Archive for Individual

Writely Blog - Acquired by Google

Writely Blog

Yes, we’ve been acquired by Google, and we’re really excited about this for many, many reasons. But I can hear you saying, “I don’t care why YOU’RE excited - I want to know how this change will impact ME!”

I just saw this and thought, wow, this will have a profound impact on how we compute. With wiki-based spreadsheets and now web-enabled word processing why will the average person need a software package? For the average user these technologies might just do the trick. It will be interesting to watch these technologies emerge and to see how they change digistal stakeholder relations.

13 March, 2006 | No comments

FOXNews.com - Health News - Cyber Sex: A Threat to Real Life Intimacy?

FOXNews.com - Health News - Cyber Sex: A Threat to Real Life Intimacy?

With its easy access comes an increasing number of people who are pointing and clicking their way to electronic sexual satisfaction. A survey of Canadian college students found that 87 percent of more than 2,500 respondents ‘fessed up to using technology like instant message, webcams, and text message for sexual purposes.

I must say I never thought I would make s post like this, but it appears that the internet could be impacting and creating some digital stakeholder relationships that one never dreamed possible. This has some very serious implications. Not for corporations directly, but individuals and families.

6 March, 2006 | No comments

Google’s power makes security officials nervous - 09/25/05

Google’s power makes security officials nervous - 09/25/05

WASHINGTON — Google has fast become the Internet search engine everyone clicks on to find out nearly anything about anyone, including financial, political and other presumably private data.

But national security officials and others — reportedly even Google CEO Eric Schmidt — are getting a bit uncomfortable about Google’s extraordinary reach.

It seems I am not just the only digital stakeholder who has some problems with Google increasing power and reach. There are some serious issues with Google and many people have no clue that there is even something minor to be concerned about.

25 September, 2005 | No comments

Psst: Want to Know My Net Worth? - New York Times

Psst: Want to Know My Net Worth? - New York Times

Mr. Wang, who lives in Columbia, Md., pared down his spending on groceries to just $53.98 for the entire month. He cut back on meals at restaurants and nights on the town with his girlfriend. He trimmed his utility bill by making sure the lights were off when he left his apartment. And despite an unexpected dental bill - $50 for the filling of a cavity in his right bottom molar - he managed to come in 28 percent under his monthly budget of $1,755. He put the extra $484.47 into his home-buying account.

A financial blog, now that is an interesting twist. Although I for my personal taste this is a bit too personal. But with Big Brother 25 (or whatever number they are on), it would seem many are ok with this.

19 September, 2005 | No comments

Now, Every Keystroke Can Betray You - Los Angeles Times

Now, Every Keystroke Can Betray You - Los Angeles Times

“It’s scary they could see my keystrokes,” said Brown, owner of Kingdom Sewing & Vacuum. “It freaks me out.”

Brown learned of the scam only after security researchers stumbled onto a computer harvesting information from hundreds of PCs and felt compelled to alert some of the people who had the most data exposed. Realizing he was lucky to get the call last month, Brown changed his passwords and is hoping for the best.

If we could only get some of these scam artists to focus on doing good…

19 September, 2005 | No comments

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Social networking Web site makes a connection with students

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Social networking Web site makes a connection with students

SAN JOSE, Calif. — When college student Valerie Wang meets a cute guy, she goes right to her dorm and calls up a Web site called Facebook.

She looks at what fraternity he belongs to. She finds out if he plays sports, if he’s in a relationship and, if so, if his girlfriend is pretty.

“It’s an easy way to figure out information about someone without talking to them,” said Wang, 18, of Palo Alto, Calif., a sophomore at the University of Michigan

I read about Face Book months ago and wondered how it would really impact the digital stakeholders. Would it really catch on? Well it appears it has and it will be interesting to watch this community evolve.

19 September, 2005 | No comments

The Seattle Times: Personal Technology - Charles Bermant

The Seattle Times: Personal Technology: Net Makes Saying “No, Thank You” Easier

By Charles Bermant
Special To The Seattle Times

20 August, 2005 | No comments

File-Sharing Continues On Campus Despite Legal Music Services - 08/20/05

File-Sharing Continues On Campus Despite Legal Music Services - 08/20/05

Haraz N. Ghanbari / Associated Press

American University Residence Hall Association President Will Mount said he and his student government colleagues ultimately voted to switch to Napster from Ruckus.

By Alex Veiga | AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES — As a college freshman, Will Mount feasted on the free but mostly illegal music available through online file-sharing software such as Kazaa.

Now a senior, Mount has seen his free music fix become legal, thanks to an initiative by American University in Washington, D.C., to dissuade students from using its computer network to illegally swap music online.

“If you want to get the music in your iPod, you have to go to other places to buy it,” said Mount, 21, an Ohio native. “Or you are going to have to do something illegal to get it.”

20 August, 2005 | No comments

Internet’s Days As Tax-Free Sales Venue Are Numbered - BaltimoreSun.Com

Internet’s Days As Tax-Free Sales Venue Are Numbered - BaltimoreSun.Com

Jay Hancock, The Baltimore Sun

The Internet tax collectors are coming! The Internet tax collectors are coming! We can see the proverbial whites of their computer monitor-fixated eyes!

No, this is not a writing sample authored by Paul Revere, storming at midnight through the streets of Boston alerting denizens to the arrival of British troops.

This, of course, is a posting derived to illustrate the potentially severe repercussions of Internet taxation policies which will transform the manner in which we complete commercial transactions online in the future.

On Oct. 1 a dozen states will bypass Congress and launch a coordinated sales-tax collection regime aimed at shoppers buying goods across state lines on the Internet or in catalogs.

The fact that online vendors such as Amazon, states such as Maryland and Congress itself have balked at the initiative, called the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, should not obscure the central reality. The Internet’s days as a rootin’, tootin’, libertarian tax haven, a virtual Cayman Islands in a modem, are coming to an end. It’s open tax season on Internet customers.

Many Internet sellers are already dinging out-of-state customers for sales taxes after knuckling to litigation and other pressure.

“Over the past couple of years, something like 50 or 60 retailers have already started doing this,” says Joseph R. Crosby, legislative director for the Council on State Taxation, a big business lobby. “Many of them have decided it’s not worth the legal uncertainty, and they’ve just decided to go ahead and collect it.”

20 August, 2005 | No comments

Akamai Will Track Usage of Net News - The Boston Globe

Akamai Will Track Usage of Net News - The Boston Globe

Little-known company hopes index raises profile

By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | August 18, 2005

CAMBRIDGE — Akamai Technologies Inc., which hosts Internet content for other companies, including some of the world’s largest online news providers, today is set to introduce a ”Web traffic report” that will offer a real-time look at Internet news consumption globally.

Paul Sagan, Akamai’s president and chief executive, said the index could raise the company’s profile, though Akamai will not seek to profit from it — at least not initially.

Sagan, a former broadcast journalist and media executive, said Akamai’s goal was to contribute to the understanding of the habits and trends of news consumers. ”It’s not commercial,” he said. ”It’s purely because we think it’s interesting. . . One of the things you’ll be able to see is what kinds of events drive people to turn on their browser to news.”

”People have decided the Internet is how they want to be informed,” Sagan said. ”And this is one of the ways I think we’re all going to get a better understanding of when are people choosing to get informed and what’s driving some of their habits or their interests.”

Peter Christy of the Los Altos-based Internet Research Group states,

”It’s really a new form of operation for them,” said Peter Christy, principal at the Internet Research Group in Los Altos, Calif. ”Akamai has huge internal knowledge of what’s going on in the Internet, but until now they’ve provided very little of that knowledge to the public. If it turns out to be valuable enough to people, they can monetize it.”

20 August, 2005 | No comments

Worry Watch: Cleaning Up Personal Information

Worry Watch: Cleaning Up Personal Information

David Radin and Jes Scherder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s “Interact: Computers & Technology” column offer rudimentary insights on the manner in which identity thieves are operating in today’s online environment.

20 August, 2005 | No comments

TimesDispatch.Com | iBOOKS AFTERMATH

TimesDispatch.Com | iBOOKS AFTERMATH

Mark Holmberg, Point of View
The Richmond Times-Dispatch
804.649.6822
mholmberg@timesdispatch.com

Having purchased and used an iBook Graphite Special Edition laptop computing system, I am unable to fathom the rationale for causing chaotic pandemonium in a feverish rush to a school district office in an effort to purchase a used, five-year-old iBook for fifty dollars.

Alas, Henrico (Va.) County officials were faced with such a scenario this week when savages had lost all sense of common courtesy and decency.

In Mark Holmberg’s column which appears in the online edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, you could view a portfolio of graphic imagery depicting adults run amok in Richmond, Virginia, as well as review commentary from Times-Dispatch readers.

19 August, 2005 | No comments

Former AOL Employee Who Stole Entire E-Mail List Sentenced To Year And Three Months In Prison - 08/18/05

Former AOL Employee Who Stole Entire E-Mail List Sentenced To Year And Three Months In Prison - 08/18/05

NEW YORK — A 25-year-old former America Online employee who admitted he became a cyberspace “outlaw” when he sold all 92 million screen names and e-mail addresses to spammers was sentenced Wednesday to a year and three months in prison.

The defendant speaks,

“I know I’ve done something very wrong,” the soft-spoken and teary eyed Jason Smathers told U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein as he apologized for a theft that resulted in spammers sending out up to 7 billion unsolicited e-mails.

True to the mantra of a popular cable news network consisting of “fair and balanced” coverage, the prosecutor speaks,

“The Internet is not lawless” was the lesson of the case, said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Siegal.

“The public at large has an interest in making sure people respect the same values that apply in everyday life, on the Internet,” Siegal said.

The stolen list of 92 million AOL addresses included multiple addresses used by each of AOL’s estimated 30 million customers. It is believed to be still circulating among spammers.

The judge refused a Probation Department recommendation that Smathers be banned from his profession as a software engineer, saying he trusted Smathers had learned his lesson.

19 August, 2005 | No comments

Again With The Phishing

Again With The Phishing

WashingtonPost.Com staff writer Robert MacMillan discusses the online scam known as phishing.

19 August, 2005 | No comments

Urine Battery Turns Pee Into Power

Urine Battery Turns Pee Into Power

Urine is one of a number of bodily fluids rich in ions—electrically charged atoms. Researchers in Singapore leveraged this fact to produce a credit card-size battery (bottom) powered by urine. The device produces about 1.5 volts, the same as a standard AA battery, and can last for 90 minutes.

Top photograph copyright Chris Collins/Corbis; bottom photograph courtesy Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology

John Roach
National Geographic News
August 18, 2005

Before you next flush the toilet, consider this: Scientists in Singapore have developed a battery powered by urine.

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology created the credit card-size battery as a disposable power source for medical test kits.

Diagnostic test kits commonly analyze the chemical composition of a person’s urine to detect a malady. Ki Bang Lee and his colleagues realized that the substance being tested—urine—could also power the test.

“In order to address this problem, we have designed a disposable battery on a chip, which is activated by biofluids such as urine,” Lee wrote in an e-mail to National Geographic News.

Daniel Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, said the technology is a welcome innovation in a time of rising energy prices.

“All jokes [about] urine aside, what is needed are low-cost batteries. …” he said. “The other neat thing about this is the fact that it’s basically a biodegradable battery.”

Geek.Com users are having a proverbial field day about the notorious “urine power” study.

18 August, 2005 | No comments

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