Disappointing but not unexpected. The Feds have defined crimes with computers differently than non-computer crimes. Some day they will realize their error.

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12906

U.S. ends webcam probe; no charges

August 17, 2010 by Dissent

John P. Martin reports:

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday closed their investigation into Lower Merion School District’s secret use of software to track student laptops, saying they found no evidence that anyone intentionally committed a crime.

The decision, announced by U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger, ended a six-month probe by the FBI into allegations that district employees might have spied on students through webcams on their school-issued laptops.

In a brief statement released by his office, Memeger didn’t disclose details of the investigation, but said agents and prosecutors concluded that charges were unwarranted.

Read more on Philly.com

I’d really like to know their reasoning in deciding not to file any charges. On some level, though, a prosecution is somewhat superfluous at this point as most schools have probably gotten the message that you can’t do what Lower Merion did. Prosecuting individual administrators or employees as criminals seems somewhat of overkill.

(Related)

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12908

Wiretap Act Violations Require Criminal Intent

August 17, 2010 by Dissent

Tim Hull reports:

A son who used his iPhone to record a kitchen-table conversation about his dying mother’s will did not violate the federal Wiretap Act, the 2nd Circuit ruled, because he had no criminal intent.

The federal appeals court in Manhattan joined its sister circuits in finding that the Act’s “exception to the one-party consent provision requires that a communication be intercepted for the purpose of a tortious or criminal act that is independent of the intentional act of recording.”

Just days before she died of lung cancer in 2008, Elizabeth Caro and her husband, Marshall, got into a “heated” conversation with family members about her will.

Without telling anyone, Elizabeth’s son, David Weintraub, used his iPhone to capture the conversation and, after Elizabeth died without a will, used the recording to challenge Marshall Caro’s claim on her estate.

Read more on Courthouse News.

Related: Caro v. Weintraub (opinion, pdf)

(Related)

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12900

Lower Merion adopts new policies on laptop tracking

August 17, 2010 by Dissent

John P. Martin reports:

The Lower Merion School District on Monday adopted a new set of policies to govern the use and tracking of student laptops and other technology, its latest step to get past the furor of webcam monitoring.

The measures, passed unanimously by the school board at its monthly meeting, spell out in detail when, how, and for what reasons school officials can access or monitor the laptops they will give to each of the district’s nearly 2,300 high school students next month.

Read more on Philly.com. If you’re wondering what the case has cost the district so far, Martin also reports:

The district has already spent nearly $1 million in legal fees and expenses on the case.

Meanwhile, the Robbinses’ attorney has asked the judge to order Lower Merion to pay him $418,000 to cover his bills through July. That request is pending.

Not all breaches disclose the same information. Think of this one from the “personal protection” (e.g. Secret Service) perspective.

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=13381

FIFA Ticketing Partner in Security Breach

August 18, 2010 by admin

From the not-very-sportsman-like dept.

FIFA [Fédération Internationale de Football Association] is liaising with its official ticketing partner Match after a massive security breach compromised the details of 80,000 of its customers, including Sweden’s former Prime Minister and the head of Norway’s national bank.

An investigation by the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reveals that confidential lists with personal data – including full name, date of birth and passport number – of at least 80,000 Match customers has been sold onto the black market.

The information also included detailed information about which games the customers had tickets to, and where they were seated.

The newspaper published emails from a Match employee offering the information to well-known figures in the international ticketing black market.

[...]

The unfaithful employee offered the lists in April 2009, quoting €2.50 per contact. More than 80,000 names and details were allegedly leaked, three quarters of which included full datasets.

Read more on World Football Insider.

Still looking for a common definition....

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=13376

Data breach demonstrates need for access control policies

August 18, 2010 by admin

Remember the breach reported a few weeks ago when a Freedom of Information request uncovered that a Canada Revenue Agency employee had been mining the database to identity high-wealth individuals that she might recruit as customers for her side business? The individuals whose data were accessed were never notified of the incident because the government decided that there was no risk of injury. Dave Kearns uses that breach story in the Vancouver Sun to make a few points:

1) Why weren’t controls in place to prevent, or at least raise a flag, when an agent accessed files randomly? Were they at least audited?

2) Why did it take four years for someone to realize that there were shady dealings going on?

3) How did CRA determine the “risk of injury”?

4) Why aren’t the affected parties notified whenever there’s a breach?

Indeed.

Read more on Network World.

E-conomics: How much should I spend to secure my computers?

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=13374

Making Sense of Security Breach Cost Numbers

August 18, 2010 by admin

Larry Walsh writes:

What is the most expensive security breach ever? Before you answer, read the rest of this blog (trust me, you’re probably wrong).

According to a recent report by the Ponemon Institute, the mean corporate loss to IT security breaches last year was $3.8 million. During the four-week study period, participating companies reported being the subjected to at least 50 known attacks. And these companies reported taking as long as 14 days at a cost of nearly $18,000 per day to remediate a security breach.

The Digital Forensics Association also released an analysis of more than 2,800 publicly disclosed data breaches over the last five years that caused $139 billion – that’s a 12-digit number – in damages. This isn’t precise math, but if you do some rough numbers on the back of a napkin you’ll calculate a cost of about $9 million per breach.

Now if these numbers are making your eyes spin, let me put them into perspective.

Read more on CompTIA.

Nice of them, but does this mean they are looking into their customer's computers?

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=13366

Virgin Media to inform customers of malware infections

August 17, 2010 by admin

Virgin Media has revealed that it will be sending customers whose computers are infected with malware warning letters.

The company announced that it would be taking the step following research which found that nearly a quarter of its customers are affected by some form of malware including viruses, Trojans and spyware.

Initially, Virgin Media is planning on distributing a few hundred letters every week and will expand the service based upon feedback from customers.

Read more on BCS.

[From the article:

It's time for ISPs to go beyond the basics and do whatever they can to help protect their customers.

"We're going to do whatever we can to help defend our customers from serious consequences such as identity theft, and even banking fraud."

(Related) On the other hand...

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/08/18/0027238/ISPs-Lie-About-Broadband-Up-To-Speeds?from=rss

ISPs Lie About Broadband "Up To" Speeds

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday August 17, @09:47PM

"Ars Technica has an article detailing the difference between ISP advertised 'up to x Mbps' speeds and the actual speeds, in addition to some possible solutions. They find that on average, the advertised speeds were 'up to 6.7 Mbps' while the real median was 3 Mbps and the mean was 4 Mbps. This implies that ISPs were falsely advertising by at least 50%."

[From the article:

When you look at actual speeds, most Americans have fairly slow service

How do I urk thee? Let me count the ways. “Hey, welcome to the store. What can I sell you? Would you like one of these! You'd look good in that! Those are 25% off today! There's a dressing room over there, why not try that one on?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/technology/17app.html?_r=1

Aisle by Aisle, an App That Pushes Bargains

Major retailers are working with a new smartphone application that tracks and offers promotions to shoppers as they move from outside the store, to counters, to cash registers — even inside the dressing room (now that’s persistence).

The app, called Shopkick, will be available on Tuesday for the iPhone and in the fall for Android phones. And with five major companies supporting it — Macy’s, Best Buy, Sports Authority and American Eagle Outfitters, along with the Simon Property Group, the prominent mall operator — it is getting a big introduction.

I find this fascinating. In Churchill's day we were only concerned with “two nations, divided by a common language” Now as English is adopted as the universal tongue, everyone can invent their own sub-language (e-dialect?)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10971949

How the internet is changing language

'To Google' has become a universally understood verb and many countries are developing their own internet slang. But is the web changing language and is everyone up to speed?

[Can you define:

"rickrolling" "lurker" "troll" "caps" "LOLcat" “TMI” “WTF” “OMG”

Humor. I'll add this one to my Computer Security folder

A boss in information security forgot to lock his computer..

....and this is what his staff had waiting for him.

http://i.imgur.com/srhAo.jpg

For my Ethical Hackers

http://www.smashingapps.com/2010/08/17/the-7-useful-and-unknown-web-browsers-that-are-worth-a-try.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SmashingApps+%28Smashing+Apps%29

The 7 Useful (And Unknown) Web Browsers That Are Worth A Try

[One example:

Browzar

Browzar is based on the Internet Explorer engine, which means it’s such a small file that it only takes seconds to download. We’ve made it disposable; so you have the choice of keeping Browzar on your PC, or downloading it each time you need to protect your privacy. You don’t even need to install it. You can just click ‘run’ and go.

For my website students

http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/08/html5-reset-speeds-up-site-development-with-handy-boilerplate-code/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

HTML5 Reset Speeds Up Site Development With Handy Boilerplate Code

We recently stumbled across HTML5 Reset, a set of templates and code that makes a great starting point for a sites that will be using HTML5 and CSS 3.

HTML5 Reset draws on many well-known sources like Eric Meyer’s reset stylesheet, the Modernizr script for HTML5 across browsers, Dean Edwards’ IE7.js. (Separately, there’s also the excellent HTML5 Boilerplate, which has similar HTML5 and CSS 3 features, but of course a slightly different way of implementing them.)

(Related)

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/freemake-easy-video-converter-windows/

Freemake – An Easy Video Converter For Windows

Freemake

The program will accept virtually any video file you can dream of as an input.

You can select numerous files at once and convert them in a batch.

While a wide variety of inputs are accepted, the outputs are more limited, but still very robust. AVI, MP4, WMV, 3GP, DVD, MP3 and Youtube output is supported. The AVI and WMV options allow you to chose from a variety of quality options including 1080p, 720p, DVD quality, TV quality and mobile quality. The MP4 conversion is optimized for mobile devices including the iPhone, iPad, the Sony PSP, and smartphones. The 3GP format is also targeted towards mobile devices.

[Also see:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-easy-to-use-freeware-video-converters/

5 Easy-to-use Freeware Video Converters

Got data? Got lots and lots and lots of data? Here's an interesting way to sift through it. (Windows Vista or better)

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pivot-search-interact-massive-amounts-data/

Pivot – Search & Interact With Massive Amounts Of Data

Microsoft Live Labs’ Pivot

Pivot is based on a previous experiment called Seadragon, now dubbed Zoom.it and free for all. Just like Zoom.it, Pivot allows you to move and search through incredible amounts of data. But where the former could only exploit one huge picture at a time, Pivot juggles with thousands upon thousands of different files. It’s a new way to experience data.

… Although Pivot is free, revolutionary and quite stunning, you’ll have to bear in mind that it’s still an experiment. Currently this means that it isn’t exactly easy to create collections of your own. The best GUI currently available seems to be Pivot Collection Maker, by y2k4life (third-party).

Pivot currently features a Collection Gallery. Most relevant are the sport-related collections, Wikipedia (highly recommended), Yoga Journal Featured Poses, AMG Movies/Actors and New/Concept Cars. The other available Collections can be seen here.

Free is good!

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/limited-time-offer-anybizsofts-pdf-merger-pdf-splitter-free/

Limited Time Offer: Get AnyBizSoft’s PDF Merger & PDF Splitter for FREE

Do you read or work with PDF files often? If so, you’ve probably needed the ability to either combine multiple files into one or split one into many at some point.

AnyBizSoft has two applications that can do just that. Their PDF Merger allows you to combine multiple PDF files into one for better organizing, archiving, and batch printing, while their PDF Splitter enables you to split PDF files–even encrypted ones–by pages, bookmarks, and page ranges.

… For a limited time only, AnyBizSoft is giving licenses to these apps away for free. All you have to do is navigate over to their Facebook page and fill in your information to be sent a free license for both apps. Once you have a license, you can download the apps from their respective pages and enter in your code to begin using them for free.

Aside from the limited time offer, AnyBizSoft is also constantly giving away free licenses for their flagship app, PDF to Word Converter 3.0.0. More details on their Facebook page.

If you’re an academic user, you can also check out their Back to School special offer page for more great deals.

Know your enemy students!

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php

The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2014

1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.

19. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.

… 28. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.

… 58. Beethoven has always been a dog.

A certain Law Professor we know forwards this video about the benefits of a new medication‏

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN0254u56Mc

More from Mr. Gump's neighborhood. Is it really their goal to make a profit?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12878

Stupid is as stupid does, Monday UK edition

August 16, 2010 by Dissent

Adrian Hearn reports:

A council has been accused of ”bullying” parents after spending £100,000 on a mobile camera which will dish out parking fines – to school-run mums.

The state-of-the-art ROADflow camera will be mounted on top of a traffic warden’s car and driven past 80 schools when parents are dropping off or picking up their children.

Any parent caught stopping on double-yellow lines or zig-zags at the school gates will be photographed and fined £60.

Bedford Borough Council is forking out £67,000 for the camera, £16,000 on software modification and a further £15,000 for warning signs.

A new team of council traffic enforcement officers will record the registration plates and issue Penalty Charge Notices without the vehicle needing to stop.

The council estimates it needs to issue 1,338 parking fines every year to meet the £42,000 annual running costs and make a predicted £37,500 profit.

Read more on SNWS.com

They couldn’t just hold a bake sale?

Obvious is not always wise, and off-the-cuff remarks are not strategy. (It also suggest a strategy for Identity Thieves: Change the name on those stolen Credit Cards to slow down detection. “I'm sorry Mr Jones, that card belongs to Mr Smith”)

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12882

Google’s Eric Schmidt on privacy: change your name

August 17, 2010 by Dissent

Louisa Hearn reports:

Google’s chief has put forth a novel solution for today’s teenagers whose wild online antics threaten to follow them into their adult life: change your name.

His comments come as the search giant attempts to allay public concern about plans to commercialise its ever-increasing pile of data. Schmidt’s prediction for those wanting to distance themselves from their past came as part of a broad-based internet discussion with the Wall Street Journal.

“I don’t believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time,” he said, as he predicted that all young people might one day be entitled to change their names in order to disown compromising activities captured on friends’ social media sites.

Read more in The Age.

So one day Google may have a CEO named Eric Absurd?

Forgive me if I think it strange that legislatures believe they can dictate good (or even acceptable) uses for technology. What ever happened to Market Forces? What impact will this have on your insurance? Can I get one hooked to the black box in my car to prove that I never drink and drive?

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/08/16/2252201/Convicted-NY-Drunk-Drivers-Need-Ignition-Interlocks?from=rss

Convicted NY Drunk Drivers Need Ignition Interlocks

Posted by Soulskill on Monday August 16, @07:33PM

"Starting yesterday in New York state, anyone sentenced for felony or misdemeanor DWI, whether a first-time or repeat offender, will have to install an ignition interlock in any vehicle they own or operate. The interlock contains a breath-checking unit that keeps the car from starting if the offender's blood-alcohol level registers 0.025 or higher, a little less than one-third of the legal limit. 'The addition of ignition interlocks will save lives in New York state,' says State Probation Director Robert Maccarone, who led the team that wrote the regulation. 'It's been proven in other states. New Mexico realized a 37 percent reduction in DWI recidivism.' Whether that will be enough to persuade more people to take a cab or find a designated driver is unknown. 'It's one more thing to make people think, it may help — it may keep a few people from getting behind the wheel,' says Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh."

(Related)

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/radio-riaa-mandatory-fm-radio-in-cell-phones-is-the-future.ars

Radio, RIAA: mandatory FM radio in cell phones is the future

Music labels and radio broadcasters can't agree on much, including whether radio should be forced to turn over hundreds of millions of dollars a year to pay for the music it plays. But the two sides can agree on this: Congress should mandate that FM radio receivers be built into cell phones, PDAs, and other portable electronics.

(Related) There is a clear business opportunity to provide a “translation tool” that makes the various features of websites easier to use. (Since everything is clearly coded, this might even be simple.) But hardware is another story.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/17/0138259/Legislation-To-Make-Web-Devices-Accessible-To-Disabled-Users?from=rss

Legislation To Make Web Devices Accessible To Disabled Users

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday August 17, @05:01AM

"In an effort to make web devices accessible to the disabled, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (H.R. 3101), submitted by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA) passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 348 to 23. The related Senate bill has been introduced by Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR). Quoting Representative Markey's website: 'We've moved from Braille to Broadcast, from Broadband to the Blackberry. We've moved from spelling letters in someone's palm to the Palm Pilot. And we must make all of these devices accessible.' [Must we? Bob] The Washington Post coverage notes, 'Some broadcasters put videos on the Internet with captions, but not all. That can make inaccessible everything from the political videos that are now common on the Web to pop culture clips that turn viral.' As someone who has 20/200 vision with my glasses on, I completely agree that the web has not been kind to individuals with various disabilities. But due to the size of the web, and the large number of different devices that access it, is it even possible to legislate something of this nature? Or should we rely on education and peer pressure on the various manufacturers?"

Perhaps we should gather these into a “How to avoid being vulnerable” guidebook for users who don't think.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/16/1619243/75-Use-Same-Password-For-Social-Media-amp-Email?from=rss

75% Use Same Password For Social Media & Email

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday August 16, @01:19PM

"Over 250,000 user names, email addresses, and passwords used for social networking sites can easily be found online. A study of the data collected showed that 75 percent of social networking username and password samples collected online were identical to those used for email accounts. The password data was gathered from blogs, torrents, online collaboration services and other sources. It was found that 43 percent of the data was leaked from online collaboration tools while 21 percent of data was leaked from blog postings. Meanwhile, torrents and users of other social hubs were responsible for leaking 10 percent and 18 percent of user data respectively...."

(Related) A bit less obvious that the previous article, but still offering several clear indications of high rask.

http://it.slashdot.org/story/10/08/16/139201/Dislike-Button-Scam-Hits-Facebook-Users?from=rss

"Dislike" Button Scam Hits Facebook Users

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday August 16, @09:48AM

"A message saying 'I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!' is spreading rapidly on Facebook, tempting unsuspecting users into believing that they will be able to "dislike" posts as well as "like" them. However, security researchers say that it is just the latest 'survey scam', tricking Facebook users into into giving a rogue Facebook application permission to access their profile, and posting spam messages from their account. The rogue application requires victims to complete an online survey (which makes money for the scammers) before ultimately redirecting to a Firefox browser add-on for a Facebook dislike button developed by FaceMod. "As far as we can tell, FaceMod aren't connected with the scam — their browser add-on is simply being used as bait," says Sophos security blogger Graham Cluley."

Politics requires complex (but not always sophisticated) strategies. Consider that the Google CEO was a big Obama supporter and what I see is a politician saying publicly, “I do not bow to Google.” Privately I suspect the message is, “I know lots of Google-gazillionaires who can toss some pocket change (say $50,000,000) into your campaign funds if you vote their way.” Or is that too obvious?

http://politics.slashdot.org/story/10/08/17/0117233/Democrats-Pan-Google-Verizon-Net-Neutrality-Proposal?from=rss

Democrats Pan Google-Verizon Net Neutrality Proposal

Posted by Soulskill on Monday August 16, @11:37PM

"Four House Democrats wrote to the Federal Communications Commission, urging them to write strict net neutrality rules and reject the framework put forward by Google and Verizon. The lawmakers, including Rep. Anna Eshoo, who represents the district containing Google HQ, said the Google-Verizon proposal increases the pressure on the FCC to come up with actual net neutrality rules, and characterize the deal as harmful to consumers and beneficial for the corporations. In particular, the letter took issue with two pieces of the Verizon-Google proposal: exemptions for managed services and wireless services from strict net-neutrality rules."

Coming soon! They have a sense of humor – don't confuse that with trivial.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/16/swingly/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

Swingly’s Answer Engine Comes Out Of Stealth Swinging And Killing Zombies

Sadly, Google isn’t great at answering questions because they’re a search engine that mainly returns hyperlinks. Sure, your answer may reside on one of those pages, but that requires another click and some browsing. A new service launching out of stealth mode tonight, Swingly, wants to perfect this task.

… Perhaps the most refreshing thing about the Texas-based startup is that they’re not pretending to be perfect. They claim to be about 75 percent accurate right now. But just in case they can’t back that up, they show related Q&A pairing below their best match to make sure you get what you’re looking for. And that’s actually smart because apparently in their alpha testing of the product, people have proven hungry for knowledge and keep coming back for more. “Our engagement numbers are phenomenal,” the company says.

… But really, all that matters here is how useful the service actually is in the real world. So Swingly is giving us 500 invites to dish out to TechCrunch readers. Simply use the code ‘techcrunch’ when you sign up and you’ll be granted access to the service when it’s fully live (which should be soon).

Swingly has also created a side-by-side comparison site so you can see how your questions are answered on their service versus how they are on the competitors. You can find that here (but you need to be logged in for it to work).

Something to share with your police friends?

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/16/safetyweb-swot/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

SafetyWeb’s Free Online Tracking Helps Police Find Missing Kids

Child safety monitoring service SafetyWeb is releasing a free version of its online tracking tool today, specifically for law enforcement agencies.

The SWOT tool allows police to secure the social networking accounts of a missing child and access recent status updates. Basically it tracks recent activity across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and any other social networking services a missing child might use to rely information on their whereabouts. The platform also provides instant alerts of its video, social network and photo site tracking.

SWOT got a standing ovation when demoed by SafetyWeb founders (and parents) Geoffry Arone and Michael Clark at the Crimes Against Children Conference last week, which SafetyWeb co-sponsored with Google and Facebook.

Tools & Techniques: Hardware &software for geeks & hackers. Here are a few samples...

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2367742,00.asp

Computer Tools: Your At-Home IT Toolkit

TeamViewer

Your parents can't figure out how to upload a picture to Facebook; you live 3,000 miles away. Do you try to talk them through the process on the phone? Why bother, when you can take remote control of their desktop from anywhere? Have them install TeamViewer's QuickSupport utility, so you can take over”even from an iPhone or iPad”once they give you the ID and Password generated at launch. It's secure because they have to provide the numbers to give you permission. And it works like a charm.

Magical Jelly Beans KeyFinder

Even if you have original disks to re-install programs, you might lack some all-important product keys (those numbers that are used to legally install many programs). KeyFinder is a freebie that pulls the keys for over 300 programs, including older versions of Windows and Office.

DriveImage XML

DriveImage XML will make a complete backup image of the drive”just make sure you have a larger drive to back up to. And thankfully, you can run it from a bootable CD. It works with Windows XP, Server 2003, Vista, and 7

inSIDDer

Got problems with wireless? This free tool gives you a full report on all the wireless in your area. That way you know what channels are in use, what's crowded, what's encrypted, and the strength of competing 802.11 signals over time. And unlike other tools like this, inSIDDer works with Windows all the way up to version 7, even 64-bit, all using your existing wireless hardware.

Same sad story, different day. “It's not a failure spying, it's a feature a service!”

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12872

ISP TalkTalk UK Responds to Privacy Concerns Over URL Monitoring Service

August 16, 2010 by Dissent

Broadband ISP TalkTalk UK has kindly responded to a number of the concerns we raised about its forthcoming security service. The controversial system shot into the headlines last month after several of the internet providers customers noticed that their website browsing activity was being monitored (“stalked”) without consent.

The ISP then promptly moved to allay any fears of privacy invasion by stating that the activity, which allegedly makes an anonymous record of the URL (website) addresses visited by all of its customers, was part of a new free security service targeted to launch before the end of 2010; following a proper public trial.

Read more about what they’re doing and ISPreview’s concerns about it on ISPreview.

Ubiquitous surveillance tool? War-driving gets an upgrade? Perhaps Google will adopt these.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/08/16/0314224/Dutch-Hackers-Create-Wi-Fi-Sniffing-Drone?from=rss

Dutch Hackers Create Wi-Fi Sniffing Drone

Posted by timothy on Monday August 16, @04:58AM

"The WASP, or Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform, has been built out of a hobby-grade airframe and open source Ardupilot autopilot, reports sUASnews. In the words of the Rabbit-Hole website, it's a 'Small Scale, Open Source UAV using off the shelf components. Designed to provide a vehicle to project cyber-offensive and defensive capabilities, and visual / electronic surveillance over distance cheaply and with little risk.'"

Want a drone of your own? The makers have some pointers to helpful resources.

For my students...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20013638-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

How online research can make the grade

Not too long ago, the golden rules for high school and college students turning to the Web as a research tool were simple: treat digital content that's never been in print with suspicion. Be careful what you Google. And thou shalt not touch Wikipedia.

But the Web has grown up a bit in the past few years, and the presence of digital research journals, fact-finding social media tools, textbook exchanges, and e-readers have made it a much more complicated landscape for anyone who encounters the education world's slow march beyond the traditional textbook. When things have shaken out, it may be a world where free-for-all online information hubs are accepted--or, if proponents of "collaborative knowledge" have their way, even embraced.

"We have 16 million articles," said Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia. "It's impossible to say that they're all going to be great and you're not going to find any vandalism. So a healthy dose of media literacy helps any student looking at that information."

In a 2005 study, scientific journal Nature found, based on a survey of articles pertaining to various disciplines, that Wikipedia was on a par with Encyclopedia Britannica when it came to the accuracy of information within. It was a win for supporters of the idealistic concept of collaborative knowledge. And some academics say that it's now sufficiently stable and commonplace that they're all right with students using it for basic knowledge--just not citing it.

… "Wikipedia should not be used as a primary source," Walsh said. "We completely support that. We would not encourage people to cite Wikipedia in their papers. That's not what it's for.

http://blog.jingproject.com/2008/11/jing-videos-in-powerpoint-wind.html

Jing Videos in PowerPoint (Windows Only)

Next time you have to give a presentation, wow your audience with an embedded video. This will help you explain certain things without the usual static screen captures and bullet points.

There's a couple of ways to do it. There's the easy way, which requires you have a copy of TechSmith's SnagIt software. SnagIt's Add-in makes it easy to drop a video into a slide. I've made a Jing video showing this process. You can learn more about all the SnagIt add-in's here.

You don't have to have SnagIt in order to put Jing videos in PowerPoint presentations, but PowerPoint doesn't make it obvious like inserting an image. I've found and tried a couple of resources on the Web.

(Related)

http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/embed-swf-insert-flash-in-powerpoint-presentations/3721/

How to Insert SWF Flash Movies in PowerPoint Presentations

Related tutorial: How to Embed YouTube videos in PowerPoint Slides

WOW! I'll need some time to fully appreciate this, but I suspect my students will love it!

http://www.xplana.com/xplanaPortal/#user/0

Xplana

The social network for learning.

No doubt they'll offer a discount (after raising everyone's prices) for allowing this “modest intrusion.”

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12856

It’s not just the police: Auto finance companies probe state restrictions on GPS tracking

August 14, 2010 by Dissent

Mal Leary reports from Maine:

Those handy GPS devices that help you find a restaurant while driving around on vacation can also be used to track your car wherever it goes. Who has access to that tracking ability is of growing concern to state officials in the wake of a query by a finance company to put GPS devices in vehicles it finances.

The State Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection confirmed that it recently received a query from an out of state finance company about placing GPS devices in financed vehicles.

“We were asked by an out of state lawyer representing an auto finance company whether we would object to installation of GPS units on cars that serve as collateral,” bureau of consumer credit protection superintendent Will Lund said last week. He said the purpose cited by the lawyer was for the secondary finance market for car loans to help determine whether a loan contract was a good credit risk for the finance company. [Isn't that electronic “Red Lining?” Bob]

Read more in the Bangor Daily News to find out what Maine officials think of the legality and privacy implications of this type of practice.

It's not just your personal information, it's also your ancestors. Churchill's father had syphilis and it didn't seem to reduce his effectiveness...

http://www.phiprivacy.net/?p=3344

Your Great Granddaddy Had Syphilis And Now Everyone Knows It

By Dissent, August 14, 2010

Harley Geiger writes about an issue I’ve discussed on this blog in the past: the privacy of the deceased’s medical records:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wants to remove health information privacy protections from people who have been dead for 50 years. [Should we protect health records as long as we protect the Mickey Mouse Copyright? Bob] HHS issued a proposed rule to update health privacy regulations, and most of their modifications were quite positive from a privacy perspective. However, this idea is as weird and terrible as the logo for the scrapped Total Information Awareness Office.

Currently, the law requires that the health information of the dead be protected in the same manner as that of the living. Generally speaking, health care organizations can use patient data for treatment, payment and operations purposes without the consent of the patient, but must get the consent of the patient for most other purposes, like marketing or research. When the patient is deceased, health care companies must seek consent from the dead person’s personal representative, like the executor of the estate.

In the proposed rule, HHS states that the plan stems from the difficulty of locating personal representatives to obtain authorizations to use the health data of the deceased. Specifically, HHS refers to the frustrations of historians, biographers and archivists. (At last, the true might of the archivists’ lobby is revealed to us all.) HHS reasons that waiting until 50 years after death would protect the privacy of the deceased and their relatives.

CDT disagrees. We believe this proposed modification would be significantly more detrimental to patient privacy than it may seem. There are just too many unknowns to make this modification for the sake of posterity.

Read more on CDT.

While I have always appreciated the interest of historians and biographers, and would be fascinated to see the medical records of Edgar Allan Poe’s last hospitalization, I am more concerned about the impact of disclosure on descendants who may find that their forefathers had genetically linked mental health disorders. Could we argue that they are better off knowing than not knowing? Sure, but that would be presumptuous on our part. If new regulations can make it acceptable for records to be released with a personal representative’s approval after 50 years, what about after 10 years? 5? 2? If we can trace someone’s genes back thousands of years to a particular tribe in Israel, is 50 years really long enough to protect those alive today from potentially embarrassing or upsetting revelations? I don’t think so. So as sad as I would be to lose interesting historical data and insights, I think we need to preserve the status quo of requiring the consent of a personal representative to release medical records of the deceased.

What is “exclusive” worth? (and what does it cost?) Apple must be seeing not just those abandoning ship, but those using other carriers who will report themselves likely to buy an iPhone.

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/08/13/1-out-of-3-att-iphone-customers-will-switch-to-verizon/

1 out of 3 AT&T iPhone customers will switch to Verizon

… According to the study from research firm Morpace, something like 1 out of every 3 AT&T iPhone customers are waiting for the handset launch on another carrier

… Among T-Mobile customers, 20% are “Somewhat” or “Very Likely” to go to Verizon for an Apple smartphone. Sprint and AT&T have 22% and 23%, respectively, of their current subscriber base thinking the same thing. And, the icing on this cake is the 51% of current Verizon customers that have their sights set on a handset powered by iOS. Can you say, “high demand”?

Amen!

http://chronicle.com/article/Reaching-the-Last-Technology/123659/

Reaching the Last Technology Holdouts at the Front of the Classroom

Every semester a lot of professors' lectures are essentially reruns because many instructors are too busy to upgrade their classroom methods.

That frustrates Chris Dede, a professor of learning technologies at Harvard University, who argues that clinging to outdated teaching practices amounts to educational malpractice.

"If you were going to see a doctor and the doctor said, 'I've been really busy since I got out of medical school, and so I'm going to treat you with the techniques I learned back then,' you'd be rightly incensed," he told me recently. "Yet there are a lot of faculty who say with a straight face, 'I don't need to change my teaching,' as if nothing has been learned about teaching since they had been prepared to do it—if they've ever been prepared to."

I like to add cross-cultural influences to my class.

http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2010/08/13/chinese_red_army_and_beat_it/index.html

A Chinese Red Army tribute to Michael Jackson

I had to burn an ISO image yesterday and found this tool. It is dirt simple. After installing the software, run Windows Explorer, right-click on the ISO file, and then click “Copy image to CD” That's it!

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

ISO Recorder

Another self-serving “spin” of the facts.

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=13243

Loma Linda offers help after desktops stolen in June

August 13, 2010 by admin

Darrell R. Santschi reports:

Loma Linda University’s dental school has hired a credit monitoring and repair firm to help potential identity theft victims. Kroll Inc. will offer assistance to any of the 10,100 patients whose personal information was contained in three desktop computers stolen from the school the weekend of June 12, university spokesman Dustin Jones said.

Patient treatment records were not stored on the computers, he said, but they did contain names, social security numbers, dates of birth and other health and personal information. Two people were arrested in connection with the case last month.

Jones said computer memory had been erased [“memory” is wiped when the power is turned off. Do they mean they re-formatted the hard drive? Bob] by the thieves, who he said were unable to crack password firewalls. [One of the first thing I teach my Computer Forensic students is to pull the hard drive from the target computer and attach it (via a “Write Blocker”) to another computer. If you don't boot from the target drive, it's operating system never gets control and thus never asks for a password. Bob] He said the university has not yet heard any reports of identity theft. [Now that victims know a probable source, that could change. Bob]

Source: Press-Enterprise, via ESI.

This appears to be Loma Linda’s second breach in recent months. In April, the medical center reported that a desktop stolen from the surgical administrative office contained PHI on 584 patients.

I'm sure this isn't viewed as “caving in” to Big Brother, but simply “complying with local laws and regulations.” The effect is the same.

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12835

Update: BlackBerry assures India on access to services

August 13, 2010 by Dissent

Bappa Majumdar reports:

Research In Motion has promised India a technical solution for decoding encrypted BlackBerry data, a senior official said on Friday, a step that could allay Indian security concerns about the smartphone and avert a shutdown.

Indian authorities, who met with RIM officials on Friday, also pledged to go after other companies — including Google and Skype — to protect the country from cyber-spying and attacks planned over the Internet.

RIM faces an August 31 deadline to give authorities the means to read email and instant messages sent over the BlackBerry. New Delhi says it will pull the plug if RIM won’t comply, threatening its future in the world’s fastest-growing telecoms market.

Read more on Reuters.com.

(Related) It must be okay, everybody's doing it!

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/08/13/rim.guidelines.explain.blackberry.snoop.limits/

RIM posts BlackBerry spying 'rules,' wants equal treatment

RIM today posted a set of guidelines that it said would dictate the limits of how countries such as India could monitor its services. The BlackBerry maker would refuse to grant access beyond what's legally required by a local government. Any monitoring would similarly have to be "technology and vendor neutral" and wouldn't grant any special access to a BlackBerry that isn't present on an iPhone or similar device.

Why buy flood insurance if you can convince the Army Corps of Engineers to move the river?

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=13231

How not to address child ID theft

August 13, 2010 by admin

Over on Emergent Chaos, Adam disagrees with ITRC’s proposed Minors 17-10 Database to reduce child identity theft:

…. Unfortunately, this idea is totally and subtly broken.

Today, the credit agencies don’t get lists from the SSA. This is a good thing. There’s no authorization under law for them to do so. The fact that they’ve created an externality on young people is no reason to revise that law. The right fix is for them to fix their systems.

The right fix is for credit bureaus to delete any credit history from before someone turns 18. Birth dates could be confirmed by a drivers license, passport or birth certificate.

Here’s how it would work:

1. Alice turns 18.
2. Alice applies for credit and discovers she has a credit history
3. Alice calls the big three credit agencies and gets a runaround explains she’s just turned 18, and apparently has credit from when she was 13.
4. The credit agency asks for documents, just like they do today (see “when do I need to provide supporting docs”)
5. The credit agency looks at the birthday they’ve been provided, and substracts 18 years from the year field.
6. The credit agency removes the record from the report

It’s easy, and doesn’t require anything but a change in process by the credit bureaus. No wonder they haven’t done it, when they can convince privacy advocates that they should get lists of SSN/name/dob tuples from Uncle Sam.

The problem I see with Adam’s proposal is that it doesn’t prevent ID theft in the first place, which is what ITRC’s proposal at least attempts to do. Yes, his approach would clear Alice’s record, but there would still be all kinds of erroneous records circulating with her name and SSN attached to them in public record databases and other databases because the ID theft wasn’t prevented.

Of course, the new ID Analytics report on multiple SSNs per person and multiple persons per SSN does not inspire confidence in any approach that attempts to use SSA’s database for anything and raises questions in my mind about ITRC’s proposal.

But more importantly, perhaps: why are we still trying to make the system work with SSN? Hasn’t it become abundantly clear by now that the only thing SSN should be used for is for SSA benefits?

So is it any surprise that we have politicians who aren't sure what the definition of “is” is?

http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/08/13/1315237/US-Students-Struggle-With-Understanding-of-the-Equal-Sign?from=rss

US Students Struggle With Understanding of the 'Equal' Sign

Posted by Soulskill on Friday August 13, @09:32AM

bickerd--- writes with news of research out of Texas A&M which found that roughly 70% of middle grades students in the US don't fully understand what the 'equal' sign means. Quoting:

"'The equal sign is pervasive and fundamentally linked to mathematics from kindergarten through upper-level calculus,' Robert M. Capraro says. 'The idea of symbols that convey relative meaning, such as the equal sign and "less than" and "greater than" signs, is complex and they serve as a precursor to ideas of variables, which also require the same level of abstract thinking.' The problem is students memorize procedures without fully understanding the mathematics, he notes. 'Students who have learned to memorize symbols and who have a limited understanding of the equal sign will tend to solve problems such as 4+3+2=( )+2 by adding the numbers on the left, and placing it in the parentheses, then add those terms and create another equal sign with the new answer,' he explains. 'So the work would look like 4+3+2=(9)+2=11.'"

My wife supplies some anecdotal support. When she brings her doberman to work, all the lawyers seem to spend more time in their offices and less time chatting in the halls.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/024943.html

August 13, 2010

Research: Dogs improve office productivity

The Economist: "There are plenty of studies which show that dogs act as social catalysts, helping their owners forge intimate, long-term relationships with other people. But does that apply in the workplace? Christopher Honts and his colleagues at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant were surprised to find that there was not much research on this question, and decided to put that right. They wondered in particular if the mere presence of a canine in the office might make people collaborate more effectively. And, as they told a meeting of the International Society for Human Ethology in Madison, Wisconsin, on August 2nd, they found that it could."

'cause you can never have enough tools. For my Intro to IT class.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/monitor-pc-system-explorer/

Monitor What’s Really Going On With Your PC With System Explorer

System Explorer will return power over your own computer back to you.

The beauty of System Explorer is that it collects, organizes, and rearranges all of the information you need about your system into one central location.

Saikat covered how to troubleshoot Windows with MSConfig.

… it not only lists every single process running on your machine, as well as all of the details about each process – but if you see one that’s questionable, you don’t have to try and guess what it is. If you click on the “Check” link, you’ll go to an online database of file type explanations and reviews from experts regarding whether or not the file is considered safe or unsafe.

… If it appears that your Internet bandwidth has been hijacked, then click on the “Connections” option in the left menu and you’ll see every last process that’s accessing the Internet, the protocol being used, and the “to” and “from” domain addresses. This can help you identify applications that are sending traffic to questionable domains.

… Clicking “Startups” displays every program configured to launch up on startup. This include shortcuts in your Startup folder, and items in your registry. See one that you don’t want? Just right click and disable or delete.

… If you click “Additional Info,” you’ll find your processor speed, used and free memory, drivers, registered DLLs, and even every font that’s installed on your system!

Clever ideas...

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-simple-ways-character-map-lesser-fonts/

10 Simple But Useful Ways To Use The Character Map & Your Lesser-Used Fonts

… Just to give you an example of using the lesser fonts creatively – you can take the ‘scissor’ character from Wingdings and put it next to a dotted line. It illustratively tells you on a printed sheet – cut along the dotted line.

Improving search?

http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/nibbo-show-google-web-image-video-search-results-page/

Nibbo: Improved Way To Search Google

Nibbo is a search engine based on Google Search. The engine’s most prominent feature is how it integrates all types of search results within one page. For instance if you execute a search of “hippos” on Nibbo, the ‘web’ results will be shown in the center pane and to the right you can view results from images, videos, Wikipedia, news, and Twitter.

www.nibbo.com

• Similar tools: Groovle and Favitt.

• Also read related articles:

10 Search Engines to Explore the Invisible Web
6 Most Powerful Search Engines for Social Networks
3 Fascinating Search Engines That Search For Faces.

Also for my Intro to IT class.

http://gizmodo.com/5612145/how-a-16+yo-kid-made-his-first-million-dollars-following-his-hero-steve-jobs

How a 16-yo Kid Made His First Million Dollars Following His Hero, Steve Jobs

Companies are still ignoring basic security practices and their PR departments are still relying on the public's ignorance of technology to make their ignorance seem wise. Mailing an un-encryptrd DVD is slower and more expensive than transmitting encrypted data via the Internet. What manager makes a choice like that?

http://www.phiprivacy.net/?p=3319

DVD with Walsh Pharmacy patient data disappears during mailing

By Dissent, August 12, 2010

When McKesson Pharmacy Systems mailed Massachusetts-based Walsh Pharmacy a DVD containing information on Walsh Pharmacy patients, the envelope arrived but the DVD was missing. Through its attorney, Walsh Pharmacy notified the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office of the incident involving its business associate systems vendor.

Information on the DVD included pharmacy patients’ names, and in some cases, Social Security or health insurance numbers, driver’s license numbers, and prescription information. No credit card or financial information was on the missing DVD. Walsh reports that the envelope appeared intact, and that the files on it had been created using a UNIX system which would make the contents more difficult to extract in a comprehensible format. [Unless you actually had a UNIX system. (Cost: $0) Bob]

As a result of this incident, Walsh has changed its procedures and going forward, business associates will no longer return media with sensitive information, but will destroy it instead.

(Related) Relies more on the contract language than the security process.

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=13206

EMI v. Comerica: Court Finds Commercially Reasonable Security — Bank Loses Motion for Summary Judgment

August 13, 2010 by admin

David Navetta provides a legal analysis of the court’s denial of the bank’s motion for summary judgment in the case.

An odd result — we know.

We previously reported on the lawsuit filed by Experi-Metal, Inc. (“EMI”) and the subsequent motion for summary judgment (and briefs) filed by Comerica Bank to have the case dismissed. As reported in July, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan has issued a ruling on Comerica’s motion for summary judgment. To make a long story short, the Court denied Comerica’s motion and this case appears headed toward trial (or potentially appeal or settlement). Ironically, in the course of its ruling the Court found that Comerica had utilized commercially reasonable security procedures. However, that ruling had more to do with the language in Comerica’s contracts than an actual substantive analysis of Comerica’s security procedures. In this blogpost, we take a closer look at the Court’s ruling.

Read more on Info Law Group.

[From the original report:

As you might recall this case involved a successful phishing attack that allowed the bad guys to get the EMI’s online banking login credentials and wire transfer about $560,000 from EMI’s account (the original amount was $1.9 million, but Comerica was able to recover some of that). The bad guys were able to foil Comerica's two factor token-based authentication with a man in the middle attack.

As far as I know, no one has a “when you die” procedure.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/08/12/143223/Can-Twitter-and-Facebook-Deal-With-Their-Dead?from=rss

Can Twitter and Facebook Deal With Their Dead?

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 12, @10:40AM

"One and a half million Facebook users die each year. Twitter faces a similar mortality rate. Yet the social networks have been relatively slow to deal with the uncomfortable business of death. Only this week has Twitter finally unveiled a policy for handling the accounts of dead members. Yet the process for closing the accounts of deceased relatives is complicated, while reminders to follow the accounts of people who have long since passed away continue to arrive, adding to the pain of grieving friends and relatives."

Part of a growing collection of Privacy guidelines. Someone has to get something right some day, don't they?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12811

DARPA Releases Privacy Guidelines For R&D

August 12, 2010 by Dissent

Elizabeth Montalbano reports:

The technology-research arm of the U.S. military has released a new set of privacy principles to guide all of its future R&D projects.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA’s) new principles are aimed at ensuring that any programs that may raise privacy issues are “designed and implemented in a responsible and ethical fashion,” according to a White House blog post attributed to Tom Kalil, deputy director for Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy He acknowledged that DARPA’s role “working at the technology and security frontiers” can inherently lead to “tension between the value of having access to information and the importance of respecting personal privacy.”

Read more on InformationWeek.

I'm not neutral...

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/08/12/139203/EFF-Reviews-the-Verizon-Google-Net-Neutrality-Deal?from=rss

EFF Reviews the Verizon-Google Net Neutrality Deal

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 12, @09:48AM

"The EFF has written an analysis of the Net Neutrality deal brokered between Verizon and Google. While the EFF agrees with substantial portions of it, such as giving the FCC only enough authority to investigate complaints, rather than giving them a blank check to create regulations, there are a number of troubling issues with the agreement. In particular, they're concerned that what constitutes 'reasonable' network management is in the eye of the beholder and they don't like giving a free pass to anyone who claims they're attempting to block unlawful content, even when doing so in such a way that they interfere with lawful activities. On balance, while there are some good ideas about how to get Net Neutrality with minimal government involvement, there are serious flaws in the agreement that would allow ISPs to interfere with any service they wanted to because there is no algorithm that can correctly determine which numbers are currently illegal."

I mentioned this earlier, but this is a better format. Again, not just for teachers, anyone can play.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/08/how-to-do-11-techy-things-in-new-school.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29

Thursday, August 12, 2010

How To Do 11 Techy Things In the New School Year

Earlier this week I published a list of 11 Techy Things for Teachers To Try This Year. As promised at the end of that post, I have created a free how-to guide for the things I listed. The 58 page guide embedded below is intended as quick-start guide for teachers who want to try something new in the 2010-2011 school year. The guide is a available as a free download.

How would you like a (free) separate computer for each project/class/day of the week?

http://www.smashingapps.com/2010/08/12/turn-your-web-browser-into-an-online-computer-with-icloud.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SmashingApps+%28Smashing+Apps%29

Turn Your Web Browser Into An Online Computer With icloud

What if your there was physical damage to your computer? All your backups would be on your hard drive an in the case it got damaged, all data would be lost. The best solution to secure your data therefore is by storing a backup online.

icloud lets you do just that. icloud is a web service that provides its users with a virtual desktop. After creating an account and signing in to it, you virtual desktop loads up.

This desktop operates within your web browser and similar to the desktop screen of regular computers. You can store files in your icloud account and use the desktop interface to browse through files and use them.

Currently icloud offers 3GB storage to its free users and 100GB storage to users who pay the $40 fee. The web service is neat service to try and a great way to secure your important data.

A “how are they doing that” tool for my website students.

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/wappalyzer-com-understanding-web-technologies

Wappalyzer.com - Understanding Web Technologies

http://wappalyzer.com/

We could define Wappalyzer by saying it is an add-on for Firefox that can be used to analyze any site that you come across, and get a rundown of the different Web technologies that have been employed to put it together. As it stands right now, Wappalyzer can detect both CMS and e-commerce systems, as well as database managers and issue trackers. The full list of tracked applications can actually be read on the site, and the number is getting close to 150.

Tools & Techniques Something for the Swiss Army Folder...

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/08/gooreader-read-google-books-on-your.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29

Friday, August 13, 2010

GooReader - Read Google Books On Your Desktop

GooReader is a desktop application for locating, reading, and saving materials from Google Books. The visual interface of GooReader is much nicer and should be easier on the eyes for many people. If you choose to upgrade to a paid plan, GooReader will allow you to print titles. But if you don't upgrade, remember that you can print directly from Google Books for free. GooReader is currently only available for Windows. A Mac version is in development.