Howdy, Happy Reading for today. best, <Karen> 1) Adults +Teens = Screenagers http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Literacy/whatresearch7.aspswitching songs on an iPod is just as distracting to a driver as, say, dialing a cellphone.
2) Congress Ups Ante on File Sharing http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/05/03/downloadThe effort was spearheaded by lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee, which has led Congress?s scrutiny of the campus downloading issue so far. But the fact that the signers of the letter included the chairman and senior Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee suggested to the dismay of some college officials that leaders on the education panel might be receptive to dealing with the issue in legislation to renew the Higher Education Act this year. ?Your full and complete responses to the survey will assist us in determining what ?best practices? need to be instituted,? the lawmakers write. ?It will also help us to assess whether Congress needs to advance legislation to ensure the acceptable use of educational facilities to obtain or traffic in copyrighted goods is no longer associated with student life on some U.S. campuses.? Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, added in a statement: ?There is bipartisan agreement that if we do not receive acceptable answers, Congress will be forced to act.?
3)Student rights to privacy and K12 School Rights vs. Students Online privacy rights.
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Internet/5copyright.html SELLING CHILDREN'S INFORMATION EDUCATION selling K-12 student INFORMATION and their rights to privacy. Who Sells Information about children? 4) Hot Technology Tips Page http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/tips.html diggin this on Page 3 Asirra (Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access) http://research.microsoft.com/asirra/is a HIP that works by asking users to identify photographs of cats and dogs. This task difficult for computers, but our user studies have shown that people can accomplish it quickly and accurately. Many even think it's fun! Asirra is free and helps protect your site from spammers. Asirra is a human interactive proof that asks users to identify photos of cats and dogs. It's powered by over two million photos from our unique partnership with Petfinder.com.
5) Bush administration proposes retroactive immunity for phone companies <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070504-bush-administration-proposes-retroactive-immunity-for-phone-companies.html> or <http://shurl.org/MpNrY>http://shurl.org/MpNrY "Retroactive immunity from prosecution is a beautiful thing if you're a major telecommunications provider in the US, and phone companies are about to receive it if the Bush administration gets its way. The administration's new appropriations request for intelligence agencies was recently disclosed at a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and it includes a massive gift to the phone companies who have been (can we drop the "allegedly" at this point?) helping the NSA and other agencies." 6) Phones studied as attack detector http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2007-05-03-cellphone-attack-detector_N.htm?csp=34 "Homeland Security officials are looking into outfitting cellphones with detectors that would alert emergency responders to radiological isotopes, toxic chemicals and biological agents such as anthrax. "If it's successful, it'll change the way chemical, biological and radiation detection is done," says Rolf Dietrich, deputy director of the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, which invests in high-tech solutions to secure the nation against terrorist attacks. "It's a really, really neat thing." 7) The House of Representatives on campus downloading The Real Agenda The letter ( http://tinyurl.com/2gpwd4 ) from the House of Representatives demanding that universities "testify" as to their students' use of file sharing (including port numbers, ability to run inbound servers, and other details, no less) demonstrates a profound lack of understanding regarding how the "abuses of concern" could easily migrate to underground, off-campus networks. the handwriting on the wall for yet another Another "mandated data retention" argument in a public context is really about the DMCA enforcement. There's no need for complex analysis to understand all this. It's abundantly clear that government dreams of the day that they can have unfettered access to the complete Internet usage records (and often content) of everyone on the Net. 8) Verizon Charges $2/month for not making long distance calls http://reporternews.com/news/2007/may/03/phone-companies-levy-new-fee-not-making-calls/ Phone companies levy new fee for not making calls Phone bills are notorious for rankling customers with fees, taxes, tariffs and other mystery assessments. Now some phone companies are adding a new line item to monthly bills: a charge for not making long-distance calls. The category of customers affected by the new fee is the shrinking subset of people who have no-frills home-phone service and don't pay for a long-distance-calling plan. Verizon last month introduced the $2 fee. It is charged to customers who could dial out for long distance, but don't subscribe to a long-distance service and don't make long-distance calls. 9) Conference at the University of Warwick entitled "Free At Last", commemorating the 200th anniversary of the passage of the legislation to abolish the British slave trade. The conference will be held from 11-13 July 2007 on the campus of the University of Warwick. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ccs/conference_2007/ 10)First public immersion school using Chinese in the state, state officials said.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/02/27/state_poised_to_ok_school_for_chinese_immersion/Boston has three public dual-language schools, specializing in Spanish, but the proposed charter may be the first public immersion school using Chinese in the state, state officials said.
11)Department of Education violates the Constitution to silence those who disagree with its agenda of high-stakes testing.
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/testingassessment.htmlDepartment of Education violates the Constitution to silence those who disagree with its agenda of high-stakes testing. Kohn, author of "The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools," published by Heinemann in 2000, said in a written statement that there is an urgent need for discussion on the downsides of testing at a time when the federal No Child Left Behind law is up for reauthorization. Department of Education Convicted. Superior Court Judge Hiller B. Zobel ruled the DOE violated Kohn's civil rights and ordered the state Department of Education to pay more than $155,000 in legal fees for violating the civil rights of Alfie Kohn noted standardized testing critic by preventing him from speaking at a conference. The state official's e-mail said "it was stupid" to use the state funds to support a speaker who is "diametrically opposed" to the state's agenda, according to court documents.
12) The Future of Wireless? Are you a Linus, Alien or a Bill? Want to turn your home router into a money maker? http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117743976135380805-ugbIv6vrdRus6E48TgO_xaeIWnk_20080429.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top If you have a Comcast internet connection you can become a "Foneros." A what? Comcast struck a deal with the Spanish company Fon, which provides Foneros with a custom wireless router that can be used to "share" your internet connection. Depending upon how you feel about sharing, you can be one of the following Fon classifications: Linus - Share your internet connection openly and you can jump onto the Fon wireless network for free whereever you find a connection or hotspot. Alien You don't share your access and have to pay $2 or $3 dollars anywhere a Fon connection or hotspot is available. Bill You open up your wireless connection to anyone that wants to pay, a.k.a., "Aliens," and split the revenue with Fon. 13) The Privacy Coalition - Speak out agains Real ID http://www.privacycoalition.org/stoprealid/ Take Action! by May 8thTo take action and make your voice heard, submit comments against the fundamentally flawed national identification scheme. The draft regulations to implement the REAL ID Act are open for comment until 5:00 PM EST on May 8, 2007. The comments can be submitted in one of three ways:
Online through the Federal Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov(search for "DHS-2006-0030-0001" and follow the instructions for submitting comments); Fax to 1-866-466-5370. Your fax must state that you are submitting comments in response to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking DHS-2006-0030. Postal Mail sent to Department of Homeland Security; Attn: NAC 1-12037; Washington, D.C. 20538. Your letter must state that you are submitting comments in response to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking DHS-2006-0030.
14) Lax security led to TJX breach http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/04/txj_nonfeasance/ A wireless network that employed less protection than many people use on their home systems appears to be the weak link that led TJX Companies, the US-based retailing empire, to preside over the world's biggest known theft of credit-card numbers. Despite a market capitalization of almost $13bn, it appears the company couldn't afford to secure its Wi-Fi network with anything more robust than the woefully inadequate Wired Equivalent Privacy protocol. (The much more secure Wi-Fi Protected Access has come standard on most routers for four years now.) It also failed to use firewalls or install software patches and disregarded requirements imposed by Visa and MasterCard concerning how card information is stored and transmitted. According to a front-page article in today's Wall Street Journal [1], the nonfeasance allowed hackers to use a simple telescope-shaped antenna and a laptop to intercept data flowing through a Wi-Fi network used at a Marshalls discount clothing store near St. Paul, Minnesota. 15) Interview with Harlan Carvey,Author of Windows Forensic Analysis http://www.andrewhay.ca/archives/112 After speaking with Harlan Carvey on several online communities we both frequent he agreed to be interviewed on Windows forensics and his new book: How did you get into forensics? I started in the commercial infosec arena as a consultant doing vulnerability assessments and pen tests. At one point, I started working for a company, and a forensics guy needed some assistance. With something of a security background and a clearance, as well as some technical knowledge, I helped out and began to see the other side of the coin. I began to see the early stages of understanding that Locards Exchange Principle applied to the digital world just as well as the physical world. 16) TSA hard drive with employee data missing http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070504-110814-4615r.htm The FBI is investigating a data-security breach at the Transportation Security Administration involving the bank records and other personal data of 100,000 employees, including airport screeners and federal air marshals. "This is considered serious," a Homeland Security official said on the condition of anonymity. "We've turned this place upside-down today to find the missing laptop." However, the agency released a statement referring to the missing item as an external hard drive, and said officials on Thursday became aware it was missing from a controlled security area at the headquarters of its Office of Human Capital. The files on the hard drive include the archived records of employees and their Social Security numbers, dates of birth, financial allotments and payroll information.