February 18, 2010
MORE HACKING ATTACKS
The Wall Street Journal reports today: “Hackers in Europe and China successfully broke into computers at nearly 2,500 companies and government agencies over the last 18 months in a coordinated global attack that exposed vast amounts of personal and corporate secrets to theft, according to a computer-security company that discovered the breach.”
This is apparently not related to the attacks from China that caused Google to make noises last month about closing its operations in that country. In fact, the New York Times calmly notes that this is a relatively small blip in the world of compromised […] continued
December 7, 2009
UPDATES TO NEW YORK TIMES, GOOGLE
Two recent announcements.
The New York Times officially added “Times Skimmer” to its family of web sites, with an attractive interface for browsing through news stories without scrolling. Here’s the announcement, and here’s more information about Times Skimmer. Make sure you’re also familiar with the standalone New York Times Reader, an even better way to read the news on a computer.
Google rolled out a minor change to its home page, adding an effect that initially displays an almost bare page with a search box. The other menus and links will fade in […] continued
April 29, 2007
FREEWAY COLLAPSE – WEB RESOURCES
This article has a nice collection of links to online information about the Bay Area freeway collapse – newspaper articles, Google satellite images, suggestions for alternate routes, and more.
April 9, 2007
PEARLS BEFORE BREAKFAST
This has nothing to do with technology – it’s just a fascinating, thought-provoking story.
The Washington Post arranged for violin virtuoso Joshua Bell to play in a DC subway station during the morning rush hour, like any other street musician, and filmed the reaction. Joshua Bell is considered one of the best classical musicians in the world; he played beautiful (and difficult) music that morning on one of the most valuable Stradivarius violins ever made.
He played for three-quarters of an hour. Seven people stopped to listen for longer than a minute. Twenty-seven people threw in a total of $32, […] continued
March 23, 2007
NSL GAG ORDERS
On March 9 the Justice Department’s inspector general revealed that the FBI has been systematically abusing its expanded power to issue “national security letters” and obtain private information about US citizens and residents from telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, credit providers, and other businesses.
Between 2003 and 2005 the FBI issued more than 140,000 specific demands, without a showing of probable cause or prior judicial approval, to obtain potentially sensitive information about U.S. citizens and residents. That number was significantly underreported to Congress each year.
Among the problems identified by the report are sloppy and inconsistent recordkeeping by the […] continued
July 29, 2003
BETTING ON TERRORISM
The Pentagon’s plan to allow betting on terrorist acts through a quasi-stock-market will likely die an early death. Before it’s gone, take a look at the Policy Analysis Market web site set up for the program. Despite your instincts and the appearance of the site, this is not a joke. (According to the New York Times, some specific descriptions of potential betting events – hijackings, assassinations, and the like – were removed from the site yesterday morning.)
Admiral Poindexter, the director of the Terrorism Information Awareness Office and proponent of the Policy Analysis Market, has, umm, interesting ideas. […] continued
March 18, 2003
SLATE – TODAY’S PAPERS
Every day the online magazine Slate presents a wonderful selection of articles on politics, news, and culture. It’s one of my daily stops. One of its best features is Today’s Papers, which analyzes and compares the front pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.
I just learned that you can visit MSN Newsletters and sign up to receive Today’s Papers in your e-mail inbox. There’s a long list of other newsletters as well, mostly nonsense, but you might see something you like. (Plus I was able to unsubscribe […] continued
March 7, 2003
THE SEVEN WARNING SIGNS OF BOGUS SCIENCE
Robert L. Park is a physics professor at the University of Maryland, and the author of Voodoo Science: The Road From Foolishness To Fraud. He has written a wonderful short article on how to recognize scientific nonsense – an important skill for all of us in these confusing times.
“The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is investing close to a million dollars in an obscure Russian scientist’s antigravity machine, although it has failed every test and would violate the most fundamental laws of nature. The Patent and Trademark Office recently issued Patent 6,362,718 for a physically impossible motionless
[…] continued
March 4, 2003
CYBERTERRORISM AND FUD
More interesting reading: this Slate article casts a jaundiced eye at the “National Strategy To Secure Cyberspace” pushed out by the Bush administration last month. Part of a broader strategy to fill the airwaves and the public consciousness with FUD – “fear, uncertainty and doubt,” this time by painting a picture of computer-savvy regimes ready to knock out our electricity and phone lines and electric blankets from their remote terminals. Except that the purported incidents in the past are misrepresented or overstated, the threat in the future appears to be remote, and the proposed solutions are lame. (Well, some […] continued
January 29, 2003
CNET RADIO GOING OFF THE AIR
CNET Radio (AM 910) has been my constant companion for the last year or more. It’s delivered technology news and talk all day, every day – and now it’s closing up the radio station on January 31. Sad news for anyone who had stumbled on its wonderful programming in the San Francisco area, or nationwide on XM Radio. (Rob Black’s commentary on investing and the stock market is addictive.) Driving around goes back to being dull. Sniff.
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