Permission to think? No! Someone patented all the ideas

I find most software patents ridiculous. Patents were designed to promote growth by encouraging inventors to share their work and offering royalties in exchange. Instead, patents have become a rat race for intellectual ownership of common ideas. There is a finite number of viable solutions to any given problem. As a computer programer I rarely find myself facing a unique problem; the solution is almost always on stack overflow. Patent Trolls quietly buy up the copyrights to the common solutions, then come out from under their bridge to sue anyone who has solved the problem in the same way. If these companies buy up all original ideas, and sue anyone who thinks the same way, our nation will be left in a state of endless stupor.

Show, Don't Tell - Proving Your System Security

In reading The Cuckoo's Egg, by Clifford Stoll, I was surprised that Stoll’s hacker gained most of his success by exploiting simple oversights in system administration.  This hacker would check generic accounts like username: guest, password: guest. In about one of twenty attempts he would succeed. Interestingly, most current cyber attacks also take advantage of simple oversights. The foremost of these involve SQL injection, a well-known and easily preventable attack. Amazingly SQL injection is the culprit for the majority of data theft and loss on the web. The outside world tends to view strong cyber security as being reliant on bigger and better programs, when in reality security stems from informed, vigilant system administrators. To me, it seems that any secure company needs a division devoted to solely to penetration testing. To those who claim their system is secure, I say prove it! What kind of hackers have you thwarted? How many companies have tested your security? Software and architecture mean nothing, only once a system has held up against thorough penetration testing should a system be labeled secure. 

Public Privacy?

A school district in California is paying $40,000 to monitor public posts by students. As students tweet and post pictures on Facebook, the data is being sold to monitoring companies that process and flag suspicious content. Through the aid of this program this school district has been able to detect suicidal students and provide counseling. Cyber-bullying and drug abuse are also kept on the radar. Internet monitoring programs raise an interesting question. Should there be such a thing as public privacy? Is it right for social media networks to sell access rights to my public content? While these questions have many people concerned, the bottom line is that social media is public. While a photographer must obtain written permission to publicly use your photo, we preemptively forfeit this protection as we accept online terms of use agreements. Best to learn quickly- public posts are never private.

Police, schools tap social media to track behavior

Family History, Meet Social Networking

Family History is being revolutionized by the rapid growth of social networking. With new tools available on familysearch.org a person can upload pictures and stories of their ancestors. As you trace your genealogical line you can learn all kinds of information about your heritage. You have the chance to connect with other descendants who are interested in the information you have to share.  Genealogical work used to be a compartmentalized effort, but now participants can feel the excitement of working with people around the globe as they work to build the family tree of the human family. What a blessing it is to live in this modern age! 

A Shiny, Internet-Crippling Snare

A shiny new device named The AdTrap hit the market last month. This device sits between your computer and router. The box intercepts content sent by ad agencies and remove it before it can reach your computer. AdTrap is even able to remove the ads before youtube videos. Many people see this as a kick back against the targeted advertising and information gathering prevalent among internet advertising companies. While this device looks to be a powerful protection from advertisements agencies, it also has a potential to maim the internet. Many free web-services depend on ads to generate revenue. Websites will have to fight against the AdTrap by further intermingling ads among their content, resort to other more pervasive (and annoying) means of generating revenue, or cease to exist. The AdTrap may just cripple the internet with its snare.

http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/adtrap-ad-blocker-butkus-russell-online-advertisements/