Category: Aside

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Videos

IBM and Intelligence Cities

IBM’s efforts to add ‘intelligence’ to cities – and thus make them more manageable – is an ongoing effort. While what they’ve developed in Rio is interesting, I suspect that several facets of the ‘defence mechanism’ obfuscate residents’ economic realities.

Specifically, the video notes that residents of favelas may receive text messages that warn of oncoming disasters. This is good, but misses the point that a warning system without a capacity to absorb/protect residents who are fleeing poorly-build environments is effectively useless.

While the IBM ‘smart city’ project may  make the city more intelligent, and improve daily operations, such intelligence doesn’t necessarily mean that the city can temporarily house residents of favelas in ‘safe’ areas of the city if a major disaster occurs. Unfortunately, the sale of technology in this video obfuscates this key truth of disaster preparation.

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Videos

Wacky Security Devices

This is the kind of wacky security device that would lead to lawsuits if it worked and hilarity regardless of functionality.

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Aside

How long American telcos hold onto customer data

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Humour

An image a friend sent my way a while back that makes me chuckle every time I see it.

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Aside

Infographic on the state of social media privacy

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Videos

RIM Proof of Concept

This is an interesting proof of concept being demoed by RIM. It’s certainly not practical at the moment – requiring an overhead camera means it only really works in mobile/fixed testbeds – but it is cool. The next step, beyond building buzz of course, is to figure out how to make this kind of technology useful to the consumer. Still, it’s good to see RIM demoing the ‘cool stuff’ they’ve been privately researching. Hopefully we see more of these kinds of demos in the future to build a rebuild the beleaguered company’s public image.

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Humour

Door Code

mnancy:

Oh really?

I’m really tempted to do something similar for the door in my office.

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Humour

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Aside Links

The Big Threats to Internet Security

Dan Goodin has a good piece on one of Bruce Schneier’s recent talks. From the top of the article:

Unlike the security risks posed by criminals, the threat from government regulation and data hoarders such as Apple and Google are more insidious because they threaten to alter the fabric of the Internet itself. They’re also different from traditional Internet threats because the perpetrators are shielded in a cloak of legitimacy. As a result, many people don’t recognize that their personal information or fortunes are more susceptible to these new forces than they ever were to the Russian Business Network or other Internet gangsters.

The notion that government – largely composed of security novices – large corporations, and a feudal security environment (where were trust Apple, Google, etc instead of having a generalizable good surveillance footprint) are key threats of security is not terribly new. This said, Bruce (as always) does a terrific job in explaining the issues in technically accurate ways that are simultaneously accessible to the layperson. Read the article; it’s well worth your time and will quickly demonstrate some of the ‘big’ threats to online security, privacy, and liberty.

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Videos

Rick Mercer on the lawful access legislation

An excellent rant from Rick Mercer on the lawful access legislation that was recently tabled by the Government of Canada.