topic on the web.  A few hours after I published that post I was asked for clarification about how to create a Google Alert.  In the following video I demonstrate how to create a Google Alert.

(Related) Do they know about all of these?

10 Online Study Hacks for Every College Student

The internet is the go-to destination for students desperate to get ahead on their homework.  However, many students aren’t using some of the best resources that the internet has to offer.

Something for my nephew?

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/06/duolingos-chatbots-help-you-learn-a-new-language/

Duolingo’s chatbots help you learn a new language

Very timely since the Privacy Foundation’s topic on October 28 is Encryption and Privacy!  (See the details at: http://www.law.du.edu/index.php/privacy-foundation )  

http://www.bespacific.com/crs-encryption-frequently-asked-questions/

CRS – Encryption: Frequently Asked Questions

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Oct 5, 2016

Encryption: Frequently Asked Questions, Chris Jaikaran, Analyst in Cybersecurity Policy. September 28, 2016.

“Encryption is a process to secure information from unwanted access or use.  Encryption uses the art of cryptography to change information which can be read (plaintext) and make it so that it cannot be read (ciphertext).  Decryption uses the same art of cryptography to change that ciphertext back to plaintext.  Encryption takes five elements to work: plaintexts, keys, encryption methods, decryption methods, and ciphertexts.  Data that are in a state of being stored or in a state of being sent are eligible for encryption.  However, data that are in a state of being processed—that is being generated, altered, or otherwise used—are unable to be encrypted and remain in plaintext and vulnerable to unauthorized access.”

As someone who has made “configuration errors” I can sympathize.  There are ways [Best Practices] which significantly reduce the probability of introducing those errors into your network. 

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3128104/lan-wan/level-3-blames-huge-network-outage-on-unspecified-configuration-error.html?google_editors_picks=true

Level 3 blames huge network outage on unspecified configuration error

…   Here's the statement issued by the Broomfield, Colo., service provider:

On October 4, our voice network experienced a service disruption affecting some of our customers in North America due to a configuration error.  We know how important these services are to our customers.  As an organization, we’re putting processes in place to prevent issues like this from recurring in the future.  We were able to restore all services by 9:31 a.m. Mountain time.

Social media sites such as Reddit and Twitter erupted on Tuesday morning with inquiries and complaints about the outage from Level 3 customers, as well as customers of other big carriers like AT&T and Verizon that were affected by the outage.

If you are going to do this, stream it from someone else’s account!  (Like a law school professor’s, for example.)

Man arrested for streaming porn to electronic billboard

AP reports on this story out of Indonesia:

Indonesian police say a man they arrested for broadcasting pornography on an electronic billboard in the country’s capital gained access to the system after it displayed its log-on credentials. [Not very secure, that.  Bob]

Jakarta Police Chief Muhammad Iriawan said Wednesday that the suspect, 24-year-old Samudera Al Hakam Ralial, admits he hacked the IT system of the billboard operator but claims that the broadcast of the porn movie was accidental.

Read more on CBS.

Something for my IT Governance students to discuss.

http://www.geek.com/tech/a-safe-galaxy-note-7-caught-fire-on-an-airplane-1673530/

A “safe” Galaxy Note 7 caught fire on an airplane

…   Earlier today, a Southwest Airlines flight that was due to depart for Baltimore was evacuated.  The reason: a passenger’s Galaxy Note 7 became incredibly hot and started belching out greenish-gray smoke.  Brian Green, who owned the Note 7 that grounded the plane, confirmed that it was most definitely a replacement device.

Green also offered up photographic proof: a picture of the box that his new Note 7 came in when he made the exchange at an AT&T store.  Right there on the label next to the model number SM-N930A is a small black box.  That box was one of the ways Samsung told us we could reassure ourselves that we weren’t in possession of a pocket-sized incendiary device.

…   So what’s going on here?  Does Samsung not actually know which Galaxy Note 7s are safe?  Are there really any that are safe?  They just had a report of one catching fire in China — after previously announcing that all Note 7s sold in China were fine because they were a different production run.

Now that a replacement Note 7 has gone up in smoke, you really have to wonder.  Maybe the investigation will reveal a different cause for the failure in Green’s phone, but it’s hard to give Samsung the benefit of the doubt at this point.

Another Governance consideration.

Contracting in the Cloud: Who Pays for a Data Breach?

In a recent white paper I co-authored with Protenus, Inc., we noted the significant risks of a breach involving a vendor or business associate.  In following up in a subsequent post, I also included a “pop quiz” for readers to use to test their understanding about the terms of any contract they have in terms of responsibilities following a breach.

Now Scott Nonaka and Kevin Rubino have written a more lawyerly analysis about contractual clauses that may be very important in determining who pays for what in the event of a breach involving a cloud service.  Here’s part of their article:

Although much is at stake, the answer to the question is not always clear because allocating costs will usually depend on the terms of the cloud services contract, which in most cases will contain a limitation of liability clause that is commonplace in contracts for the sale of goods and services.  Standard clauses usually state that, in the event of a breach, neither party will be responsible for the other party’s “consequential damages,” thereby limiting their potential liability to “direct damages.”  While the clause may seem clearly worded, the meaning of the term “consequential damages” is by no means clear, let alone in the context of a cloud services contract.  Below, we identify some issues to consider when negotiating and drafting a limitation of liability clause so as to provide greater clarity and predictability in allocating risk and costs.

[…]

At this time, and for the foreseeable future, it will be difficult to predict with great certainty how courts will decide whether any particular harm arising from a data breach is direct or consequential damages.  Given this uncertainty, as well as the potentially massive costs associated with a data breach, both consumers and providers of cloud services would be well-advised not to rely on standard, boilerplate language in limitation of liability clauses that simply waives consequential damages to allocate their potential liability.  They should instead address the issue of potential future costs associated with a data breach in detail at the outset of their relationship by bargaining for and expressly assigning or excluding those costs in their agreement.

Read more on Bloomberg BNA.

IoT hacking for fun (and profit?)

The 5 Best Hacks for Your Amazon Dash Buttons

…   With a little work, Dash Buttons can actually be modified to perform a variety of tasks without ever contacting Amazon.  If you’ve got some new Dash Buttons sitting around or want to spend just $5 to dip your toe into the Internet of Things, here are some of the coolest hacks we’ve found.

Note that beyond the initial setup, setting up these hacks requires a bit of programming knowledge.  As a matter of scope, we won’t be going in-depth into any code.  Instead, we’ll be linking to the best setups — their developers have provided instructions for replicating them on your own devices, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get going.

Alternatives are good.

7 Free Slack Alternatives You Will Love

…   Slack’s success is built upon a simple understanding — life is all about communication.  And email is no longer appropriate for fast-paced working environments.

That isn’t to say there is no place for email.  But email conversation threads often become disjointed, tangled messes with multiple respondents.  Why waste time when there is simply a better option available?

More free stuff.  I use a couple of these myself.

10 Free Open Source Windows Tools Hosted on GitHub

For my researching students.

http://www.bespacific.com/ssrn-launches-beta-of-new-features-and-full-text-search/

SSRN launches beta of new features and full text search

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Oct 5, 2016

Follow up to previous posting – SSRN Acquired by Elsevier – “At the beginning of Summer, we promised to share our evolving technology roadmap.  With new resources for design and development, we are reimagining SSRN’s possibilities.  First, we implemented our long-awaited full-text search.  Now we’re sending a portion of our users to a Beta version of the new site.  Go to the Home page and you may be lucky enough to get a sneak peak (visitors are being randomly sent to the new site) so do try your luck.  Here’s a little more information on what we’re planning.  We’re excited to share a cleaner, simpler site with easier navigation.  The new Home page design is the first of a series of new pages we’ll be rolling out over the next few months.  We hope you like the new look and, more importantly, that it makes it easier for you to find what you need on SSRN…”

Me: Look at all this wonderful free stuff I find for you!

My students: We don’t need no stinking notes!

My students, after the Midterm Exam: Ah. What were those note taking Apps again? 

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6065-best-note-taking-apps.html?google_editors_picks=true

7 Best Note Taking Apps

For any of my students so inclined. 

http://www.bespacific.com/internships-fellowships-and-other-work-experience-opportunities-in-the-federal-government/

Internships, Fellowships, and Other Work Experience Opportunities in the Federal Government

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Oct 5, 2016

CRS report via FAS – Internships, Fellowships, and Other Work Experience Opportunities in the Federal Government. Christina Miracle Bailey, Senior Research Librarian; Jennifer E. Manning; Senior Research Librarian. September 30, 2016.

“While there are many opportunities in the federal government for internships, fellowships, and other work experience, there is no comprehensive source to assist in locating these opportunities.  This report describes Internet resources for prominent and popular opportunities for internship, fellowship, and work experience programs within the federal government.  The report is intended as a selective guide for students of all levels: high school, undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate.  It provides information on legislative, executive, and judicial branch opportunities and links to several aggregators of jobs data.  The introduction provides a number of insights to assist applicants on understanding terminology, timing applications, and expectations for types of work involved.”

Convergence? 

Spying street lights equipped with microphones, Wi-Fi detectors and more coming to a city near you

I’ve reported on ShotSpotter before, but Joe Cadillic wants you to look at the involvement of GE and its implications for everyone’s privacy.  Joe writes:

Soon, spying street lights equipped with ShotSpotter microphones will be in every city and town, that’s because GE lighting and ShotSpotter (SST) are working together to spy on everyone.

Last year, GE and SST announced they’re combining forces to put SST surveillance devices into street lights.

A memorandum of understanding between GE Lighting and SST, Inc., developer of the ShotSpotter crime detection and location suite, lays ground to embedding sophisticated SST technology into GE’s intelligent LED street lights.

“We’ve entered an era where lighting is so much more than illumination,” says Rick Freeman, Global Product General Manager, Intelligent Devices, GE Lighting. “

Read more on MassPrivateI.

Encryption, the new “gotta have?”

https://www.wired.com/2016/10/facebook-completely-encrypted-messenger-update-now/

You Can All Finally Encrypt Facebook Messenger, So Do It

Last spring WhatsApp pushed out code adding a new layer of security to a billion users’ apps, creating the largest end-to-end encrypted messaging network in history.  Now WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook has finally given people who use its other massively popular chat app the chance to catch up.

(Related)

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3127148/security/new-insulin-pump-flaws-highlight-security-risks-from-medical-devices.html?google_editors_picks=true

New insulin pump flaws highlight security risks from medical devices

Medical device manufacturer Animas, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, is warning diabetic patients who use its OneTouch Ping insulin pumps about security issues that could allow hackers to deliver unauthorized doses of insulin.

The vulnerabilities were discovered by Jay Radcliffe, a security researcher at Rapid7 who is a Type I diabetic and user of the pump.  The flaws primarily stem from a lack of encryption in the communication between the device's two parts: the insulin pump itself and the meter-remote that monitors blood sugar levels and remotely tells the pump how much insulin to administer.

Strange on many levels.  This was last year, not a decade ago.  The government was looking for “specific information?”  How did they “demand” this support? 

http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/04/yahoo-secretly-scanned-customer-emails-for-u-s-intelligence-sources-say/?google_editors_picks=true

Yahoo secretly scanned customer emails for U.S. intelligence, sources say

Yahoo Inc last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers’ incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. intelligence officials, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company complied with a classified U.S. government demand, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency or FBI, said three former employees and a fourth person apprised of the events.

Some surveillance experts said this represents the first case to surface of a U.S. Internet company agreeing to an intelligence agency’s request by searching all arriving messages, as opposed to examining stored messages or scanning a small number of accounts in real time.

I wonder if this would improve my feedback to students?  Can it filter all those words I’d rather not have in writing?

http://www.bespacific.com/new-on-llrx-yes-dragon-naturallyspeaking-has-been-worth-the-trouble-for-faster-writing/

New on LLRX – Yes, Dragon NaturallySpeaking has been worth the trouble for faster writing

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Oct 4, 2016

Via LLRX.com – Yes, Dragon NaturallySpeaking has been worth the trouble for faster writing – David H. Rothman writes about the multiple uses of voice recognition software from the perspective of an expert writer, speaker and typist.  Rothman also advises readers on the requisite microphone and boom to enhance the use of voice recognition technology.

Could be a good way to group videos for my students.

http://www.labnol.org/internet/youtube-playlist-spreadsheet/29183/

How to Make YouTube Playlists with a Google Spreadsheet

A couple of YouTube videos, some simple Google formulas and a Google Spreadsheet – that’s all you need to quickly create a YouTube playlist.  It will be an anonymous playlist, not connected to your YouTube channel, and may be a good way to bunch together multiple videos for easy sharing on WhatsApp, Twitter or an email newsletter.

Reminder to self:

Stop Trying to Sound Smart When You’re Writing

When I read a piece of business writing, whether it’s a proposal, a report, or a simple email, I’m turned off by people who have invested more energy trying to sound smart than in trying to be smart.  Ideally, I’d like to read communications where I don’t notice the writing at all.  The best writing is so transparent that it doesn’t obscure the underlying message.  You can achieve that in your writing by investing in great content and then stripping away anything that detracts from it.

How do you make your content great? Before crafting a single sentence, you determine the purpose and desired outcome of your communication.  You go beyond the facts and information you’re transmitting and push yourself to clarify what you want your audience to think, to feel, and to do after they’ve read your message.

I might have a few students who should enter this contest!

Compete to Be the Excel World Champion: Pass the Trials This Week

Ladies and gentlemen: it’s time to start your spreadsheets, fine-tune those formulas, and ready yourself for the inaugural Excel World Championship!  That’s right — the world’s favorite spreadsheet software now has a Microsoft-sponsored competition, complete with a grand prize for the overall winner.

Excel World Championship entrants will be tested in several key Excel areas.  They’ll be competing for “a trip to Seattle, USA and a meeting with Excel Product Leads to provide feedback on the next features added to Excel.”  And of course, the title of “Excel World Champion” will be bestowed upon the eventual winner.  Add that to your letterhead!

…   Competition Dates and Entry Requirements

If your interest has been sufficiently piqued, take note of the competition start and end dates.

Round 1 “Trials” — October 3 00:00 UTC to October 9 23:59 UTC

Round 2 “Qualifying Heat” — October 12 00:00 UTC to October 21 23:59 UTC

Round 3 “Semi-Finals” — October 26 00:00 UTC to November 2 23:59 UTC

Round 4 “Finals” — November 18 00:00 UTC to November 18 23:59 UTC

The first two rounds are open to everyone.  After round two, all entries will be graded on the criteria detailed in the following section.

Anything to get rid of get jobs for my students.

The Internet’s Best Job Hunt Advice to Improve Your Resume

For my Ethical Hacking student “tool kit.”

5 Ways Hackers Can Use Public Wi-Fi to Steal Your Identity

We’ve all been tempted to use public Wi-Fi: it’s free, saves on your data allowance, and is always helpful in speeding up loading times.

You might love public Wi-Fi — but so do hackers.

Here are just a few ways cybercriminals can get access to your private data and potentially steal your identity and what you can do to protect yourself.

(Ditto)

Affected by the Yahoo! Breach? Why Not Try ProtonMail?

…   Because your mailbox is encrypted, the ProtonMail staff have zero access, never mind the NSA.  ProtonMail will ask you for your mailbox decryption key after you have initially logged in.  You won’t be able to access your mailbox until you have entered both sets of credentials.

At least my Blog has a few readers…

DHS Tells Congress How & Why It’s Monitoring Facebook, Twitter, Blogs

TN Note: The intelligence community keeps saying that they are not collecting random data on American Citizens and incidents like this keep popping up proving that they are brazen liars.  Remember that DHS is not isolated from the rest of the intelligence community; rather, it reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence for everything it does, including line-item budget approval.  Thus, the DHS vacuuming of social media an intentional policy from the very top.

Neal Ungerleider reports:

At a Congressional hearing this morning that veered into contentious arguments and cringe-worthy moments, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spilled the beans on their social media monitoring project.

DHS Chief Privacy Office Mary Ellen Callahan and Director of Operations Coordination and Planning Richard Chavez appeared to be deliberately stonewalling Congress on the depth, ubiquity, goals, and technical capabilities of the agency’s social media surveillance.  At other times, they appeared to be themselves unsure about their own project’s ultimate goals and uses.  But one thing is for sure: If you’re the first person to tweet about a news story, or if you’re a community activist who makes public Facebook posts—DHS will have your personal information.

Read more on Technocracy News.

My students don’t understand what a new “Cloud” datacenter costs.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/03/microsoft-expands-azure-datacenters-to-france-looks-to-beat-aws-on-image-of-trust/

Microsoft expands Azure data centers to France, launches trust offensive vs AWS, Google

…   Microsoft announced it would build its first Azure data center in France this year, as part of a $3 billion investment that it has made to build its cloud services in Europe.

The arguments continue.  I guess you don’t need to be certain the data is kept by the people who get the subpoena.  Does it impact my Governance class? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/technology/subpoenas-and-gag-orders-show-government-overreach-tech-companies-argue.html?_r=0

Subpoenas and Gag Orders Show Government Overreach, Tech Companies Argue

It has been six months since the Justice Department backed off on demands that Apple help the F.B.I. break the security of a locked iPhone.

But the government has not given up the fight with the tech industry.  Open Whisper Systems, a maker of a widely used encryption app called Signal, received a subpoena in the first half of the year for subscriber information and other details associated with two phone numbers that came up in a federal grand jury investigation in Virginia.

The subpoena arrived with a court order that said Open Whisper Systems was not allowed to tell anyone about the information request for one year.

…   The documents released last week show that the government asked Open Whisper Systems to turn over data associated with two telephone numbers, including web browsing histories and data stored in the tracking “cookies” of the web browsers attached to those accounts.  But one of Signal’s biggest draws is that it does not collect most of that information.

“The Signal service was designed to minimize the data we retain,” said Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Open Whisper Systems.  Mr. Marlinspike said Signal uses a technology called end-to-end encryption that kept the service from gaining access to the contents of its users’ messages.  The company also does not store information on those with whom its users are communicating.

Amusing.

http://www.bespacific.com/census-data-visualization-gallery/

Census Data Visualization Gallery

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Oct 3, 2016

“Data Visualization Gallery.  A weekly exploration of Census data.  The Census Bureau is working to increase our use of visualization in making data available to the public, and this gallery is an early part of that effort.  The first posted visualizations will pertain largely to historical population data, building on prior work done to portray historical changes in the growth and redistribution of the U.S. population.  For later visualizations, the topics will expand beyond decennial census data to include the full breadth of Census Bureau data sets and subject areas, from household and family dynamics, to migration and geographic mobility, to economic indicators.”

This also looks like fun.

Project a 3D Hologram on Your Desktop Using Rainmeter

…   Hologram for Rainmeter renders 3D models — using the OBJ file type — as point clouds.  Point clouds are transparent 3D objects created by placing points at distinct coordinates.  The coordinates used are dictated by the face (underlying shape) vertices in a 3D object.

Apps are out.  Bots are in.

10 Awesome Facebook Messenger Bots You Aren’t Using

For my IT Governance students: Can we design an election system that works?

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-voting-technology/

The Computer Voting Revolution Is Already Crappy, Buggy, and Obsolete

Suddenly (after a few decades) we are learning how to use “new” technologies!

http://fortune.com/ai-artificial-intelligence-deep-machine-learning/

Why Deep Learning Is Suddenly Changing Your Life

Over the past four years, readers have doubtlessly noticed quantum leaps in the quality of a wide range of everyday technologies.

Most obviously, the speech-recognition functions on our smartphones work much better than they used to.

…   Machine translation and other forms of language processing have also become far more convincing

…   Then there are the advances in image recognition.

Rather than raise my taxes to pay for a parking lot, they raise my taxes to pay Uber to drive commuters to the train?  Either way I get no benefit from my tax dollar. 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/priya/how-uber-plans-to-conquer-the-suburbs?utm_term=.iseNlG89j#.wl289oAJx

How Uber Plans To Conquer The Suburbs

With a pilot program in Summit, New Jersey, the ride-hail giant is looking to replace commuter parking lots.

Summit, New Jersey, a bedroom community to New York City, will begin subsidizing Uber rides for residents traveling to and from the local train station starting Monday — a move the town initiated to avoid building a new parking lot, a multimillion-dollar effort

Oh look!  Lawyers have value!

http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/02/when-it-comes-to-game-hacks-never-underestimate-the-value-of-a-lawyer-power-up/?google_editors_picks=true

When it comes to game hacks, never underestimate the value of a lawyer power up

Although Pokémon Go’s popularity continues to wane, the mobile game’s recent battle with PokéVision – the third-party Pokémon locator site – provides us with an important lesson on how the “game hack” can be a major threat to a game developers’ business and a high risk endeavor with significant legal consequences for game hack developers.

The innocent cheat codes of the Nintendo 64 era are child’s play compared to the highly sophisticated bots and game hacks of today’s mobile and online gaming era

…   For those considering making a living out of creating “game hacks” – proceed with caution.  Creating a game hack exposes creators to significant legal risks.  Recent lawsuits show that one simple game hack bot for a game with a monthly service fee can yield a lawsuit with over a dozen viable legal claims and the potential to permanently shut down the “game hack” business.

Will this spread to other large tech companies for similar reasons?

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-alphabet-antitrust-exclusive-idUSKCN1213DJ

Exclusive: EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practices, fine expected

EU antitrust regulators plan to order Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google to stop paying financial incentives to smartphone makers to pre-install Google Search exclusively on their devices and warned the company of a large fine, an EU document showed.

The document, running to more than 150 pages, was sent to complainants last week for feedback.

…   The regulators also want to prevent Google from forcing smartphone makers to pre-install its proprietary apps if this restricts their ability to use competing operating systems based on Android.

All that stuff that no one reads until after the event?

http://www.bespacific.com/national-security-archive-cyber-vault-project-library/

National Security Archive Cyber Vault Project Library

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Oct 2, 2016

Beta Edition, via the National Security Archive – “The Cyber Library contains all primary-source materials gathered by the Project across the full range of cyber security issues.  New materials will be added on a regular basis. The [content] isting is chronological.  To search for specific items, use [the search engine provided].

Oh goody.  Now I can watch all the political ads I might have missed.

http://www.bespacific.com/political-tv-ad-archive/

Political TV Ad Archive

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Oct 2, 2016

Via Internet Archive – “The Political TV Ad Archive collects political ads in the 2016 election.  In addition to tracking airings across key primary states, the collection includes ads that may air elsewhere or exclusively on social media.”  Searchable by sponsor, keyword or candidate.

• See also Internet Archive data fuels journalists’ analyses of how TV news shows covered prez debate

For my students.

http://www.bespacific.com/open-culture-master-list-of-1200-free-courses-from-top-universities/

Open Culture – Master List of 1,200 Free Courses From Top Universities

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Oct 2, 2016

A Master List of 1,200 Free Courses From Top Universities: 40,000 Hours of Audio/Video Lectures

“For the past ten years, we’ve been busy rummaging around the internet and adding courses to an ever-growing list of Free Online Courses, which now features 1,200+ courses from top universities.  Let’s give you the quick overview: The list lets you download audio & video lectures from schools like Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford and Harvard.  Generally, the courses can be accessed via YouTube, iTunes or university web sites, and you can listen to the lectures anytime, anywhere, on your computer or smart phone.  We haven’t done a precise calculation, but there’s about 40,000 hours of free audio & video lectures here.  Enough to keep you busy for a very long time.”