Topics Of Interest
Busy day here, but I found some good articles whose topics I hope you will find interesting, and the info provided, valuable. Some “recommended reading”, if you will.
• How The New ‘Protecting Children’ Bill Puts You At Risk
“A bill now makes the online activity of every American available to authorities upon request under the guise of protecting children from pornography..
“Protecting Children” forces ISPs to retain customer names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and dynamic IP addresses..
It’s like having your wallet plus the web sites you visit tracked and handed over on request. These logs are now going to be retained for the scope of one and a half years. ” Read more..
(Those of you with a brain might wanna make a point of reading this one.. This is just plain wrong [IMHO]. The article contains a link for voicing your opposition.)
• 10 ways to safeguard your college-bound student’s computer
“You protect your corporate systems, but what about that back-to-school laptop you just bought your kid? Here are some things you can do to keep your student safe from cyber dangers.” Read more..
• Five reasons Android is superior to the iPhone
“While on vacation, I was reminded (yet again) how superior the Android platform is to the iPhone.” Read more..
• Creating Shortcuts to Google’s Gmail, Docs, Tasks, Calendar and Contacts
“I am a big Gmail user and have come to depend on Google’s Gmail and many of the other Google apps as an online personal information manager.” Read more..
• Three things Chromebooks need to fix to win buyers
“While Chromebooks have the potential to win corporate customers, I still think three things need to happen before Chromebooks will attract consumers and businesses in large numbers.” Read more..
• The 10 Best Apps Of July From The Daily App
“From Google+ for iPhone to Firefox for Android, here’s a glimpse at the best mobile apps we’ve featured in July on The Daily App blog.” Read more..
• 10 things you should still do to every Windows PC
“There are at least 10 things you should take a few minutes to do to every new Windows PC to get it ready for daily use. Don’t let your back-to-school PC drag your first semester down. “ Read more..
• 10 Cool Security Features In Mac OS X Lion
“No doubt, when it comes to security, Apple’s new Mac OS X Lion is shedding its spots and is ready to roar. As the dust has settled on the release of Apple’s Mac OS X Lion, unveiled July 20, experts have started asking, “Yes, but is it secure?” ” Read more..
And for the super-Geeky.. (Here at T4E Headquarters, “geek” is a compliment.)
• i-NVMM: Securing non-volatile memory on the fly
“Computer memory is a treasure of unencrypted information. Fortunately, power off and it disappears. That’s not the case with next-generation memory.” Read more..
• 10 Biggest Cyber Attacks Of July
“The lazy days of summer were anything but for hackers this month. If anything, hackers were ramping up their efforts under increased pressure from international and domestic law enforcement agencies.” Read more..
(Hmmm.. maybe you all should look at this one also..)
Today’s quote: “I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
Have a great day, everybody. And what do you say, let’s do the right thing.
Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
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Tech - for Everyone 
Holy crap Paul…
I don’t visit porn sites, and generally don’t care if my browsing habits are given to the authorities (if they have a warrant)…. but I’m to trust my ISP to keep a revolving 18 month database that contains and connects my personal information to my bank account and CC numbers, and hope that they insure that it can’t be hacked so my identity isn’t stolen? Shades of Orwell my friend… Total insanity. That’s one I’ll be contacting congress about. I hope everyone understands what this means!
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kstinman,
I feel you are absolutely right to be concerned and upset over this pending legislation. The three people (including you) who clicked the link I provided returned and posted a comment.
Which tells you something.
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Your stat of three people that returned from the article and left a comment does say something. I hope it dies NOT say that only three people are going to send a letter, email, or phone call to their US congressional representative. (Or two if Gaia is in Canada… wish you lived here young lady. Thank you for your support!!!)
If that IS the meaning of your statistical information, I’m afraid it’s a sad day for all internet users in America. The Squeaky Wheel Axiom does apply in many aspects of our lives my friends. If you don’t complain about this, you will have only yourselves to blame when your identity is stolen from your Internet Service Provider.
I’m worried that the very name of this bill will cause people to keep their mouths shut. The name makes it sound as if you are opposed to protecting our children against pornography if you complain. The titles of these bills are craftily written just for that reason…. so we won’t speak up. I’ve already contacted my congressman, and I hope most of your readers will too!!!. .
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kstinman,
Maybe I wasn’t clear earlier.. only three people found the blurb interesting enough to click the link and look at the article.
Each that did, was concerned enough by what they read, that they returned here and commented.
I share your concern. And I join you in urging people to use the link (provided in the article and by Y.O. [below]) and write their Congressperson and urge a “no” vote.
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Yes, I misunderstood. And, such apathy finally fired up the dim bulb over my head. Now I see what this tells me. We’re losing the battle AND the war.
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I believe It’s actually 12 months of information that the ISPs will be required to store, not 18 months, but that is irrelevant to the issue. kstinman, I agree with your comments and opinion.
This legislation, H.R. 1981, which is currently under consideration in the US House of Representatives, is completely unnecessary. There are already laws in place which allow law enforcement agencies to demand an ISP to deliver all of the records about our browsing habits along with any other information they have on record.
To quote a website where you may take action, ( https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=497 ):
‘This sweeping new “mandatory data retention” proposal treats every Internet user like a potential criminal and represents a clear and present danger to the online free speech and privacy rights of millions of innocent Americans.’
I can’t put it any better than that, This IS extremely dangerous legislation which should be stopped at all costs. How many places on the internet do you want YOUR name, address, age, bank account numbers and credit card companies to be stored, all neatly tied into a package for cyber criminals to hack at their leisure? Believe me, they have nothing but time and are acting as an organized criminal organization. These people are highly motivated, communicate daily to improve the malware they are writing, and will stop at nothing to find a hole in any website which may contain sensitive information.
Folks. PLEASE consider taking action by contacting your representatives on this issue. Remember, If you say nothing, they will assume that you’re happy!.
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Y.O.
I feel you are absolutely right to be concerned and upset over this pending legislation. The three people (including you) who clicked the link I provided returned and posted a comment.
Which tells you something.
PS – your point about creating treasure troves for cyber criminals is exactly correct. The last link I provided (Top attacks of July) tells you all you need to know about databases. Anyone who thinks they can be secured is.. um.. well.. must have an awfully big budget and a lot of confidence… (historically unfounded confidence, IMHO.)
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Yes Paul…topics of Interest for sure. Protecting Children’s Bill.
kstinman I agree with your comment…Shades of Orwell, 1984.
To understand what this means…again I agree. People have to ” take the time to read “…of which we don’t until these laws are well in place. Often people are already weary from “it all”… (governments depend on this) then we think there’s nothing we can do about the laws anyway…the new laws happen!
I think, (not sure I will check further )…but I think Canada has or is working on a similar law…in the name of “cutting back on crime” while the stats say that crime has reduced since the 70″s.
I’ll stop here…don’t want to make this too political…ha.
Gaia
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Gaia,
I feel you are absolutely right to be concerned and upset over this pending legislation. The three people (including you) who clicked the link I provided returned and posted a comment.
Which tells you something.
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I was away from home yesterday and am only now reading this blog. And Gaia says something like this in underway in Canada too? Yikes! What are these people thinking?
I am Canadian, so I doubt the House of Representatives is interested in hearing what I have to say, but I surely will be doing a search to see if this is likely to happen here. Wouldn’t surprise me. But our government hasn’t been able to protect its own data from being hacked, so whatever would make them think ISPs will be able to, or even bother trying? Thanks for posting this.
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Hermit2003,
I am beginning to think my Canadian readers are more “in tune” with such things than my American readers seem to be.
And maybe there is just so much other “bad news”, folks are “tuning out” (or.. “prioritizing”). Maybe it really is true, and we have become “dumbed down”, and/or desensitized to the 300 channels screaming at us for attention..
Either way, such a poor response has led me to be disinclined to continue making the effort.. but fear not! I shall ‘write on’.
Maybe one or two will “hear” me.
Thank you for taking the time to voice your support!
PS – I like your avitar.
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