Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

20 Feb 2010 15:36

tags

Tech, U.S.: Pennsylvania school district learns spying on students a bad idea

  • 42 number of times the school turned on the webcams to check on behavior (they did)
  • one student was nailed by the school for reportedly selling drugs in his home (he didn’t)
  • one class-action lawsuit was filed as a result of the privacy-infringing app (oh boy) source
  • The result? Students are totally up in arms about the violation in privacy, with some students noting the laptop is open in their bedrooms even when changing. Dear Lower Merion School District of Rosemont, Pa.: You guys are idiots. We don’t live in a nanny state.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Feb 2010 12:41

tags

Tech: From MP3 blogs to phone support, Google learns they’re not golden

  • Google isn’t to blame for the DMCA, one of the most spectacularly abused pieces of digital legislation  ever created. But it does seem to be getting more aggressive about DMCA enforcement.
  • Robert X. Cringely • Regarding Google’s year of screw-ups, most publicly with Buzz and Nexus One (Lack of phone support for a mobile phone? LOL!), but specifically in this case with the closure of a number of popular music blogs on its Blogger site, which Cringely notes has been underreported by the media. Which is why we’re doing our part by reporting it here. Many of the sites got no notification before they were straight-up taken off the Internet. “If at this point you’re drawing the conclusion that neither the IFPI nor Google know exactly what they’re doing in these matters, you’re not alone,” says I Rock Cleveland founder Bill Lipold, whose site was taken down based on a handful of broken links. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Feb 2010 21:20

tags

Tech: Paige Williams reflects on her “Radiohead journalism” concept

  • 5,000 number of people who read Paige Williams’ story on the survivalist Dolly Freed
  • 160 number of people who paid using a pay-what-you-want “Radiohead journalism” model
  • $1,500amount of money she made from those 160 people – some paid $100; neat source
  • » Her take?: Williams made her money back from the endeavor, but she realizes that this model might not be for everyone, and might need some work. “Institutional backing confers credibility,” she notes, “but in the wilds of the Internet, you’re on your own; trust begins and ends with you and your standards and approach.”
  • » A couple thoughts from us: Where does the ethics line hit for something like this? Many bloggers in Williams’ position might set up an Amazon affiliates account and link to where you can buy the book, which would be a great source of income for her. We considered this when we first heard about it. Personally, that doesn’t bother us, but is it too direct? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Feb 2010 10:28

tags

Tech: Dear staff of PleaseRobMe: You’re an accomplice in our robberies, OK?

  • Yeah, we get the point, guys. Geolocation is bad because it leaves your location open for people to take advantage of. But when Julius goes out tonight wearing a ski mask and preying on the poor residents of Dupont Circle who play FourSquare just a little too well, we’re going to want someone to hold the bag. We’re not going down for our crimes without taking someone else down with us! And, well, you’re it! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Feb 2010 21:40

tags

Tech: Apple’s got “extreme” security around their upcoming products

See this compound here in China? This is where some of Apple’s newest products are made. They go to “extreme lengths” to protect the secrecy of the products. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Feb 2010 20:39

tags

Tech: You should buy this: ReTweet.com for sale, could go super-cheap

  • 600,000 unique visitors a month for the service, which is a Twitter button service along the lines of TweetMeme
  • $20,000 the starting price for what’s a valuable piece of real estate due to the commonly-used name source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Feb 2010 10:27

tags

Tech: Don’t open that doc: PDFs proving to be a major security problem

  • PDF exploits are usually the first ones attempted by attackers. Attackers are choosing PDFs for a reason. It’s not random. They’re establishing a preference for Reader exploits.
  • ScanSafe senior security researcher Mary Landesman • Regarding the preference of hackers to use rogue PDFs for exploits first on malicious Web sites, then other exploits if those don’t work. Landesman claims that 80 percent of all exploits in the fourth quarter of 2009 came from PDFs, which is really scary, especially since the format is so heavily-used. “PDF use is huge,” she said. So are zero-day exploits. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

16 Feb 2010 10:32

tags

Tech: Windows 7 RC stragglers: Microsoft goes from awesome to mean

  • 1st Microsoft offers pre-release copies (ooh) of Windows 7 to users for free.
  • 2nd They then release Windows 7. It’s a huge hit for the company, their biggest in years.
  • 3rd Some people are still using the release candidate. This won’t do! We must stop them!
  • 4th Microsoft will start rebooting their computers automatically soon. That’s evil!
  • 5th MS will then change their backgrounds and call them bad names. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2010 20:06

tags

Tech: Oh, oxytocin, what can’t you do? You’re a wonder-hormone!

  • It slices, it dices, it helps Asperger’s patients … Oxytocin, a hormone often important to childbirth for females, has been shown to significantly help people suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism. It helped, specifically, with social situations. For example, they were more willing to look at other people’s faces for 90 minutes after taking the hormone. This is a huge breakthrough for an often-challenging disease. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2010 10:40

tags

Tech: Windows Phone 7 not the only mobile OS to officially launch today

  • bada Samsung launched Bada today, which isn’t super-hot according to Wired. Biggest problem? Unintuitive and useless user interface.
  • meego Intel and Nokia forged an unlikely alignment by mashing together their two Linux-based products (Moblin and MaeMo) to make MeeGo.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>