Don't confuse me with the facts!

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012110.html

August 13, 2006

National Safety Council Statistical on Risks We Encounter Daily

National Safety Council: What are the odds of dying? - "The table [included on this page] was prepared in response to frequent inquiries, especially from the media, asking questions such as, "What are the odds of being killed by lightning?" or "What are the chances of dying in a plane crash?" August 2, 2006.

• "National Geographic magazine's August 2006 issue features the "Ways to Go" chart based on the National Safety Council's Odds of Dying statistics"

Interesting question. Is AOL required to notify everyone?

http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/index.blog?entry_id=1537641

27B Stroke 6

by Ryan Singel and Kevin Poulsen Friday, 11 August 2006

Did AOL Put Your Id Online?

Are you an AOL customer who is wondering if you are one of the 648,000 people whose searches were released by AOL? That data set has quickly been fed into searchable online databases so that anyone can search through them (but I'm not linking to them).

You might think that AOL would have notified each member by now (it should be a trivial task for an AOL engineer to internally re-identify these people), but despite all their public apologies, they haven't said squat about notifiying their affected customers.

Perhaps that's because their lawyers told them they might be on the hook for $658 million?

So if you were a paying AOL customer from May to June this year, you might try the nifty little page the Electronic Frontier Foundation set up, which has AOL phone numbers, talking points, and a feedback form to tell EFF how it went.

Also if you want to take some basic precautionary measures when searching the internet, try this handy guide Wired News made when the feds came after Google's data store (which Google has no intention of limiting, even though it could and its president CEO knows the data is a ripe target for the government).

We can, therefore we must?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/nyregion/14clubs.html?ex=1156132800&en=4daa6845d959d0f8&ei=5099&partner=TOPIXNEWS

Plan for Cameras at New York Clubs Raises Privacy Concerns

By WINNIE HU August 14, 2006

City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn has become the city’s most visible gay official, leading the fight for same-sex marriages and even marching as a grand marshal in the gay pride parade this summer.

Ms. Quinn’s political career has thrived on her support of gays and lesbians, but she surprised and angered some members of that core constituency when she proposed last week that the city’s 250 nightclubs be required to install security cameras at their entrances and exits.

... While the details of the proposal have yet to be worked out, it would apply to nightclubs that operate with city-issued cabaret licenses that allow dancing. If the nightclub owners refused to comply, their licenses could be suspended or revoked.

... Ms. Quinn, who also wants to require nightclubs to install identification-checking machines to curb under-age drinking, plans to convene a nightlife conference next month for club owners and city agencies to discuss other ways to improve club safety.

... Many large Manhattan nightclubs already use security cameras, but the technology is intended for the protection of the club owners and not their patrons.

Robert S. Bookman, a lawyer for the New York Nightlife Association, said the video footage is checked if, say, a patron claims to have been denied access because of discrimination or mistreatment by a bouncer.

... Ms. Quinn said that she did not believe the technology should raise privacy issues at clubs where people are routinely asked for identification. [But no record is kept... Bob]

This is even better than a secret law, this is a “we don't need no stinking laws!” Will all liquids be baned from the subways?

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--subwaysearches0811aug11,0,3636915,print.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

Court upholds random NYC subway searches to prevent terrorism

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer August 11, 2006, 3:39 PM EDT

NEW YORK -- Calling the terrorism threat to public safety "substantial and real," a federal appeals court Friday upheld the constitutionality of random bag searches by police in America's busiest subway system to prevent terrorism.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected a challenge to the searches by the New York Civil Liberties Union, saying a lower court judge properly concluded that the program put in place in July 2005 was "reasonably effective."

... The appeals court said counterterrorism experts and politically accountable officials had undertaken the delicate task of deciding how to use their resources to fight terrorism. [We don't need no stinking congress!” Bob]

... Christopher Dunn, the NYCLU's associate legal director, said: "Because this program authorizes police searches of all subway riders without any suspicion of wrongdoing, we continue to believe it raises fundamental constitutional questions, and we are considering further appeals."

Worth consideration?

Serence KlipFolio 3.1 Beta B

Posted by Reverend on 13 Aug 2006 - 19:32 GMT

Techzonez Serence KlipFolio is a free information awareness and notification application for Windows. It's quick to install and easy to use. KlipFolio lets you configure and monitor a wide variety of real-time information services on your desktop--like weather, stocks, breaking news, RSS feeds and auctions. These information services are called Klips.

View: Release Notes Download: Serence KlipFolio 3.1 Beta B

View: Serence KlipFolio homepage Download: Techzonez Klips

As you might expect, this site has been overwhelmed. Keep trying, live long and prosper!

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/13/1314252&from=rss

Star Trek... Inspirational Posters?

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday August 13, @11:54AM from the welcome-to-sunday dept. It's funny. Laugh.

Noryungi writes "Hot on the heels of Despair dot com, here comes... the Star Trek Inspirational Posters!. Imagine a mind-meld of Mr Spock, Despair's demotivational attitude and the Linux Distro Parodies, and you have one heck of a funny site. If you are a true Trekkie, don't click on the link, as this is certainly going to offend you..."

Another forensic tool?

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/08/14/33NMmain_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/08/14/33NMmain_1.html

Hackers beware: You are what you type

In an InfoWorld interview, computer forensics expert Dr. Neal Krawetz reveals how key taps and other clues can identify online bad guys

By InfoWorld staff August 14, 2006

... Krawetz sat down with InfoWorld Senior Editor Paul F. Roberts at the Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas to talk about his research and one of his more contentious claims: that he may have identified the author of the Agobot, Phatbot, and rBot malware.

InfoWorld: How is what you do different from classical forensics?

Dr. Neal Krawetz: Classical forensics are tried and tested. They’ve been proven in a court of law. Most things with computers haven’t been around that long. Most classical computer forensics are things like “How to analyze a hard disk” or “How to use a mail header.” Those have been around a long time. Nonclassical forensics are things that are very much on the experimental side. There’s science behind it. The approach is basically scientific.

IW: What can you do in nonclassical forensics that you can’t in classical forensics? What advantages are there?

NK: Oh, you can pull out a lot more information. For example: Are two documents written by the same author, or is the author left- or right-handed? These are not things you could pull off a hard drive.

Have they copyrighted English or are they just “over lawyered?”

http://www.micropersuasion.com/2006/08/google_warns_me.html

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Google Warns Media on Using Its Name as a Verb

The Independent Online reports that Google has fired off a series of legal letters to the media, asking them not to use the name of the company as a verb. This despite the fact that the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's include the search engine as a verb - e.g. "to google."

Beyond the sheer legal issues, one of the places where this of course gets fuzzy is in the definition of "media." How in the world do they expect to enforce this when every blogger under the sun uses the phrase on his/her own sites? It's part of the pop culture.

This has to go down as one of the worst PR moves in history. They're getting all this free publicity and it's right on message. Google sounds like a big arrogant company that has forgotten its roots. That's too bad. (Footnote: Microsoft, an Edelman client, is a Google competitor.)

As often happens, this web site was overloaded and crashed. You don't suspect a CIA plot do you? Me neither... so why did you bring it up?

http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Iranian_President_has_a_blog

Iranian President has a blog!

submitted by KnightMareInc 18 hours 32 minutes ago (via http://www.ahmadinejad.ir)

Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad's blog.

There are days when this is as much intellectual activity as I can handle...

http://digg.com/design/HUGE_Comic_Books_Archive_2861_comics_online

HUGE Comic Books Archive - 2861 comics online

ozguralaz submitted by ozguralaz 14 hours 16 minutes ago (via http://www.aibq.com/catalog.php )

Awesome archiece. Download older DC Comics

Are we becoming rational? ...Nah!

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1155420635546&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home

Don't mess with my flight plans

Aug. 13, 2006. 09:42 AM DAVID OLIVE

"Pretty soon we'll have to fly naked!"— "Staquille," contributor to a New York Times website forum last Thursday after that day's revelations of a foiled terrorist plot to destroy as many as 10 airliners during transatlantic flights, on the resulting severe restrictions on carry-on items

It should have been seen as one of the most catastrophic events in modern history. Or so one might have thought last Thursday morning, when British authorities revealed they had thwarted an alleged scheme by terrorists to kill as many as 3,500 civilians on 10 jetliners in mid-air explosions over the Atlantic.

... The mass media rapidly embraced the storyline fed them that morning. The BBC, CNN, CBC Newsworld and other all-news broadcasters covered scarcely anything but the narrowly averted catastrophe throughout the day. And a friend of mine in a Toronto newsroom reported that "the editors' hair is on fire. They're trying to cover every conceivable angle of this story."

Funny thing, but the general public wasn't buying it. Thousands of ordinary folks posted their thoughts on Web forums set up by the BBC, The New York Times and other news outlets to monitor reaction. And that reaction was surprisingly mundane and cynical.

... Another wrote: "This is just another Goebbels moment for the government. They must keep reminding us of the perceived terrorist threat to justify the crackdown on civil liberties."

... The media came in for excoriation: By pushing the panic button with its blanket terrorism coverage, it enabled media-savvy terrorists to cause chaos at world airports on both sides of the Atlantic even with a foiled plot, to say nothing of abetting officialdom in keeping the public in a perpetual state of fear.

It seemed to me last Thursday that this sanguine populist reaction was, well, nuts. But within 36 hours, British authorities had released one of its 22 captured suspects and had yet to lay formal charges against any of the others — rather odd, given that the probe into their alleged activities had been going on for the better part of a year.

... An early hint that the curious popular response to "8/10" was a manifestation of public distrust of officialdom came in a midday Thursday interview on National Public Radio. An intelligence official, unnamed but widely quoted all morning, had said that this latest plot "is really, really serious. This is the real deal — honestly." Which prompted an U.S. academic on an NPR panel discussion to ask, "So then, all the previous warnings have been false? The Code Orange alerts didn't mean anything? How are people supposed to believe their government officials when, five years after 9/11, they suddenly come up with what they call a `real' warning. It's absurd."

... To see what real people were thinking, in real time, I read the first 1,000 postings on the BBC's online reaction site, the 502 comments posted on the New York Times site from the moment it was launched at about noon Toronto time until 11 p.m., and the 45 contributions to the CBC's similar online forum.

... A fear of terrorism accounted for 23 of those first 1,000 BBC postings. Suspicion that the whole thing was a hoax accounted for 163 of them, or a rather startling 16.3 per cent.

Approximately 40 per cent of the postings were bellyaching about the new carry-on restrictions, or frustration over disruptions in the travel plans of themselves or family and friends. Almost half of the correspondents (46 per cent), including those skeptical about the timing and authenticity of the alarming news, felt the U.K. had a terrorist attack coming because of lax security, haphazard intelligence operations, an overly aggressive U.S. and U.K. foreign policy in the Middle East, and a media-abetted terrorist network whose every atrocity or failed attempt garnered terrorists the global attention they crave.

Just 14 per cent of postings expressed gratitude to those who thwarted the alleged plot.

The composition of the New York Times postings was roughly the same, with only rare mention of the spectre of planes being blown to bits over the Atlantic. Almost 80 per cent of contributors to the site dealt with the complaints about botched travel plans, needless airport chaos and carry-on restrictions regarded as absurd.

While about 20 per cent of writers commended U.K. authorities on their police work or rose to the defence of the Bush administration's foreign policy, an equal portion doubted the veracity of the revelations and condemned the "meddling" of President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Middle East.

http://digg.com/tech_news/Time_Magazine_s_50_Coolest_Websites

Time Magazine's 50 Coolest Websites

vekron submitted by vekron 12 hours 47 minutes ago (via http://www.time.com/time/2006/50coolest/index.html )

Time Magazine has put together a list of 50 coolest websites from six different categories. Many of them are Web 2.0 sites, others aren't. There's no surprise Digg is one of the websites, but many lesser-known sites made the list too.

If they had done this on eBay, no one would even know they were Arabs. The strange part is that they had been contacted (questioned and released?) four times before this. There must be a few details missing in this story.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/15265293.htm

Suspects linked to bridge plot

The Associated Press Posted on Sun, Aug. 13, 2006

CARO, Mich. -- The wife of a Texas man accused of amassing cellphones for terrorist purposes said Saturday that her husband traveled so far to buy phones because demand is so high in North Texas.

Lina Odeh said the men planned to sell the phones to a man in Dallas for a profit of about $5 per phone. She said they were in Michigan because so many people in the Dallas area are doing the same thing that the phones are often sold out.

"I just want everyone to know that they're innocent and they shouldn't be locked up in jail without any evidence," Odeh said.

Her husband, Louai Othman, was arraigned Saturday along with Adham Abdelhamid Othman and Maruan Awad Muhareb.

Louai and Adham Othman are brothers in their early 20s. Louai lives in Dallas, Adham in Mesquite. Muhareb, 18, is their cousin and lives in Mesquite. All are being held at the Tuscola County Jail, Caro police said.

The three were stopped before dawn Friday after purchasing 80 cellphones from a Wal-Mart in Caro.

Police said they found about 1,000 cellphones in their minivan.

A magistrate set bail at $750,000 for each of the men, who are charged with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes.

No pleas were made at the arraignment at the District Court in Caro, about 80 miles north of Detroit.

The felony charges each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Tuscola County prosecutor Mark Reene told The Saginaw News that investigators believe that the men were targeting the five-mile-long Mackinac Bridge, connecting Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas. He declined to say what led investigators to that belief.

Officials have not said precisely what they believe the men intended to do with the phones, most of which were prepaid TracFones.

But Caro's police chief said cellphones can be used as detonators, and prosecutors in a similar case in Ohio have said terrorists use TracFones because they are not traceable.

Two of the men said they were only trying to buy and sell phones to make money, and Muhareb said the money was intended to help pay for his brother's college education.

Village and state police said they found one of the men discarding the phones' packaging and battery chargers.

The men had apparently separated the batteries from the other phones in the van.

The men told police that they were buying the phones for $20 in Michigan, then reselling them for $38 in Texas. [Sounds profitable to me. Should we assume that Arabs don't want to make money? Bob]

"All we did is buy the phones to sell and make money," Louai Othman told the magistrate.

He said authorities had stopped the group in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

"We've been checked by the FBI before," he said. "They even gave us their card and everything."

Neither Reene nor the FBI returned phone messages Saturday from The Associated Press.

Muhareb told the magistrate, "This is a misunderstanding."

The arrests in Caro came three days after two men were arrested in Marietta, Ohio, where police said the two aroused suspicions when they acknowledged purchasing about 600 phones in recent months.

Ali Houssaiky and Osama Abulhassan, both 20 and from Dearborn, near Detroit, have been charged with money laundering in support of terrorism and soliciting or providing support for acts of terrorism.

Defense lawyers said the three men were targeted only because they are of Arab descent.

www.fbi.gov

Let's make all foreigners (and anyone else we're afraid of) second class citizens!

http://jdallen.org/politics/2-out-of-5-americans-believe-muslims-should-carry-special-id/

2 out of 5 Americans believe Muslims should carry special I.D.

Aug 11th, 2006 | Politics, History, News, civil rights, religion, followup

According to a new Gallup poll, 39% of Americans believe that the government should force Muslims to carry a special form of I.D.

... You know, sometimes, I don’t even know what country I am living in anymore. Special I.D.?! While we’re at it why don’t we make the Jews wear the Star of David too?

Why would your normal terrorist group need a UAV?

http://www.janes.com/defence/air_forces/news/jdw/jdw060810_1_n.shtml

Israel shoots down Hizbullah UAV

By Alon Ben-David JDW Correspondent Israeli-Lebanese Border 09 August 2006

The Israel Air Force (IAF) intercepted an Iranian-made Ababil unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launched by the Islamic Resistance - the armed wing of the Lebanese Shi'ite Party of God (Hizbullah) - off the northern Israeli coastline on 7 August.

"The UAV was flying south, towards central Israel," Brigadier General Yohanan Locker, IAF Head of Air Operations, told Jane's.

"I can't say for sure whether it was armed with explosives, but I believe it wasn't."

The Ababil has a maximum operational radius of 150 km, a maximum ceiling of 14,000 ft (4,268 m), the ability to travel at a maximum speed of 300 km/h and is capable of carrying a 45 kg payload. It has a surveillance configuration, carrying a camera and digital communications equipment, but also an attack configuration, carrying a high-explosive warhead that would be delivered by the UAV crashing onto a target.

144 of 359 words © 2006 Jane's Information Group [End of non-subscriber extract]

If we held patents for techniques to violate privacy, would we be sitting on the future?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/12/1415211&from=rss

New Super-sized Customer Database for Amazon?

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday August 12, @12:33PM from the watching-the-watchmen dept. Privacy Businesses

dtjohnson writes "Amazon.com has applied for a patent to create an online customer database which would allegedly contain 'massive amounts of intimate information about its millions of shoppers, including their religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity and income.' From the article: "The database, which would combine information disclosed voluntarily by customers with facts gleaned from public databases, conceivably would give Amazon a larger or more detailed profile of its customers than any other retailer. Does this cross the privacy line or is it just reasonable data gathering to make retail sales more responsive to customer needs?"

If we can't make them safe, let's at least spend a lot of time and money pretending to make them safe. Maybe the terrorists won't notice.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/security/0,71580-0.html?tw=rss.index

Bomb Threat Posed by Pants, Belts

By Randy Dotinga 14:00 PM Aug, 11, 2006

Could the next airline terrorist be wearing cargo pants?

At U.S. airports, passengers are inspected, tested and searched, and in the wake of the bomb plot foiled Thursday by British police, they can't even bring a latte on board. But terrorists armed with liquid or plastic explosives can still make it onto planes because there's little technology to stop them from smuggling bombs on their bodies or in their clothes, experts say.

"When you travel, you are not protected against terrorists who bring explosives on their person or in carry-on luggage," said Hans Weber, a San Diego aviation security consultant. "It's a bigger problem than liquids."

To make detection even more challenging, there are more than 100 types of explosives, and the actual number is higher because many come in different varieties, said James O'Bryon, an aviation security consultant in Maryland who formerly served as an official in the Department of Defense.

Why can't bombs be stopped? For one thing, ordinary metal detectors are designed to detect weapons, not explosives, and X-ray machines that expose what people are carrying aren't used because of radiation concerns. [Notice that the phrase used is “radiation concerns” not “radiation danger” Bob]

That means someone wearing cargo pants could easily smuggle in a bottle of an explosive ingredient without being detected, Weber said.

... But "if you're really good and you know what you're doing, and you've got a tightly sealed container and you've cleansed it and anything that's touched it," the machine won't detect trouble, said Terry O'Sullivan, a terrorism analyst with the University of Southern California's Homeland Security Center.

One solution would be to make the devices more sensitive, but then they'll spew out more false positives, causing even more airport delays. (False positives are a common problem: They're estimated to plague checked-baggage scanners a third of the time.)

... "As long as we are determined to handle the threat by looking for bad things, like bombs and knives, we are in a race we can't win," Weber said. "What we have to do is start looking for bad people, but that's unacceptable."

Surveil yourself?

http://digg.com/design/Famster_A_safe_way_to_upload_and_share_your_files_for_free

Famster - A safe way to upload and share your files... for free

dirtyfratboy submitted by dirtyfratboy 19 hours 39 minutes ago (via http://www.famster.com/? )

I can't believe that this site isn't widely known, even with all its features: share photos, stream videos, create a blog, upload files, keep track of RSS feeds... all in Flash? and for free? Ridiculous.

Improve your vocabulary...

http://outsports.com/nfl/2005/0301nflshopnaughtywords.htm

NFL's 1,159 Naughty Words

This is the list of "naughty" words not allowed on personalized jerseys at the NFL Shop. They were extracted by a reader from a java script list found on the NFL Shop site.

Update: Since our original article appeared, "Gay" is off the list and four more (Bin Laden," "Binladen," "Gay Nazi" and "gaynazi") have been added.

Collect them all! Coming soon: Your favorite evil doer!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UNABOMBER_WRITINGS?SITE=VALYD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Aug 12, 6:51 AM EDT

Judge: Unabomber Items to Be Sold Online

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- A federal judge has ordered personal items seized in 1996 from Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski's Montana cabin to be sold online.

U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. ruled Thursday that items belonging to Kaczynski - including books, tools, clothing and two checkbooks - should be sold at a "reasonably advertised Internet auction."

The auction will not include 100 items the government considers to be bomb-making materials, [Fortunately, these can be replicated at any hardware store. Bob] such as writings that contain diagrams and "recipes" for bombs.

U.S. Marshals Service will contract the sale with an Internet auctioneer who will bear the cost and receive no more than 10 percent of the proceeds.

The remaining revenues from the sale will be applied to the $15 million in restitution that Burrell ordered Kaczynski to pay his victims.

Kaczynski, 64, is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for a bombing spree that lasted from 1978 to 1995. The blasts from homemade bombs killed three people and injured 23.

Kaczynski was arrested at his cabin in Lincoln, Mont., in April 1996.

...and I thought these laws were just to keep me from bugging my congressman.

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/11/1250232&from=rss

Michigan Enforces Do-Not-Email Registry Law

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday August 11, @09:47AM from the think-of-the-children dept. Spam The Courts

elanghe writes "The Michigan Attorney General filed suit against two companies sending adult-oriented email messages to the state's children, in violation of the Michigan Children's Protection Registry. A similar law in Utah is being challenged by the porn industry. While the FTC, influenced by the Direct Marketing Association, rejected the idea of a do-not-email registry, have these two states proven anti-spam laws like these — unlike CAN-SPAM — really have teeth?"

If this business(?) model works, I can see it replacing garage sales. “Hey! I'll give you some of my junk for some of your junk!”

http://news.com.com/2061-12572_3-6104889.html?part=rss&tag=6104889&subj=news

BookMooch: Swap your books for free

August 11, 2006 4:33 PM PDT

BookMooch is the Craigslist of swapping sites. It's not as fancy as some other sites (such as LaLa and Peerflix), but it's totally free to use. There's no monthly charge and no per-transaction fee. You do have to give to get, though: each book costs a point. You get one point for sending a book to a user, and a tenth of a point for each book you add to your Moochable inventory.

Actually, there is a cost: you have to pay to send books to other users.

Since BookMooch uses points as currency, your trades do not have to be direct swaps with other users, as they do on the free trading site, SwapTree. On the other hand, on SwapTree you can trade more than just books.

BookMooch also has a browser bookmarklet, the MoochBar, that will find books on the Web page you're on and add them to your want list or to your inventory. So if you're on Amazon and see a book you want, you can easily Mooch it. You'll have to wait for a BookMooch user to send it, but it will obviously cost you a lot less than buying it new.

BookMooch is run by John Buckman, who told me that when it comes to making money from the site, "I totally don't care." He made a lifetime of earnings selling his e-mail company, Lyris. Good for him. While there are too many swapping networks right now, the financial model of this one is in line with the negligible cash value of most used books.

Get the propaganda direct to your target audience!

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012108.html

August 11, 2006

DOJ Info Tech Initiatives Now Include Podcasting

DOJ Office of Justice Programs, IT Initiatives: "New York City, New York, has begun a series of podcasts for its 130 million transit riders of the Metropolitan Transit Authority to provide information and tips about public transportation. TransitTrax are podcasts presented in six sections: customer safety, building for the future, promotions, security, advisories, and news. One podcast explains the new $5 million "Eyes On Board" program that will install hundreds of digital recording cameras for surveillance on buses. The cameras will be equipped with wireless technology for wireless access points. The images could help law enforcement investigations, as well as provide information on passenger injury claims."

Buy low, sell high. There I've said it. Now let's patent it! I also want to patent the assembly of meals to order; at first, putting a hot dog in a bun – later complete meals! Anyone want to buy in?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/business/11legal.html?ex=1312948800&en=cfbcb51ecb5e8fc7&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

August 11, 2006 Legal Beat

A Wall Street Rush to Patent Profit-Making Methods

By JULIE CRESWELL

THERE is a new cold war on the horizon.

An intellectual property arms race is escalating on Wall Street, where financial services firms like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are building up stockpiles of patents on processes like software-based pricing, trading and risk analysis systems and products like credit cards, exchange-traded funds and exotic derivatives.

While there have been no big clashes yet, the question is, Which firm will be the first to try to enforce its growing portfolio of patents?

Patent activity among financial services firms began to soar in the late 1990’s, prompted by the boom in new technology and by the fact that banks were spending enormous sums to upgrade their in-house systems. A federal court decision in 1998 that software and business methods could be patented also fed the rush to seek patents.

•The result was a virtual stampede among top financial services firms to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In 1997, there were 927 patent applications for various methods of processing financial and management data. Last year, there were 6,226.

“Try to find a major bank that doesn’t have an intellectual property program or in-house counsel capability in this area — I think that’s hard to find,” said Walter G. Hanchuk, a patent lawyer with Chadbourne & Parke. “People underestimate how much technology there is on Wall Street. It’s not just about a new credit card. There’s a lot of tech savvy behind that.”

... “I think there will be increased filings as the convergence of banking and technology is irreversible,’’ he said. “As people spend more and more building systems and deploying technology, they’re going to want to make sure they have the rights available to them.”

... “Right now, because all of the Wall Street banks are showing record profits, there’s not much incentive to sue within the club,” Mr. Millien said. “But three years or so down the road, it’s hard to say.”

Is this a viable technique for those under attack? i.e. The Martha Stewards or Director of Veteran Affairs types?

http://www.scripting.com/2006/08/11.html#interviewRequest

Interview request

These days when I get an interview request from a professional reporter, I offer to answer the questions, best I can, on my blog, without saying who the reporter is and exactly what questions were asked. This way I create a public record, something that can be useful to anyone, and I avoid the problem of being quoted selectively and out of context. Having created a record that's likely to be as widely read as the story, I make sure what I have to say has a chance of being heard.

... I don't want everything I write to be seen as a U.N. Security Council resolution, yet often my posts are read and picked at as if they were formal documents, [Can you have it both ways? Bob] and they don't stand up to such treatment.

Useful? Probably not until we can tie it into caller ID and automatically keep the phone from ringing...

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/08/whocalledus.html

whocalled.us

By tim on August 10, 2006

Here's another take on Suburban Mom Embraces the Surveillance Society. whocalled.us is a site where people can share comments about the identity of phone spammers. Get a call from an unrecognized number on your cell? Look it up to see who it was, where they are, and who else they called that didn't like it. Here's how to tag this interesting: antispam hacks, collective_intelligence, smartmobs, surveillance.... Not to mention another clever use for the vestigial .us domain!

... Digression: I'm fascinated by the stages of new technology. First it's cool, then people start to realize some of the downsides, then people figure out how to harness some of those downsides and it's cool again, at least with regard to these hacks. Eventually, everyone becomes inured to it, and it becomes boring, regardless of how important it is :-)

If the Video gamers get this much, think how valuable a Porn franchise (Perverts-R-Us) just became! Kinda make you wish for “legislator liability”...

http://webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?SESSIONID=&aId=18331

Video Game Industry Wins Over Half A Million Dollars In Attorney’s Fees From State Of Illinois

Entertainment Software Association (ESA) 8/11/2006 9:03:15 AM

Washington, D.C. (August 10, 2006) – The State of Illinois must pay the video game industry $510,528.64 in attorney’s fees for its unconstitutional effort to enact a law banning the sale of violent video games, Judge Matthew F. Kennelly, United States District Judge, Northern District of Illinois, ruled yesterday.

"Judge Kennelly’s rulings send two irrefutable messages – not only are efforts to ban the sale of violent video games clearly unconstitutional, they are a waste of taxpayer dollars," said Douglas Lowenstein, president of the ESA, the trade group representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. "The sad fact is that the State of Illinois knew this law was unconstitutional from the beginning. Taxpayers have a right to know that over half a million of their dollars and countless government hours were thrown away in this fruitless effort."

Didn't Microsoft get into legal squabble just for pre-installing their browser? Now they want to pre-install and lock it down!

http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/08/11/so-you-wanna-change-your-default-browser-in-vista/

So You Wanna Change Your Default Browser In Vista?

Posted by Ryan on 11 Aug 2006 9:27 am. Filed under Software , Windows.

I have been using Vista Beta 2 for a while now and there is one thing that continues to frustrate me. Microsoft has designed the User Account Control (UAC) to work so perfectly that it will be difficult for the average person to switch the default browser. [Don't worry, they include an easy to follow 647 page guide to switching browsers Bob] After installing Vista you can open up the Control Panel and the first thing that I do is switch to the classic view. Opening up the Default Programs module and looking at the setting for Internet Explorer reveals that it is set to the default browser:

But 11 out of 6 people don't understand statistics...

http://www.reason.com/rb/rb081106.shtml

Don't Be Terrorized

You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder

Ronald Bailey August 11, 2006

Yesterday, British authorities broke up an alleged terror plot to blow up as many as ten commercial airliners as they flew to the United States. In response, the Department of Homeland Security upped the alert level on commercial flights from Britain to "red" and boosted the alert to "orange" for all other flights. In a completely unscientific poll, AOL asked subscribers: "Are you changing your travel plans because of the raised threat level?" At mid-afternoon about a quarter of the respondents had said yes. Such polls do reflect the kinds of anxieties terrorist attacks, even those that have been stymied, provoke in the public.

But how afraid should Americans be of terrorist attacks? Not very, as some quick comparisons with other risks that we regularly run in our daily lives indicate. Your odds of dying of a specific cause in any year are calculated by dividing that year's population by the number of deaths by that cause in that year. Your lifetime odds of dying of a particular cause are calculated by dividing the one-year odds by the life expectancy of a person born in that year. For example, in 2003 about 45,000 Americans died in motor accidents out of population of 291,000,000. So, according to the National Safety Council this means your one-year odds of dying in a car accident is about one out of 6500. Therefore your lifetime probability (6500 ÷ 78 years life expectancy) of dying in a motor accident are about one in 83.

What about your chances of dying in an airplane crash? A one-year risk of one in 400,000 and one in 5,000 lifetime risk. What about walking across the street? A one-year risk of one in 48,500 and a lifetime risk of one in 625. Drowning? A one-year risk of one in 88,000 and a one in 1100 lifetime risk. In a fire? About the same risk as drowning. Murder? A one-year risk of one in 16,500 and a lifetime risk of one in 210. What about falling? Essentially the same as being murdered. And the proverbial being struck by lightning? A one-year risk of one in 6.2 million and a lifetime risk of one in 80,000. And what is the risk that you will die of a catastrophic asteroid strike? In 1994, astronomers calculated that the chance was one in 20,000. However, as they've gathered more data on the orbits of near earth objects, the lifetime risk has been reduced to one in 200,000 or more.

So how do these common risks compare to your risk of dying in a terrorist attack? To try to calculate those odds realistically, Michael Rothschild, a former business professor at the University of Wisconsin, worked out a couple of plausible scenarios. For example, he figured that if terrorists were to destroy entirely one of America's 40,000 shopping malls per week, your chances of being there at the wrong time would be about one in one million or more. Rothschild also estimated that if terrorists hijacked and crashed one of America's 18,000 commercial flights per week that your chance of being on the crashed plane would be one in 135,000.

Even if terrorists were able to pull off one attack per year on the scale of the 9/11 atrocity, that would mean your one-year risk would be one in 100,000 and your lifetime risk would be about one in 1300. (300,000,000 ÷ 3,000 = 100,000 ÷ 78 years = 1282) In other words, your risk of dying in a plausible terrorist attack is much lower than your risk of dying in a car accident, by walking across the street, by drowning, in a fire, by falling, or by being murdered.

So do these numbers comfort you? If not, that's a problem. Already, security measures—pervasive ID checkpoints, metal detectors, and phalanxes of security guards—increasingly clot the pathways of our public lives. It's easy to overreact when an atrocity takes place—to heed those who promise safety if only we will give the authorities the "tools" they want by surrendering to them some of our liberty. As President Franklin Roosevelt in his first inaugural speech said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself— nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." However, with risks this low there is no reason for us not to continue to live our lives as though terrorism doesn't matter—because it doesn't really matter. We ultimately vanquish terrorism when we refuse to be terrorized.

Make my dreams of Dungeons & Dragons a reality!

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=40818

Man Uses Sword to Fight Off Burglars

... Police say they got a call from residents of the 3100 block of Lyndale Avenue South that four people had forced their way into a residence.

According to police, once the burglars were inside, they got into a fight with one of the residents who grabbed his roommates sword and started slashing the intruders. His feisty attack send the invaders running, but not before he wounded several.

Shortly after Minneapolis police arrived, they were called by doctors at the hospital about the arrival of three people to the ER with severed fingers and lacerations.

One had minor injuries and was treated and arrested. The other two were more seriously injured and were treated. They’ll be transported to the Hennepin County Jail when they are released by the hospital.

Can't get enough advertising?

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/now-playing-movie-trailers.html

Now playing: Movie trailers

8/11/2006 07:14:00 AM Posted by Matthias Ruhl, Research Scientist (& Google Movies 20%-er)

Are the special effects in Pirates of the Caribbean any good? Is Tom Hanks' haircut really that bad in The Da Vinci Code? Should you take your grandparents to see Clerks II? Will you be able to sleep after watching The Descent?

Use the Internet to find things you can do off the Internet. Has potential!

http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/2006/08/08/busytonight-search-engine-for-events/

August 8, 2006

BusyTonight Search Engine For Events

Filed under: Culture-Events

Crawling the Internet searching for event data? Yoiks. But that’s what BusyTonight is doing, a new search engine for events in the US. (And available at BusyTonight.com .) And though the site submission warned me that the number of listings in the next ten days would increase by two or three times, there’s enough here now to warrant a look.

How terrorist change society. OR How come we let the bastards do this to us?

http://www.techzonez.com/comments.php?shownews=18941

New rules put laptops in checked baggage

Posted by Reverend on 10 Aug 2006 - 20:36 GMT

Techzonez U.K. authorities banned passengers from taking electronic items on board airplanes following the arrests of 21 people Thursday in connection with an alleged plot to blow up aircraft mid-flight en route to the U.S.

... Additional information on heightened security measures in the U.S. can be found at http://www.dhs.gov and http://www.tsa.gov.

Laptop computers, iPods, and mobile phones must be placed in checked baggage on flights out of the U.K. Airline passengers have become accustomed to additional checks following the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. Airport security checks require that laptops must be removed from their cases and X-rayed. But the new security measures in the U.K. could mean an increased chance of theft or damage to laptops and devices that must be checked and not carried on.

Full story: InfoWorld

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001094.html

Wednesday, 9 August 2006

USA Supreme Court asked to rule on secrecy of law restricting freedom of travel

A petition for certiorari was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court last Friday in the case of Gilmore v. Gonzales , asking the court to rule on whether "the government keep secret a directive that is generally applicable to millions of passengers every day", requiring them to present documentary evidence of their identity (or maybe to submit to a more intrusive search) in order to travel by airline common carrier within the USA.

The Supreme Court doesn't have to hear this (or almost any other) case, and could let stand the abominable reasoning and outcome of the decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. But I'm cautiously optimistic that the Supreme Court may take up the question of the Constitutionality of secret law. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of John Gilmore (and everyone who believes in justice) on that question, we may finally get a chance on remand to address the issues of freedom of travel:

So what does this work out to per customer? (And why won't I get any of that money?)

http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=13152209§ion=news&src=rss/uk/technologyNews

Sprint settles consumer privacy case

Thu Aug 10, 2006 06:07 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp. said on Thursday that it had secured a $1 million settlement from 1st Source Information Specialists in a suit over the sale of phone call records.

How to be a politician in the 21^st century?

http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003489.shtml

Fantastic collection of political mashups

John Anderson sent me a link to a fantastic collection of political mashups. The current President is a popular target, but the Nixon stuff is really great as well.

Towards ubiquitous surveillance.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2001723,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

Subway Merges Payment, Loyalty and CRM Programs

By Evan Schuman, Ziff Davis Internet August 10, 2006

In what one executive of the $9 billion, 26,000-restaurant Subway chain dubbed "the single largest integrated cash card program in the world," Subway has come out with a card that handles payment, instant loyalty rewards and highly targeted promotions that can be tracked by the customer.

Geek stuff...

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2002063,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

Yahoo Delivers Resource for Python Developers

August 10, 2006 By Darryl K. Taft

Yahoo has created a new resource for Python developers.

The search company on Aug. 8 opened its Yahoo Developer Network – Python Developer Center. The Yahoo Python Developer Center is a Web site that provides Python developers with access to information to help them build applications in the Python object-oriented dynamic language.

A description on the Yahoo Python Developer Center site says Python "offers strong support for integration with other languages and tools, comes with extensive standard libraries, and can be learned in a few days."

http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/#1537057

All Lawsuits Lead to San Francisco

Some 25 class action lawsuits against the nation's telecoms for their alleged participation thewarrantlesss surveillance of American citizen's communications will all be heard by the same judge who recently refused to dismiss an anti-spying suit against AT&T over the government's objections.

That case was put on hold Tuesday until late September, pending this decision from the multi-district litigation panel in Chicago and any movement from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the government's and AT&T's appeals of Chief Judge Vaughn Walker's refusal to dismiss the case on the grounds of national security.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012087.html

August 10, 2006

June/July Issue of Global Legal Monitor Available

The Law Library of Congress announces the release of the June/July issue of the Global Legal Monitor. [Luis M. Acosta, Legal Information Analyst, Law Library of Congress]

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012095.html

August 10, 2006

International Terrorism: Threat, Policy, and Response

CRS Report, International Terrorism: Threat, Policy, and Response, August 9, 2006

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012094.html

August 10, 2006

Treasury IG Report Details Increased Security Risks from Non Business Use of Email

Inappropriate Use of Email by Employees and System Configuration Management Weaknesses Are Creating Security Risks, July 31, 2006, Reference Number: 2006-20-110 (20 pages, PDF). "We found e-mail messages that violated the IRS' personal use policy in the electronic mailboxes of 71 (74 percent) of 96 employees."

If businesses spent half the effort trying to understand (take advantage of) new technologies, they could own the market...

http://techdirt.com/articles/20060810/1134213.shtml

Wine Sellers' Prediction Of Internet-Enabled Teen Winos Comes Up Empty

from the who-knew? dept

It's always fun when industry groups who are clearly trying to protect a business model under threat come up with scare mongering quotes to try to get politicians to block out new competitors with new business models. For years, many states had protectionist laws when it came to online wine sales. Most of these were designed to protect the local wine sellers -- but, of course, the public spin was that it was all about "protecting the children." Last year, of course, the Supreme Court knocked down the most protectionist of these laws. So, now that it's been a year, if the wine sellers were right, we should be hearing stories of teens ordering wine all the time. Unfortunately for them, a new study shows that teens really don't seem to care much about ordering wine online. Perhaps the times have changed, but when I was a teen, wine wasn't exactly the alcoholic beverage of choice among my friends. Plus, you have to take into account that wine deliveries still require signatures, and most teens tend to live at home with parents who might notice an incoming shipment of alcohol. So, you would think this would make those who were screaming about "protecting the children" quiet down -- but, you'd be wrong. Instead, they're still trying to spin this, calling the findings "shocking" and saying that the low number only means it's about to rise rapidly. "This is new, hard evidence that should really shake up this debate about direct sales." No, this is actually new, hard evidence that the problem you've been screaming about isn't a problem at all.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20060810/1638224.shtml

Maybe We Can Let R2D2 Be The Judge, Too

from the tipping-the-scales dept

With high profile trials, a huge part of the circus is the jury selection, where jury consultants conduct mock trials, focus groups, and extensive background checks, all with the idea to create a jury that is most favorable for each side. It's a very expensive process, one that is out of reach for most defendants. Well, suprisingly, automation has now hit the art of jury selection, with computer-aided jury picking, by JuryQuest. Using just seven attributes: age, sex, race, education, occupation, marital status, and prior jury service, the service guides trial lawyers towards selecting juries with the best chance of their victory. JuryQuest defendants are acquitted over 50% of the time, which is almost twice the average for defendants with retained lawyers (26%) and nearly three times higher than those with just public defenders (15%). It seems crazy that just seven attributes could have such an affect on the outcome of a trial, but the difference for publicly defended defendants is perhaps most shocking. If automated jury selection becomes more accessible for all defendants, will it be able to close the gap for the defendants that currently stand the most chance of being convicted?

http://techdirt.com/articles/20060811/0215254.shtml

Will Your Text Messaging Style Implicate You In Criminal Cases?

from the perhaps dept

There has been plenty of research done into how people write in distinct ways, such that a certain person can be connected (or not) to a specific written work. However, it appears that some of that research doesn't work when it comes to the text messaging world, where people change the style of what they write to fit within the character limit or the need to "triple tap" on a numeric keyboard. With that in mind, researchers are starting a project to collect and analyze text messages to see if they contain similar identifying characteristics -- with the hope of helping police in criminal cases. So, if you plan on being a criminal mastermind via your mobile phone, you may want to start mixing up your text messaging style.

Not a conspiracy theory: But, at what point does protecting intellectual property harm society? Is “what's good for Microsoft” at odds with the “greater good?” It used to be that “What's good for General Bullmoose is good for the country!” (L'il Abner)

http://news.com.com/Windows+defense+handcuffs+good+guys/2100-7355_3-6104379.html

Windows defense handcuffs good guys

By Joris Evers Story last modified Fri Aug 11 04:37:26 PDT 2006

A protective feature in Windows is locking out the good guys, but letting in a lot of bad guys, according to security software makers.

Microsoft designed PatchGuard to safeguard core parts of Windows, including Vista, against malicious code attacks. But some security companies say that the feature makes it harder for them to protect Windows PCs, as it locks them out of the kernel, the core of the operating system.

Tools and Techniques (timely too)

http://digg.com/general_sciences/How_liquid_explosives_work

How liquid explosives work

tlmac59 submitted by tlmac59 15 hours 53 minutes ago (via http://science.howstuffworks.com/liquid-explosives.htm/printable )

In light of the terrorist attacks foiled by authorities in the UK, I was left wondering exactly how liquid explosives work and how they would be deployed by terrorists. This Howstuffworks article is the answer to such questions.

Global same-ing?

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/nsf-oas081006.php

Public release date: 10-Aug-2006

Contact: Dena Headlee dheadlee@nsf.gov 703-292-7739 National Science Foundation

Overall Antarctic snowfall hasn't changed in 50 years

Large variations make establishing trends difficult

For an animated graphic of snowfall variability across Antarctica and over time and b-roll of the U.S. ITASE traverse on Betacam SP, contact Dena Headlee (dheadlee@nsf.gov) (703) 292-7739.

The most precise record of Antarctic snowfall ever generated shows there has been no real increase in precipitation over the southernmost continent in the past half-century, even though most computer models assessing global climate change call for an increase in Antarctic precipitation as atmospheric temperatures rise.

I dropped the 'spousal unit' at DIA around 06:30 and just got a call at 08:00 to report she had made it through security – after dumping her perfume and chapstick. May Osama die of chapped lips!

How to read search history...

http://consumerist.com/consumer/privacy/aol-user-927-illuminated-192502.php

Mon 07 Aug 2006

AOL User 927 Illuminated

Aroused by the thought of juicy big piles of AOL user search data? Consumerist does the wading for you and finds a delightful little item, AOL User 927.

The record starts out blandly enough in March. First he's concerned about how long it takes broken legs to heal. Then he investigates human mold. Perhaps staying at home after an accident? Then he peeks into a little dog sex, but the leash isn't very long, the most prurient site he reaches being SFweekly.com, a regular ol' newspaper.

Later that day he looks up flowers. flowers aster. butterfly orchid. The next day, more flowers, followed by a little forced rape porn, testicle festivals and slow-dancing steps. Must be planning a big night.

Fast-forward to May...

Queries include: beauty and the beast disney porn, holocaust rape, japanese child slave, molestation and rape porn, virtual children, 3d molestation and rape porn, topped off with a little, "oh i like that baby. i put on my robe and wizards hat."

But since he was using AOL he never got to see anything that might have potentially tainted his fragile, mold-ridden mind.

Download User 927's file

This will let you hire cheaper (bad) programmers?

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/08/10/HNsoftwaretesting_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/08/10/HNsoftwaretesting_1.html

Software testing product also writes code

Agitar's Agitator will automatically generate alternate bug-free and more efficient code

By John Ribeiro, IDG News Service August 10, 2006

Agitar Software plans to ship a software testing product next year that will test a developer’s code and, if necessary, automatically generate alternate bug-free and more efficient code, according to an executive of the company.

Linux is looking better every day…

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2001219,00.asp

Microsoft to Tighten the Genuine Advantage Screws

August 9, 2006 By Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft Watch

To date, with its Genuine Advantage anti-piracy programs, Microsoft has targeted consumers. Windows and Office users have been required to validate their products as "genuine" before being able to obtain many downloads and add-ons.

Come this fall, however, the Redmond, Wash., software maker is planning to turn up the Genuine Advantage heat in two ways: by baking more Genuine Advantage checks directly into Windows Vista, and by taking aim at PC makers, system builders, Internet cafes and other sources of potentially pirated software.

Microsoft officials—whose Genuine Advantage Notification strategy came under fire earlier this summer—declined to share specifics about its new Genuine Advantage plans. But executives already have been setting the stage for the upcoming changes in recent keynote addresses.

"We expect to do more to make Windows more differentiated when it's genuine, and so genuine customers get a truly different experience than non-genuine customers, as well as to make piracy harder, so that our genuine partners can do a better job competing with those that don't play by the rules," Windows Client Marketing Chief Michael Sievert told attendees of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in July.

Microsoft Platforms and Services Co-President Kevin Johnson was more specific about Microsoft's plans, in his remarks to Wall Street analysts at Microsoft's Financial Analyst Meeting in late July.

"We built a set of features and a set of functionality that is only available to genuine Windows customers," Johnson said. "Windows Defender, for example, the anti-spyware for Windows XP and Windows Vista, is available to genuine Windows customers. Windows Media Player 11.0, Internet Explorer 7.0, will be available for download for Windows XP customers who are genuine, and of course those are built into Windows Vista. Future updates to Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player for Windows Vista will require them to be genuine. And certainly there's some premium features built into the Windows Vista operating system that will require genuine validation as well. So we're really trying to amplify the fact that being genuine enables the set of benefits and value to access these types of features and capabilities."

Read the full story on Microsoft Watch: Microsoft to Tighten the Genuine Advantage Screws

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/09/2121206&from=rss

A Different Kind of WGA 'Problem'

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday August 09, @06:46PM from the foolproof-just-found-a-better-fool dept. Microsoft Security

Ed Bott recently attempted to scout out the problems reported in so many horror stories floating around the net relating to Microsoft's WGA. He did experience problems, however, not the ones that you might expect. He intentionally installed a pirated copy of Windows XP to see how the process worked but was unable to get WGA to recognize his computer as pirated. From the article: "I'm reluctantly running a pirated version of Windows and can't get caught no matter how hard I try. But these same people want us to believe that the WGA software they've developed is nearly foolproof. They claim that all but "a fraction of a percent" of those 60 million people who've been denied access to Microsoft updates and downloads are guilty, guilty, guilty. Right."

Because we need to train them to pass drug tests, just like professional athletes?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,1840997,00.html

US drug chief promotes random testing in schools

Sarah Boseley, health editor Thursday August 10, 2006 The Guardian

America's drug tsar raised the stakes on drug testing in schools yesterday, suggesting that it could come to be seen as normal required and "responsible behaviour" in the same way that some US schools routinely test all pupils for tuberculosis before admission.

What do they know that we don’t know? What do they know?

http://news.com.com/Homeland+Security+Lock+up+your+Windows/2100-7348_3-6103805.html?tag=nefd.top

Homeland Security: Fix your Windows

By Joris Evers Story last modified Wed Aug 09 11:46:51 PDT 2006

In a rare alert, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has urged Windows users to plug a potential worm hole in the Microsoft operating system.

The agency, which also runs the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), sent out a news release on Wednesday recommending that people apply Microsoft's MS06-040 patch as quickly as possible. The software maker released the "critical" fix Tuesday as part of its monthly patch cycle.

"Users are encouraged to avoid delay in applying this security patch," the Department of Homeland Security said in the statement. The patch fixes a serious flaw that, if exploited, could enable an attacker to remotely take complete control of an affected system, the agency said.

Microsoft on Tuesday issued a dozen security bulletins, nine of which were tagged "critical," the company's highest severity rating. However, the flaw addressed in MS06-040 is the only one among the updates that could let an anonymous attacker remotely commandeer a Windows PC without any user interaction.

The flaw has some similarities to the Windows bug that enabled the notorious MSBlast worm to spread in 2003. Both security vulnerabilities are related to a Windows component called "remote procedure call," which provides support for networking features such as file sharing and printer sharing.

"Blaster took advantage of a vulnerability in the same service. We recognize that this is something that is easily exploitable," said Amol Sarwate, the manager of vulnerability research lab at Qualys. "It is excellent that DHS sent out this alert, because I think a lot of people are vulnerable."

Microsoft has seen a "very limited attack" that already used the newly disclosed flaw, the software maker said Tuesday.

Overnight, some hacker toolkits were updated with code that allows researchers to check for the flaw and exploit it, said Neel Mehta, a security expert at Internet Security Systems in Atlanta.

"This is a very serious vulnerability," Mehta said. "At the moment, this exploit is being used in targeted attacks to compromise specific systems. However, there is nothing about the nature of the vulnerability that prevents it from being used in a much more widespread fashion as part of a worm."

Microsoft worked with the Department of Homeland Security on the alert, a company representative said. "Microsoft...encourages customers to deploy this update on their systems as soon as possible, given that we are aware of targeted exploitation of the vulnerability," the representative said.

Microsoft deems the vulnerability critical for all versions of Windows. However, users of Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 should be protected by the Windows Firewall if they do not use file sharing and printer sharing, Christopher Budd, a security program manager at Microsoft, said in an interview Tuesday.

The Microsoft updates are available via the Windows Update and Automatic Updates tools as well as from Microsoft's Web site. Temporary workarounds are outlined in the security bulletins for those who can't immediately apply the patches.

Who do you go to when you can't trust the FBI to get it right?

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2001528,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

VA Announces Data Breach Analysis Contract

August 9, 2006 By Wayne Rash

The Department of Veterans Affairs is hiring ID Analytics to perform data breach analysis to ensure that information on 26.5 million veterans contained on a stolen laptop was not compromised. The laptop has since been recovered. According to a release from the VA, ID Analytics will look for patterns of misuse and suspicious activity related to the theft.

"Data breach analysis will provide VA with additional assurances that veterans' personal information remains unharmed," Secretary R. James Nicholson said in a statement.

Before two men were charged with the theft on Aug. 5, the agency had promised that it would exercise an abundance of caution and perform data breach analysis to make sure veterans' information was safeguarded.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs earlier hired ISS for a data theft investigation. Click here to read more.

According to the release, hiring ID Analytics fulfills that promise. ID Analytics offers a real-time tracking system that is widely used by retail and credit card issuers, along with wireless companies and finance companies.

"VA remains unwavering in its resolve to become the leader in protecting personal information, training and educating our employees in best practices, and establishing a culture that always puts the safekeeping of veterans' personal information first," Nicholson said in the statement.

Spokesperson Matthew Burns said the VA would be sending a letter to veterans this week explaining the situation regarding another computer theft, that of a computer stolen the week of July 31 from Unisys, a contractor for the VA.

Burns said the VA will also send out a letter to affected veterans telling them how to sign up for a credit monitoring service to be provided by Unisys. Burns said some details remain to be worked out, but said both letters would go out in the next day or two.

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-08-10T084118Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-263034-1.xml&archived=False

U.S. Transport Dept laptop with personal data stolen

Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:00 AM IST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. government computer loaded with approximately 133,000 drivers' and pilots' records - including Social Security numbers -- was stolen last month, the Department of Transportation said on Wednesday.

The department's Office of Inspector General said one of its laptops was taken from a government vehicle in Doral, Florida, on July 27. The agency is sending letters to those whose information may have been compromised.

... The stolen Transportation Department computer included information from more than 80,000 commercial driver's licenses issued in the Miami-Dade County area. The data included drivers' names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth, the agency said.

The laptop also had 42,800 records for people issued pilot licenses in Florida by the Federal Aviation Administration, and 9,500 Tampa area drivers' licenses, the department said. Those records also included names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth.

"The laptop is password protected, and it is unlikely that the perpetrators stole it based on any knowledge of its data contents," the inspector general's office said in a letter to those affected.

The information on licenses had been collected as part of investigations into possible fraud, according to the letter. A $10,000 reward has been posted for information leading to the recovery of the laptop, the inspector general said.

Is this like getting a list of companies wearing “Sue Me!” T-shirts?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012084.html

August 09, 2006

New Report Tracks the Origin and Path of Unwanted Internet Ads

Press release: "More than half of the pop-up ads served by nuisance "adware" programs are placed knowingly by advertisers, according to a study released today by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT)."

• Following the Money II: The Role of Intermediaries in Adware Advertising (28 pages, PDF)

This is interesting, perhaps even useful. Will it be enough for large customers to upgrade to Vista? Somehow I doubt it.

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060808/vista-speech-recognition-screencast/

Vista speech recognition screencast: It works!

Published August 8th, 2006 in blog, windows, vista, video

Surprise surprise. Windows Vista speech recognition actually works. Contrary to what MSNBC criticize as a ‘wreck’, the speech recognition technology is well developed and highly usable. I got my hands on the July CTP build (5472) of Windows Vista and gave it a try, and I recorded what I found. I used the internal microphone array in my laptop, so the sound quality is not optimal but Vista handled it well.

This screencast focuses on the areas of speech recognotion including: dictation, commands, selecting alternatives, ’show numbers’, ‘mouse grid’, mouse functions, web browsing, and keyboard functions. The following video contains mild coarse language, strong violence and parental guidance is advised.

http://linkstobullshit.blogspot.com/2006/08/links-to-23-penn-and-teller-bullshit.html

Links to 23 Penn and Teller: Bullshit episodes

23 free full length videos of Penn and Teller: Bullshit, one of the best shows on TV!