tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55324800423392959102024-11-08T09:41:58.394-06:00Bert Knabe's look at the world at large, primarily with a focus on technology and security, but digressing to any other topics that catch his fancy. This blog is the backup/mirror of his blog at http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog/glasshousesbknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.comBlogger407125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-22495396297301896192014-05-09T21:19:00.002-05:002014-05-09T22:13:12.119-05:00

Viharts extremely good explanation of net neutrality and how it is being gutted by proposed FCC regulations. At Lubbockonline.com I've talked a little bit about net neutrality and how important it is to the Internet as we know it. Currently there are two things happening that seriously threaten both net neutrality and the Internet in general. The are the proposed FCC rules to replace

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-26770855755071947592012-09-22T20:24:00.000-05:002012-09-22T20:24:03.640-05:00

Originally posted 08/10/2011 on lubbockonline.com Jaikumar Vijayan reports on Computerworld.com that at the Black Hat hackers conference security researcher Alessandro Acquisti presented a disturbing paper on facial recognition, social sites like Facebook, and privacy.The research involved taking pictures and applying facial recognition software - of the shelf software, not custom software

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-66122559315977110852012-08-19T00:09:00.002-05:002012-09-22T20:33:58.379-05:00

Originally posted 08/09/2011 on lubbockonline.com Karl Bode at dslreports.com reports that ISP's in the U.S. are hijacking our searches and redirecting them to a company called Paxfire. Paxfire is more than just a redirect service for ISP's, it's a revenue generator:"Under specific conditions, the Paxfire proxies do not merely relay traffic to and from the search engines. When the user initiates

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-69259386786150191292012-08-18T23:54:00.000-05:002012-08-18T23:54:34.724-05:00

Originally posted 08/08/2011 on lubbockonline.com Matthew Lasar at Ars Technica reports that, despite pseudonyms, anonymous proxy servers and encryption, the Justice Department has indicted 72 members of an online child pornography community, Dreamboard. All but 20 of them have been arrested.Usually I read any additional documentation available and link to it when I talk about a story, but in

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-81551082708991722582012-08-18T22:21:00.001-05:002012-08-18T22:21:51.228-05:00

Originally posted 08/05/2011 on lubbockonline.com Timothy B. Lee reports on Ars Technica that the British government has pledged to make significant changes in UK copyright law.The change is in part due to an independent report to the UK Prime Minister. The report is 130 pages, but it boils down to this: Copyright policy in the UK has been driven more by lobbyists than by any real evidence.

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-63816797920515480622012-08-18T22:02:00.000-05:002012-08-18T22:02:17.250-05:00

Originally posted 08/04/2011 on lubbockonline.com It looks like Facebook is learning the lesson Walmart learned when it comes to doing business in Germany. Germany is not the U.S. Matthew Shaer reports in the Christian Science Monitor that Facebooks facial recognition 'feature' has been declared illegal in Germany.I don't know how much affect this will actually have on Facebook. It will depend

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-42686638651396863132012-08-18T21:45:00.000-05:002012-08-18T21:45:03.443-05:00

Originally posted 08/03/2011 on lubbockonline.com In her "Pulp Tech" blog at ZDNet Violet Blue reported that the House Judiciary Committee has passed the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011," a bill that is supposedly designed to protect children from Internet pornographers. Violet has several concerns with this bill, ranging from the fact that it seems to confuse

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-64102937065985863032012-08-18T21:34:00.000-05:002012-08-18T21:34:02.031-05:00

Originally posted 08/02/2011 on lubbockonline.com Google has backed off the 'real name' on Google+ policy. That's good, but it takes both more and less than pseudonyms to be safe online. The internet is a wild and wooly place. If you're not careful you can reveal a lot more of yourself than you intend.So what kinds of things do you need to do to protect yourself? It's not very hard. There are

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-72604365436450199502012-08-18T21:22:00.000-05:002012-08-18T21:22:22.631-05:00

Originally posted 08/01/2011 on lubbockonline.com On alternet.org Rania Khalek reports on the increasing number of people being charged with crimes for shooting video of on duty police in public places. This is becoming more common as cell phones with video cameras are the norm.The article covers several episodes from recent years, some you've probably heard of, some you may not have. One of the

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-20153350978426388502012-08-18T21:15:00.000-05:002012-08-18T21:15:21.370-05:00

Originally posted 07/29/2011 on lubbockonline.com Bianca Bosker at the Huffington post tells us that Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook marketing director and Mark Zuckerberg's sister, believes anomymity on the internet has to go away. Bianca quotes Randi as saying:“I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away,” she said during a panel discussion on social media hosted Tuesday evening by Marie

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-79008735861073767612012-08-18T21:06:00.001-05:002012-08-18T21:06:35.384-05:00

Originally posted 07/28/2011 on lubbockonline.com Tuesday I told you about Google deleting the accounts of users using pseudonyms. There has been a lot of discussion online about the situation, some of it very well thought out, some less so. Kee Hinckley wrote an excellent piece and put it under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. The full article is here. Because his original

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-41906852069019308252012-08-18T20:54:00.000-05:002012-08-18T20:54:07.460-05:00

Originally posted 07/27/2011 on lubbockonline.com Bill Brenner of CSO online reports that scammers are taking advantage of the death of Amy Winehouse and the tragedy in Norway. The attacks use social engineering to convince people to click on links that will infect their computers with malware.It sounds paranoid, but you should be suspicious of any shared link. Creating emails, tweets, and

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-427353925493461812012-08-18T20:47:00.000-05:002012-08-18T20:47:24.517-05:00

Originally posted 07/26/2011 on lubbockonline.com Google+ (g+)has gotten off to a good start. Unfortunately it's hit a rocky spot that could, if not handled properly, destroy the momentum it's enjoyed so far. Rafal Los (aka Wh1t3Rabbit) reports that the hacker community is in an uproar. Apparently Google has been disabling the accounts of people who are using handles instead of their real names.

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-47526703209955338552012-08-18T20:37:00.001-05:002012-08-18T20:37:38.413-05:00

Originally posted 07/05/2011 on lubbockonline.com Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch reports that Facebook suffered a privacy glitch in it's Videos feature for about a week, but it's fixed now. He explains:Unfortunately, those controls haven’t been working as they should: for the last week it’s been possible to see a full listing of your friends’ Facebook videos, including the name, thumbnail,

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-9963796439836947112012-08-18T20:31:00.001-05:002012-08-18T20:33:27.508-05:00

Originally posted 07/22/2011 on lubbockonline.com According to Tricia Duryee at the All Things Digital blog, Google is about to hit Facebook in the pocketbook. Google is launching a social gaming network that may cost developers less than the traditional 30% it costs them to play in the Facebook and Apple App store universes.Facebook probably isnt' quaking in their boots about the prospect

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-51593870267436974052012-08-18T20:26:00.001-05:002012-08-18T20:26:11.739-05:00

Originally posted 07/20/2011 on lubbockonline.com The EFF has taken a closer look at agreement reached between big content providers (read MPAA and RIAA) and major ISP's (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, etc.) to help enforce copyright, and it's not very pretty. Corynne McSherry and Eric Goldman report on what they found in the Deeplinks blog.I strongly recommend you read their report, but a few of

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-83127816994543880902012-08-18T20:19:00.001-05:002012-08-18T20:19:32.527-05:00

Originally posted 07/05/2011 on lubbockonline.com In the Defensive Computing blog at Computerworld Michael Horowitz updates us on the fate of Barry Ardolf. Barry was the genius who hacked his neighbors wifi network then proceeded to try to frame them with crimes ranging from child pornography to death threats on Vice President Biden. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his efforts.Barry

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-48697281841008878182012-08-18T20:15:00.000-05:002012-08-18T20:15:24.221-05:00

Originally posted 07/15/2011 on lubbockonline.com Deborah Copaken Kogan is a successful photographer, author and mother. On MSNBC yesterday she recounted how Facebook saved her son's life. Last Mother's Day her 4 year old son woke up with a rash. Over the next three days there was trip to the doctor and steadily worsening symptoms. Also during the three days she put photos of her sick son on

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-72558931512770737042012-08-18T20:07:00.000-05:002012-08-18T20:09:44.873-05:00

Originally posted 07/14/2011 on lubbockonline.com Yesterday we looked at a few free software programs for taking care of your computer. Today we'll look at a few more programs to help you get things done.Have you ever wanted to manipulate photos like the pros do, but don't want to spend $700 for Adobe Photoshop? You might want to look at The GIMP. An open source image editor with many (but not

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-18334569202220119692012-08-18T20:01:00.001-05:002012-08-18T20:01:25.265-05:00

Originally posted 07/13/2011 on lubbockonline.com Have you been thinking maybe its time for a change? Could be you've used Windows all your life and you're ready to see why those Mac fanatics are so loyal - and despite Mac Defender, Mac's are still far safer from malware than Windows PC's. Maybe you've been using Mac's for years and are tired of the way Apple just drops support of equipment

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-63179564966835995542012-08-18T19:55:00.002-05:002012-08-18T19:55:42.620-05:00

Originally posted 07/12/2011 on lubbockonline.com Last year I told you about a company called Social Intelligence that scours the web for your social media presence as a (for fee) service for companies. It took a while longer, but the guys and gals at Gizmodo.com heard about them, and decided to test out the service on six of their people. Mat Honan was the (un)lucky employee that failed the

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-7256428281142947462012-08-18T19:45:00.003-05:002012-08-18T19:45:56.461-05:00

Originally posted 07/11/2011 on lubbockonline.com Ricky at digitizor.com reports that Google+ ran out of disk space on a notifications server this weekend. It was a small glitch in a service that's still in limited field test, so it's not a big deal. But it should be a wake up call for Google, who admit that they should have foreseen the rapid expansion in notifications. This might have

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-80848696842663005432012-08-18T19:19:00.001-05:002012-08-18T19:19:27.061-05:00

Originally posted 07/08/2011 on lubbockonline.com People never learn. Facebook is not a private place. You have more privacy in the local pub than on Facebook. Assuming no one posts they saw you there on Facebook. Or tweets it. But people still insist on treating it as a private forum. Winnie Hu of the NY Times tells us that a teacher in New Jersey is on (paid) administrative leave after

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-47948571823751216852012-08-18T19:06:00.002-05:002012-08-18T19:06:55.233-05:00

Originally posted 07/07/2011 on lubbockonline.com Last Friday Nick at the Police-Led Intelligence blog posted "Social Media Search Tips for Cops & Law Enforcement Analysts." It covers the basics of social media searching, from kurrently, a search engine for Facebook and Twitter, to Google hacking to Facebook's search engine.I don't know about the usefulness of kurrently. It only found 1 out

bknabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407372839500665698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5532480042339295910.post-77744340957938756492012-08-18T02:51:00.000-05:002012-08-18T02:55:22.004-05:00

Originally posted 07/06/2011 on lubbockonline.com. I've included the comments on this one. Good information. Alternet.org asked an interesting question yesterday. "Why Do the Police Have Tanks? The Strange and Dangerous Militarization of of the US Police Force." I know about the 'war on drugs' and the 'war on terror' but are SWAT teams and armored personel carriers really necessary?U.S. law

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