By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Jan 12, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
You may remember several news stories coming out a while back regarding Foxconn, a manufacturer in China that makes primarily Apple products and Xbox 360s. They are back in the news as a group of workers recently threatened mass suicide. [The Atlantic]
Here is an update on the German hacker space program that would bring us uncensored Internet from space. [PopSci]
Twitter has been ordered by the US DoJ to hand over the account information of people thought to have connections to controversial whistle-blower Wikileaks. [Mashable]
A leaked internal memo has suggested that RIM, Nokia, and Apple provide governments backdoor access to their devices. [Slashdot]
Google, Facebook, and Twitter could be in talks to coordinate a blackout in opposition of SOPA. [TIME]
Finally, a super-cool story about a girl that snuck into a Russian military rocket facility. Check out the pictures she took, they really are amazing. [Gizmodo]
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Jan 12, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET  Earlier today I had an incident stuck on multiple automated call loops trying to get a simple question answered.
I know how it is and that these services help reduce time spent by employees dealing with routine questions but…… I had a simple but non-routine question and spent, on and off, 2 hours trying to get through. I finally did but the person kept referring to me as Mrs Brown until I corrected him–using my Barry White voice. But that’s another story.
So, as always, I tried to come up with a better way, a better mousetrap, a “big idea” to fix this commonplace problem.
But I couldn’t come up with anything beyond, well, hire live people to talk to live customers. That just doesn’t seem practical. And it’s so 1970s.
So, I griped a bit and then came up with what at the moment seemed an innovative and workable new approach that would decrease the “aggravation factor” for customers calling.
What was it?
Read the rest of…
John Y.’s Musings from the Middle: Automated Call Loops
By Greg Harris, on Tue Jan 10, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
“Any man today can lay claim to being filmed”
–Walter Benjamin, The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
 Time Magazine recently named “The Protester” its 2011 “Person of the Year.” In a year defined by an Arab Spring where the people of Africa and the Middle East risked life and limb to demand democracy, and Americans “Occupied Wall Street” to reclaim democracy, Time’s choice made perfect sense.
But I submit that a strong runner up for “Person of the Year” should be “Social Media”—that is, “Facebook,” “Twitter,” and handheld devices (PDA’s, etc). No, these social media tools aren’t actual people, but they provided the tools for the protesters to organize and reveal to the world their plight.
 When studying for my doctorate, I immersed myself in the Frankfurt School of philosophy . Many of its leading thinkers were weary of the rise of technology as a tool for totalitarians. Theodor Adorno even warned of a “culture industry” wherein consumerism masks itself as choice, instilling a false sense of personal freedom when there was no real freedom.
A dissenting view within the Frankfort School came from Walter Benjamin, who believed new technologies (in the context of his writing, the increased use of film and photography) could have a political effect that could be liberating if placed in the hands of the people. Benjamin, a Jew fleeing from the Nazis, committed suicide when it appeared he was going to be captured and sent to concentration camps. At a time when Hitler was in power and using film for purposes of mass propaganda, Benjamin’s technological optimism, in context, seems surprising.
Read the rest of…
Greg Harris: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised; It Will Be Tweeted
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Jan 5, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
After the lengthy fundraising by Wikipedia, characterized by the personal appeal from Jimmy Wales, they ended up raising $20 million. [Venture Beat]
A Dehli, India court has ordered 22 social-networking sites to remove all “anit-religious” and “anti-social” material contained on them in 90 days. The most notable websites listed are Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo. [Hindustan Times]
Internet Explorer use continues to slide as it loses more and more of the market share it once dominated. It is predicted that by March Microsoft’s internet browser could fall below a 50% market share. [Computerworld]
In the wide world of censorship – it is now illegal for citizens of the Republic of Belarus to access foreign websites. [The Next Web]
For hackers, what is the best way to combat censorship in America? Could it be to launch their own satellites? [PC World]
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Dec 29, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
Many people across the web vowed to boycott domain-register GoDaddy.com over their support of SOPA. Last week the count was around 72,000 domains lost. [Techi]
The comedian Louis CK recently sold his THING on his website for $5. His goal was to prove it could be done cheaply, DRM free, and on the Internet. It generated $1 million in 12 days so it seems he was successful. [LouisCK]
Italy has fined Apple $1.2 million over their Applecare Protection Plan. Italy has a law that requires companies to provide 2 years of free support. [TechCrunch]
This is what a 5MB hard drive looked like in 1956. I write this as I save the image to my 1TB hard drive that fits in the palm of my hand. [TheNextWeb]
LG’s new 84-inch LCD TV is stunning. [engadget]
For fun: some odd tech industry job interview questions. [BBC]
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Dec 23, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET  Improving Kentucky’s public image.
I try when traveling to help boost how others perceive Kentucky.
No, we aren’t barefoot and uneducated as we are too often portrayed in the media.
To the contrary, I believe we are as shoe-rich and literate as about a…ny other state; and, in fact, have a well above average degree of common sense and common decency.
So last week I was in the big city of Atlanta’s mega-modern airport on my way home. I was going through security and was identified as a random person to do a body scan. I was especially friendly and pleasant about it, and explained I was from Kentucky and hadn’t seen one of these machines before but had seen seen them on TV.
 I walked inside the cylindrical contraption and was told to stand in the center, be still, and raise my hands. The doors closed shut. After about 15-20 seconds, the doors re-opened and I was told to walk out the other side.
I did and smiled broadly at the security personnel and said “WowWee! I love fancy technology! Am I back in Kentucky already? I never thought I’d see the day….. but here I am. Just like in Star Trek!”
Read the rest of…
John Y.’s Musings from the Middle: Airport Tele-transporters
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Fri Dec 23, 2011 at 9:15 AM ET Jacob E. Goldman has passed away at the age of 90. Goldman, a physicist, did so much during his life for the world of technology. His most prominent achievement was the founding of Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center which went on to invent the personal computer. Goldman was a lifelong Democrat and one of Xerox’s first high-ranking Jewish executives. [NY Times]
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Dec 22, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
It seems that the entertainment industry invested about $50k a year over the course of 10 years in Rep. Lamar Smith to convince him to propose SOPA. [boingboing]
Google and Android are surging ahead of the Apple iPhone. Google is activating around 700,000 Android devices per day. [CBS News]
Have you ever wanted to go to MIT? Well, the prestigious and notoriously difficult school to get into is planning on offering free online courses to the public. [MIT News]
This week a man that uploaded a workprint copy of the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine was sentenced to a year in jail. [Tech Dirt]
Over the past few years hackers ran a scam on Subway by using digital credit card data to accumulate $3 million in fraudulent charges. [ars technica]
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Dec 15, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
SOPA is going to the House for a vote today. I’ve posted a lot about it the last few weeks, but now is decision time. [Mother Jones]
GPS satellites are getting an upgrade! The new satellites currently being tested claim to be able to track within 3 feet, much more precise than the current 10 feet. [Discovery]
A 17-year-old named Angela Zhang has won $100k for discovering a cancer-killing nanoparticle. [Geek]
It has recently come to light that Download.com which is run by CNET (which I happen to like) has been secretly installing adware. Not cool. [EFF]
Here is a video of a light wave shown at 1 Trillion FPS. [Camera Culture]
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Dec 8, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
A case for ending America’s giant Cable corporations – check out the system France has in place. [Americablog]
Google Chrome has officially overtaken Mozilla Firefox as the #2 browser in the world. [Stat Counter]
The Swiss government has ruled on the side of “piracy.” A study concluded that people downloading copyrighted material for personal use are more likely to spend money within those same industries. [boingboing]
There is a proposed bill in the Senate that could effectively end overtime for IT employees. [Standalone Sysadmin]
Carrier IQ: Is it totally rational to worry that our phones are tracking everything we do? [Slate]
|
The Recovering Politician Bookstore
|
