Category: Computers, Tech & the Net

Amazon Light

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As Amazon.com seems to get slower and slower all the time (likely weighed down by carrying every conceivable product known to mankind), Amazon Light is a great way to quickly navigate to the items you’re looking for.

Goodbye, Dear Rio

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My Rio MP3 player is no longer working. For almost two years, this great little gadget has been my music machine.
About a year ago, I got a letter from the company that makes the Rio, telling me they were going to be sending me a replacement power charger (for the rechargeable battery) because there were reports of people inadvertently sticking the power plug in the USB hole and frying the device. At the time, I remember thinking that someone would have to be an idiot to put the plug in the wrong hole. Today, I was that idiot. In my haste to plug in the charger as I rushed out to work, I ever so briefly put the power cord in the wrong end before realizing what I was doing. It wasn’t until later when I tried to listen to some tunes that I found my poor Rio now makes only a radio static-like buzzing sound.
I never did get that idiot-proof replacement power adapter they told me they were sending. I’m sure there’s a liability issue here somewhere.

Driving Mass Media

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At least two recent events — the Trent Lott controversy and the Henry Kissenger debacle — highlight just how asleep at the wheel the mainstream media has become. But they also show that a vibrant and growing online community is becoming more and more influential in providing a true national discussion.
As Arianna Huffington points out in her recent Salon.com column, it was a community of bloggers who kept discussion and coverage of these events in play. But unlike traditional media, the discussion came up from the bottom rather than being dictated — or neglected — from the top. This is what Cokie Roberts was so worried about.
As mainstream news continues it’s transformation into entertainment and corporate propaganda, real news, information and perspective is bubbling up from below.

Counter Intelligence

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Denver’s police department has been gathering and maintaining intelligence information on local citizens for decades. In recent years, the information was transferred from index cards to a computer program developed by Orion Scientific Systems.
Controversy erupted after files were leaked, showing the department had been tracking political and social activists, and had been classifying some of them as “criminal extremists.”

Going Electronic, Denver Reveals Long-Term Surveillance
Working under the direction of the Denver police intelligence bureau secretary, officers classified organizations like the American Friends Service Committee as “criminal extremist” groups, one of the choices offered in a pull-down menu by the software.
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The police said that each officer had used his own judgment in characterizing a group and that it had often been labeled “criminal extremist” because it did not seem to fit any other choices.

Other police departments — including New York City’s — use the Orion system. Orion says the “criminal extremist” classification has been removed from the program. Perhaps it’s been replaced by “Arab.”
If surveillance systems like this have been in place for so long, it’s frightening to think what’s being developed, used and abused now. Law enforcement agencies need to be able to gather certain types of information, but the danger has always been in the abuse of systems when appropriate safeguards aren’t put in place.
On a brighter note, there are those who are stepping up to the plate to protest excessive spying. Let’s hear it for librarians!

Cities Say No to Federal Snooping
Fearing that the Patriot Act will curtail Americans’ civil rights, municipalities across the country are passing resolutions to repudiate the legislation and protect their residents from a perceived abuse of authority by the federal government.
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Another group to vehemently oppose the act has been librarians. They are now required to divulge patrons’ book-borrowing and Internet-surfing habits to federal investigators and are prohibited from making such requests public.
In retaliation, some librarians have called special meetings to educate their communities about the Patriot Act’s implications. Others now routinely purge borrowing records and Internet caches. One former librarian devised a series of technically legal signs to warn patrons of FBI snooping.

Putting On The Pounds

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Did I really just hear this right? Whitney Houston told Diane Sawyer that she became so thin that she had to be digitally altered to add weight after an appearance at a Michael Jackson concert? (Send those digital technicians to save Courtney Cox, STAT!)
I heard this mentioned on All Things Considered, where host Jacki Lyden took a little dig at Ms. Sawyer by setting up the bit with something along the lines of: “Last night Diane Sawyer put her journalistic chops to the test and interviewed Whitney Houston.” This just after Lyden’s colleague, Lynn Neary, played video games on air.
Digitally Altered (NPR RealAudio Stream)

Google Live Query

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Interesting article in the New York Times on Google’s Live Query, which displays real-time search requests from around the world. The result is a worldwide stream of collective consciousness.
Postcards From Planet Google
Buried on the second page of the article is this mention of the darker side of Google—it knows who you are:

Searches are logged by time of day, originating I.P. address (information that can be used to link searches to a specific computer), and the sites on which the user clicked. People tell things to search engines that they would never talk about publicly – Viagra, pregnancy scares, fraud, face lifts. What is interesting in the aggregate can be seem an invasion of privacy if narrowed to an individual.