Finally! A few items of interest.

After a dry spell, I found some attention-worthy items.

* Hell no, we won’t pay: How technology transformed our perception of value

“What does this culture and technology of anti-spendism mean for the future consumption and valuation of goods and services?” Read more..

That (above) is the main “should read”. Here are a few others that might also interest you.

* Aereo ruled illegal by Supreme Court; must pay copyright fees

“The future of Internet TV was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. And it didn’t go in cordcutters’ favor.” Read more..

[ Surprised? ]

* Hackonomics: Cybercrime’s cost to business

“How much does getting hacked actually cost a business? Looking closely at the cyber black market’s cost factors is worrying, but offers insight into keeping crime’s cost low.” Read more..

[ Sure. For as long as the cost is low enough.. we can ignore it! ]

This will depress you (but you better know it): HackingTeam tool makes use of mobile malware targeting all major platforms

“Researchers have uncovered troubling details about a mobile surveillance service provided by HackingTeam, an Italian seller of monitoring software.” Read more..

[ Sorry for putting TWO ‘must reads’ in one article.. ]

Related: iOS Safer Than Android? Maybe Not

“Common wisdom holds that iOS is inherently secure and Android is inherently vulnerable. But a new study by Marble Security found that Android and iOS devices pose equal security challenges.” Read more..

Sometimes I think (and then other times, I’m quite certain) the lunatics are running the asylum.

Today’s quote: “Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence.” ~ Napoleon

Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.
Find a way to make someone’s day today.
(Best advice I ever heard? Don’t sweat the small stuff.)

News Items: Death of Web Radio, ISP Spying

A couple of recent tech headlines have caught my eye, and because of their dire implications, I thought I should pass them on to you.

Loyal readers may remember that a year ago now I wrote about the “day of protest” and the Internet Radio Equality Act which was vital to the future of free, public Internet radio and webcasters. (to read my article, click here.)

Today’s title is premature, but not by much. The Copyright Royalty Board ruling that we were warned about is set to take effect. This is all about DRM and “protecting artists”, and so an obscure Federal judge is going to change our current ability to listen to music. Forever.

“Pandora is one of the nation’s most popular Web radio services, with about 1 million listeners daily. Its Music Genome Project allows customers to create stations tailored to their own tastes. It is one of the 10 most popular applications for Apple’s iPhone and attracts 40,000 new customers a day. Yet the burgeoning company may be on the verge of collapse, according to its founder, and so may be others like it.

“We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision,” said Tim Westergren, who founded Pandora. “This is like a last stand for webcasting.” ”
To read the rest of this Washington Post article, click here.

Your ISP is spying on you:
The second headline probably really won’t surprise anyone — there’s a lot of people watching our surfing habits, and developing profiles on us (for the purposes of bringing us “more relevant” ads). I almost ignored it, as the lead paragraph wasn’t all that shocking..
“Cable One last fall conducted a six-month trial of a network-based technology that tracks consumers’ Internet movements in an effort to amass refined data on Web-surfer habits that can be sold to advertisers at premium rates.”

But I was intrigued.. what did they mean by “network technology”??? Then I did get shocked and alarmed.

Someone has decided that the firewall technology known as DPI (“deep packet inspection”) may as well be used for full data mining of the traffic flowing through the service provider. Evil, evil someone.

You see, DPI is a method that can see through encryption. It is used for security purposes as it can read every word going over the wire and look for viruses and malware, and sensitive corporate data.

Basically, those Cable One customers had every word they typed read and recorded.. every website they visited.. and any attempts they made at maintaining their privacy (using proxies, anonymizers, or encryption) were foiled at the wire.
To read the whole article, click here.

It’s for better advertising! Yay!
[Attention advertisers: Haven’t you figured out that we ignore you? What do you think the mute button is for? The TiVo? AdBlocker software? Stop wasting your money! You’ve all been duped into believing a huge fallacy.]

Today’s free link: is a repeat, it’s the word “Pandora”, above.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
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