Google’s Sergey Brin: Web Freedom Faces Greatest Threat Ever
April 16th, 2012You know that we’re in deep shit when Sergey Brin sounds like he’s been reading Cryptogon.
Via: Guardian:
The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
In an interview with the Guardian, Brin warned there were “very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the world”. “I am more worried than I have been in the past,” he said. “It’s scary.”
The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access and communication by their citizens, the entertainment industry’s attempts to crack down on piracy, and the rise of “restrictive” walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms.
Related: FCC Drops Google ‘Street View’ Investigation
Dual-Focus Contact Lens Prototypes Ordered by Pentagon
April 15th, 2012Via: BBC:
The Pentagon has put in an order for prototype contact lenses that give users a much wider field of vision.
The lenses are designed to be paired with compact heads up display (HUD) units – glasses that allow images to be projected onto their lenses.
Much bulkier HUDs are already deployed by the US Army and Air Force to superimpose data about targets and other status updates over users’ views.
The tech could help troops enhance their awareness on the battlefield.
…
The lenses work by allowing the wearer to focus on two things at once – both the information projected onto the glasses’ lenses and the more distant view that can be seen through them.
They do this by having two different filters.
The central part of each lens sends light from the HUD towards the middle of the pupil, while the outer part sends light from the surrounding environment to the pupil’s rim.
By building two filters into each lens, close-up and distant light sources are both in focus
The retina receives each image in focus, at the same time.
“Normally, for example, with a camera you focus on something distant or something close – but you focus on a particular spot,” said Mr Willey.
“By wearing our contact lens you automatically have this multi-focus, or dual-focus, and you are doing something that humans don’t usually do.”
Ikea Burbclave Going Up Outside London
April 15th, 2012Via: The Week:
The Swedish furniture company will begin focusing on more than just home interiors as it designs and builds a residential area outside of London
Ikea is truly expanding its horizons with its next project. Instead of designing bookcases and chairs, the Swedish furniture company is making a whole neighborhood. Its property-developing unit, LandProp, has purchased 27 acres of unused industrial land outside London, on which it plans to develop a residential area, dubbed Strand East, for some 6,000 people.
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Tax Refunds Being Used to Pay for Bankruptcy Filings
April 14th, 2012Via: USA Today:
Some Americans spend their tax refunds on high-tech gadgets and long-awaited vacations. Others use the cash to file for bankruptcy.
More than 200,000 money-strapped households will use their tax refunds this year to pay for bankruptcy filing and legal fees, says a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The NBER research confirms what bankruptcy lawyers have long known: At the first part of the year, when Americans receive their tax refunds, there almost always is a spike in personal bankruptcy filings.
But that has been especially true since the cost of bankruptcy soared after U.S. bankruptcy laws changed in 2005. And many more families have been forced to delay filing until they can afford to pay the fees, the NBER study says.
“If people are expecting a big refund, they go as fast as they can to a tax preparer,” says Henry Sommer, a bankruptcy lawyer in Philadelphia. “They need the money so they can afford to file for bankruptcy.”
Department of Homeland Security: Special Response Team
April 13th, 2012The vehicles are right out of Team America: World Police.
Via: HongPong:
A relatively monstrous SWAT style truck leads us to a whole new blob of police state developments, busy hands with little to do and a lot of hardware to do it.
London Data Center Readies Staff ‘Sleeping Pods’ for Olympics
April 12th, 2012So now it’s sleeping capsules in data centers.
Wow.
You may or may not know what a data canter sounds like. If not, here’s a one minute introduction.
Hopefully, those cozy sleeping capsules come with hearing protection.
I wonder what IT people will be willing to tolerate in another six years?
Via: Data Center Knowledge:
For data centers, uptime is mandatory, even if the buses and trains aren’t running on time. That’s an issue on the minds of data center in operators in London, which may see its transit system tested by the huge crowds expected for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The data center team at Interxion has come up with a solution that will ensure that its London tech staff can be on site to keep things running smoothly throughout the Games.
Interxion today unveiled “sleeping pods” at its London data center campus, allowing staff to sleep amongst the racks to ensure that the facility will be fully staffed throughout the Games. allowing engineering staff to stay on site 24/7 should congestion on the travel and road networks become too severe, making it difficult for critical staff to travel to and from the site in a timely fashion.
Huddles: Goldman to Pay $22 Million to Settle SEC, FINRA Charges
April 12th, 2012Via: Reuters:
The case stems from a practice at Goldman that came to light several years ago known as “huddles,” where stock research analysts met with the firm’s traders to share their best trading ideas. Those ideas were then passed along to preferred clients.
End of Windows XP Support Era Signals Beginning of Security Nightmare
April 12th, 2012I’m one of the large but dwindling number of XP holdouts, but the clock is definitely ticking down. I’ve been using Windows 7 on other computers and find it to be pretty much ok, so I’ll probably go to that when I have to.
What are you other XP users going to do?
Via: Network World:
Microsoft’s recent announcement that it will end support for the Windows XP operating system in two years signals the end of an era for the company, and potentially the beginning of a nightmare for everyone else.
When Microsoft cuts the cord on XP in two years it will effectively leave millions of existing Windows-based computers vulnerable to continued and undeterred cyberattacks, many of which hold the potential to find their way into consumer, enterprise and even industrial systems running the latest software.
Jason Miller, manager of research and development at VMware, says the introduction of Windows XP “was the hey-dey of buying computers,” with markets having become familiar with Windows 95 or 98 and manufacturers like Dell releasing affordable options. With such an influx of new users, it comes as no surprise that Windows XP remains one of the most common operating systems despite the introduction of two entirely new versions in the decade since it hit shelves. In fact, March 2012 statistics from NetMarketShare.com show XP in the lead for operating system market share, at 43.09%.
It’s The Tat That Brings Kids Back!®
April 12th, 2012Via: SafetyTat:
It can happen anywhere—at an amusement park, zoo, school field trip, or even your local shopping mall. Your attention shifts for a moment, and suddenly your child or loved one has wandered out of sight.
So put the odds in your favor for a safe return, with SafetyTat. Invented by a Baltimore Mom of three kids, SafetyTat is a fun and colorful temporary safety child ID tattoo that’s uniquely offered either customized with your mobile phone number or blank so you can write in your cell phone number on them. When applied to the arm of your child or loved one, SafetyTat provides an immediate, highly visible form of child identification that stays in place even when wet!
SafetyTat—it’s the perfect way to show how much you care, just in case. It’s The Tat That Brings Kids Back!®
Research Credit: Slartibardfast
‘Proposed ‘Natural Health Products Bill’ in New Zealand Would Fine Individuals $50,000 for Making a Cup of Unapproved Herbal Tea’
April 12th, 2012I tried to determine if one could theoretically wind up on the wrong side of this thing for producing, for example, one’s own chamomile tea.
The following is from Natural Health Products Bill 324-1:
Manufacture of natural health products
28 Licence to manufacture natural health products
(1) A person must not manufacture a natural health product without
a licence to manufacture granted under section 29.
(2) The following persons are exempt from subsection (1): 25
(a) any exporter of a natural health product who is not also
seeking an export certificate for the product; and
(b) any health practitioner who makes a natural health product
to be administered to a particular person after being
requested by or on behalf of that person to use the prac- 30
titioner’s own judgement as to the treatment required.
29 Application for licence to manufacture
(1) An application for a licence to manufacture natural health
products must be made to the Authority in the prescribed
manner.
Boiled down, it looks like this: “A person must not manufacture a natural health product without a licence.” The exemptions to this are some exporters and health practitioners. That’s it. I see nothing about exemptions for personal use.
So, hmm.
I suppose it depends on what the government means by the word, “manufacture.” Maybe there’s a lawyer in New Zealand who could let us know what the word manufacture means in this context.
The grim reality that the government is seeking to regulate just about anything it wants as a natural health product, requiring licenses, databases, mandatory inspections, and imposing fines, jail sentences, etc., etc. on those who don’t comply, is a different matter.
First things first: Can someone, in theory, wind up facing a NZ$50,000 fine for making their own chamomile tea?
The fact that the question has to be asked at all is just another indication that New Zealand is doomed.
Via: Natural News:
If passed, NHPB will combine with the equally-threatening New Zealand Food Bill (http://www.naturalnews.com) to make it essentially illegal for individuals to even prepare for themselves, let alone try to sell, herbal products and teas, vitamins and supplements, or any other natural products that are not explicitly approved by the government as acceptable.
Overturning the common law principles of freedom that have triumphed in New Zealand for centuries, Bill 324-1 will require that all herbal remedies, traditional treatments, homeopathic remedies and dietary supplements first be approved — and very strictly regulated — by the government before being allowed to be sold or even prepared for one’s own personal use.
“The system will, for the first time in New Zealand, introduce risk-based regulation of natural health products,” says Bill 324-1. In simple terms, this means that natural herbs, vitamins, minerals, and all other nutrients used to promote health and prevent disease will be subject to the same corrupt regulatory approval process that pharmaceutical drugs are, which will in turn make it difficult or even impossible for New Zealanders to access many of these products in the future.
Research Credit: alvinroasting
