Eideard

Users of online social network sites such as Facebook are editing their pages and tightening their privacy settings to protect their reputations in the age of digital sharing, according to a new survey.

About two-thirds, or 63 percent, of social networking site users questioned in the Pew Research Center poll said they had deleted people from their “friends” lists, up from 56 percent in 2009. Another 44 percent said they had deleted comments that others have made on their profiles, up from 36 percent two years before.

Users also have become more likely to remove their names from photos that were tagged to identify them. Thirty-seven percent of profile owners have done that, up from 30 percent in 2009, the survey showed.

“Over time, as social networking sites have become a mainstream communications channel in everyday life, profile owners have become more active managers of their profiles and the content that is posted by others in their networks,” the report said.

The Pew report also touches on the privacy settings people use for their profiles. The issue of online privacy has drawn increasing concerns from consumers, and the Obama administration has called for a “privacy bill of rights” that would give users more control over their data.

Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed said their main profile was set to be private so only friends can see it.

Another 19 percent said they had set their profile to partially private so that friends of friends can see it. Only 20 percent have made their profile completely public.

The headlines in many articles on this topic describe folks was becoming “less social”. I’d say they’re just getting more sensible. Especially as reaction from members of the various networks react negatively to tales of broad swathes of info having been boosted by greedy marketers – positively as networks respond to criticism by offering more choices to limit distribution of personal demographics.

Photographer Mark Byron was so bothered by his pending divorce and child visitation issues that he blasted his soon-to-be ex-wife on his personal Facebook page…That touched off a battle that resulted in a Hamilton County judge ordering Byron jailed for his Facebook rant — or, to avoid the jail sentence, to post on his page an apology to his wife and all of his Facebook friends, something free-speech experts found troubling…

Hanni Fakhoury, a staff lawyer with the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the rulings are unique and “raise quite a few” free-speech issues…”There haven’t been a lot of cases that have dealt with this particular issue,” he said.

Mark and Elizabeth Byron had a son in July 2010, but their marriage soon became troubled. She accused him of verbally abusing her, threatening her with his fist and threatening to “end” her life. While Mark Byron, who has done freelance photography for The Enquirer, was exonerated of criminal allegations, a civil protective order was issued instructing him to stay away from his wife…

“… if you are an evil, vindictive woman who wants to ruin your husband’s life and take your son’s father away from him completely — all you need to do is say that you’re scared of your husband or domestic partner… , ” he wrote on Facebook.

Elizabeth Byron learned of the post — even though her husband had blocked her from viewing his page — and thought it violated a previous protective order that prevented Mark Byron from doing anything to cause his wife “to suffer physical and/or mental abuse, harassment, annoyance, or bodily injury…”

Domestic Relations Magistrate Paul Meyers found Mark Byron in contempt and ordered him jailed for 60 days beginning March 19 — or to post for 30 days on his Facebook page an apology to his wife, written by Meyers, if he wanted to avoid jail. He also had to pay her $1,156 in back child support and her lawyers’ fees…

“I didn’t think I had an option,” said Mark Byron, who has been posting the apology on Facebook for a week.

Har. The free speech question is an important one. Having a husband who’s an ego-smitten fool – and possibly dangerous – is another.

You can RTFA for the content of his new posting.

Facebook’s data center in Prineville, OR

Last December, people familiar with the matter indicated that Apple was “nearing a decision” to build a server farm in Oregon. After a filing with the Crook County clerk’s office emerged last week with Apple’s name on it, the Cupertino, Calif., company has publicly confirmed the development, which is known as “Project Maverick…”

“We purchased the land and it’s for a data center,” said Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet, adding that the facility will be “green.” Earlier this week, the company revealed in a Facilities Environmental Report that its massive server farm in North Carolina will utilize the largest end-user-owned onsite solar array and the largest non utility fuel cell installation in the U.S., making it the only facility in its class to earn LEED Platinum certification.

According to the report, county commissioners signed the deed for the purchase on Feb. 15, the same day that the state senate voted in legislation that removed an earlier threat of property taxes for data centers in the area.

Officials said they were bound by non-disclosure agreements and offered few details on the project, though one judge did say that he’s confident it will be “good for Prineville and Crook County.”

“These folks have been wonderful to work with,” said Judge Mike McCabe. “We will look forward to a long-term relationship with them.”

Apple’s facility will be just minutes from a Facebook server farm that opened last year. McCabe revealed that the social networking site “kind of helped recruit” Apple to come to Prineville. Facebook reportedly allowed Apple representatives to tour its facility last summer.

Keep on rocking in the Geek World. Oregon is one of those places where anyone who is hip should consider living – unless you prefer being as dry as I am in New Mexico.

God Bless America – and Mitt Romney

Political campaigns, which have borrowed tricks from Madison Avenue for decades, are now fully engaged on the latest technological frontier in advertising: aiming specific ads at potential supporters based on where they live, the Web sites they visit and their voting records.

In recent primaries, two kinds of Republican voters have been seeing two different Mitt Romney video ads pop up on local and national news Web sites. The first, called “It’s Time to Return American Optimism,” showed the candidate on the campaign trail explaining how this was an election “to save the soul of America.” It was aimed at committed party members to encourage a large turnout. The second video ad, geared toward voters who have not yet aligned themselves with a candidate, focused more on Mr. Romney as a family man. Versions of the two ads were seen online in Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina…

The technology that makes such customized advertising possible is called microtargeting, which is similar to the techniques nonpolitical advertisers use to serve up, for example, hotel ads online to people who had shopped for vacations recently.

In the last few years, companies that collect data on how consumers behave both online and off and what charitable donations they make have combined that vast store of information with voter registration records.

As a result, microtargeting allows campaigns to put specific messages in front of specific voters — something that has increased in sophistication with the large buckets of data available to political consultants…

Read the rest of this entry »

He cracked the Nazi Enigma code, helped end the Second World War and is recognised as the father of computer science.

But for his final challenge, Alan Turing turned his mathematical mind to one of the natural world’s most enduring riddles: how the leopard got its spots. Now, 60 years on, scientists have discovered that Turing’s theory for why repeated patterns occur in nature was absolutely correct.

In his 1952 paper The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis, the code breaker proposed that animals’ stripes and spots are caused by the interaction of a pair of chemicals, dubbed ‘morphogens’.

One of the chemicals, he suggested, triggered cell activity, while the other hindered it. The way in which they interact would dictate where cells grow, creating familiar patterns on the fur of animals.

While scientists have been able to simulate Turing’s theory using computer models, for the first time scientists have identified the exact chemicals in action.

Researchers at King’s College London found the interaction between two morphogens named Fibroblast Growth Factor and Sonic Hedgehog dictated the ridge patterns in the mouths of mice, as predicted by Turing’s models.

The same theory applies to the stripes and spots of big cats, the number of bristles on a fruit fly, or the whorls on a leaf.

Dr Jeremy Green, a reader in Developmental Cell Biology, said the discovery could help progress the next generation of stem cell therapy by indicating how to build complex structures such as organs in a laboratory…“Our study provides the first experimental identification of an activator-inhibitor system at work in the generation of stripes – in this case in the ridges of the mouth palate.”

While biological processes at work are highly complicated, the mathematics behind Turing’s theory was “ingeniously simple”, he said.

“He was a great British genius. He had the confidence to take a completely new field, biology, and ask, ‘What can I add to it?’”

The mathematician, who would have been 100 years old this June, was convicted of being a homosexual the month the paper was completed. He committed suicide two years later…

The reward of a bigoted nation for his efforts at stopping Hitler and winning WW2.

Do you lie awake at night expecting aliens to invade our planet? Perhaps you have nightmares after watching “Mars attacks!” or think Jell-O is now yuck after seeing “The green slime.”

Chances are, regardless of whether you are anxious about aliens or not, that it’s not something you think about when you buy a new computer or gadget. For example, have you ever thought about whether the warranty of your brand new computer is valid if (when?) the aliens arrive?

If that’s you, you should definitely not expect Taiwanese computer, component, and gadget manufacturer Asus to help.

Under the heading “Exclusions from your ASUS Warranty Extension Program including the WEP On-Site NBD Limited Hardware Warranty Service” we can read some of the usual things you would expect to find in this text…

But as we continue down the list of exclusions something more unusual appears: “There is damage caused by natural disaster, intentional or unintentional misuse, acts of war, space invasions, abuse, neglect, improper maintenance, or use under abnormal conditions.”

Uh, OK.

Thanks, Ursarodinia

I have been nominated by Mary Lupin (Tailfeather) and Craig Hill (Craig Hill) for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thanks to both of you for this recognition.

Mary offered this nomination several weeks ago – and being the hermit I am I tried to ignore her good will and thoughtfulness – she is a talented and perceptive writer. I guess that doesn’t insulate me from the natural social feelings among bloggers — because, now, here’s Craig doing the same.

I relent.

The rules of the Versatile Blogger Award are:

Add the Versatile Award photo on a blog post. Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post.

Share 7 things about myself.

I am a cranky old geek who’s been online since 1983
I am a cranky old radical/progressive/atheist
I live in a community just outside Santa Fe, New Mexico
I am of Scots and Italian descent
I learned to cook from the Italian half of the family
I learned to stand up against hypocrisy from the Scots half of the family
I believe firmly in love, music, nature, science

Pass the award along to 15 favourite bloggers. Contact the chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.

blog that should not be
Crossing Wall Street
Edge
exult49
Four Blue Hills
Misanthropic Scott
Motley News
Om Malik
photobotos.com
RealClimate
Sex, Spirit, Soul Mates and Chocolate….Ivonne’s Journey
The Stephen W Terrill [Music] Web Log
Tracie Louise Photography
Travel Photography by Dimitrii Lezine
Vikram Roy’s Blog

This list is in alphabetical order and no doubt I have missed some I enjoy and respect.

Daniel Gárate’s career came crashing to earth a few weeks ago. That’s when the Los Angeles Police Department warned local real estate agents not to hire photographers like Mr. Gárate, who was helping sell luxury property by using a drone to shoot sumptuous aerial movies. Flying drones for commercial purposes, the police said, violated federal aviation rules.

His career will soon get back on track. A new federal law, signed by the president on Tuesday, compels the Federal Aviation Administration to allow drones to be used for all sorts of commercial endeavors — from selling real estate and dusting crops, to monitoring oil spills and wildlife, even shooting Hollywood films. Local police and emergency services will also be freer to send up their own drones.

But while businesses, and drone manufacturers especially, are celebrating the opening of the skies to these unmanned aerial vehicles, the law raises new worries about how much detail the drones will capture about lives down below — and what will be done with that information. Safety concerns like midair collisions and property damage on the ground are also an issue…

“As privacy law stands today, you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy while out in public, nor almost anywhere visible from a public vantage,” said Ryan Calo, director of privacy and robotics at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University…

Drone proponents say the privacy concerns are overblown. Randy McDaniel, chief deputy of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department in Conroe, Tex., near Houston, whose agency bought a drone to use for various law enforcement operations, dismissed worries about surveillance, saying everyone everywhere can be photographed with cellphone cameras anyway. “We don’t spy on people,” he said. “We worry about criminal elements.”

Who determines who is an “criminal element”? You got it. Sheriff Randy McDaniel.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups are calling for new protections against what the A.C.L.U. has said could be “routine aerial surveillance of American life…”

“We see a huge potential market,” said Ben Gielow of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a drone maker trade group.

Anyone else see a huge potential for Uncle Sugar to watch over every waking moment of our lives spent outdoors?

Hackers based in China had “widespread access” to computer systems from Nortel Networks for almost 10 years, according to a Tuesday report from the Wall Street Journal.

The hack was carried out via seven stolen passwords that belonged to Nortel executives, the Journal said. Evidence suggests that the attacks originated in China and started in 2000. The cyberscammers managed to access “technical papers, research-and-development reports, business plans, employee emails and other documents,” thanks to installed spyware.

The Journal was made aware of the intrusions by Brian Shields, a former Nortel employee who led the investigation into the hacks…

As noted by security firm Sophos, Nortel changed the offending passwords, but didn’t do much beyond a rather fruitless, six-month investigation.

Sophos analyst Graham Cluley warned not to immediately point the finger at China, an easy target.

“It’s very hard to prove a Chinese involvement. Yes, the data might have been transmitted to an IP address based in Shanghai, but it is possible that a computer in Shanghai has been compromised by.. say.. a remote hacker in Belgium,” he wrote. “It’s all too easy to point a finger, but it’s dangerous to keep doing so without proof.”

Any serious geek – or principled journalist – knows that Graham Cluley is correct about determining where a hack originates. Not that the Wall Street Journal allows its writers who fit the first category to express the second. That is – not since Rupert bought the paper.

The serious question is what sort of Dumbos were running Nortel? Bad enough they waltzed around with passwords easy to crack – at the highest level of the company. They never did a thorough enough filtering of their system to deal with trojans left behind.

It’s no secret that the rise of smartphones, tablets and social networking has fostered an entirely new market for app developers, but a freshly released study has now attempted to quantify this impact, in terms of real jobs.

According to TechNet, a bipartisan network of tech execs, the so-called “App Economy” has created an estimated 466,000 jobs since 2007, when the iPhone was first unveiled.

The report specifies that this estimate includes all jobs at Facebook-focused companies like Zynga, as well as dev gigs at Amazon, AT&T and Electronic Arts, in addition to the obvious heavyweights, Apple and Google.

As far as geography goes, California leads the way as the most app-friendly state, though New York City tops the list of metropolitan areas. It’s not an entirely bi-coastal affair, though, with some two-thirds of all app-related jobs located outside of California and New York.

TechNet acknowledges that the App Economy “is only four years old and extremely fluid,” so it’s likely that these numbers will fluctuate in the years to come, though the organization says these numbers underscore a fundamental principle: “Innovation creates jobs, and in this case, lots of them.”

You can read the full report at technet.org.

And don’t get your shorts bunched figuring the numbers are going to diminish or decline. When it comes to the predominance of the mobile web – you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.