Government/Regulations

First candidates had to worry about fallout from receiving campaign fund contributions from questionable donors. Now, they've got to worry about getting rightful donations at all!  The problem of phishing has been a threat in past races, but I'm not surprised that the 2008 presidential race it is still a danger, especially because today's candidates are more actively pursuing donors via the Net. Not only can savvy supporters of one candidate actively divert opponents' contributors to bogus sites, but the donors themselves may arrive at the wrong sites all on their own.

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Privacy lovers who thought the Democrats would put an end to the controversial NSA wiretapping and Internet-tapping program should feel let down today. The Democrats are lining up to let the NSA continue to wiretap and read mail without court approval.

The New York Times reports that Democratic proposals "would maintain for several years the type of broad, blanket authority for NSA eavesdropping that the administration secured in August for six months."

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Happy Thanksgiving, Eh? It's Columbus Day's IT Blogwatch: in which Target gets a spanking for not being accessible to the blind. Not to mention why grass snakes can be deadly...

Linda Rosencrance and Dan Nystedt are very much alive: [You're fired -Ed.]

A federal judge last week ruled that Target.com, the home page of retailer Target Corp., must be accessible to blind persons under California laws. The ruling could extend state and federal disabilities statutes to the Internet, experts said. At the same time, Judge Marilyn Patel, of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, certified a lawsuit filed against Target by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) as a class action on behalf of U.S. blind Target.com users.
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The national and California NFB organizations, along with blind college student Bruce “BJ” Sexton, filed a lawsuit last year alleging that Target had failed to make its Web site accessible to the blind and then ignored the issue when confronted with complaints. The lawsuit contends that Target.com violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ... [which] require retailers’ Web sites to help blind patrons shop in a company’s physical stores ... and two California statutes ... [which] require that commercial Web sites allow handicapped persons to perform the same tasks as other patrons.

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Doctor it hurts when I write Friday's IT Blogwatch: in which Microsoft launches HealthVault (beta). Not to mention a hysterical twist on Dance Dance Revolution...

Grant Gross gives:

Microsoft Corp. has launched an online health care service designed to help patients take control of their health records and monitor their medical conditions. Microsoft's HealthVault, announced today in Washington, will allow users to store and share health records online, to collect and manage health data on a variety of home devices, and to search for health information.
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The HealthVault applications, available for free on the HealthVault Web site, are designed to allow patients to share their information safely and easily with health care providers and manage their health issues, such as weight loss and long-term diseases, Microsoft said.

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There-there. Don't cry, it's only Thursday's IT Blogwatch: in which Microsoft releases the source to .NET. Not to mention a periodic table table, made of wood...

Paul Krill feeds the whales: [You're fired -Ed.]

Opening up to developers, Microsoft Corp. is releasing its .Net Framework libraries under the Microsoft Reference License, which allows viewing of source code but not modification or redistribution, the company said on Wednesday. The release gives developers the opportunity to better understand the inner workings of the framework's source code, Microsoft said. Microsoft's efforts fall under the company's Shared Source initiative, which allows for sharing of source code; Shared Source has been viewed as Microsoft's answer to open-source, in which users can view selected source code.

Microsoft also plans to introduce a capability in the upcoming Visual Studio 2008 developer tools package to allow .Net Framework developers to debug into .Net Framework source code ... The final release of Visual Studio 2008, which is due later this year, will support the ability to configure the debugger to dynamically download the .Net Framework debugger symbols and corresponding source code from a Web server hosted by Microsoft ... Visual Studio 2008 also will include support to automatically retrieve .Net Framework source files on demand from Microsoft. This means source code for the ASP.Net GridView and BaseDataBoundControl classes cited by Microsoft do not have to be already installed on the machine before the debugger is started.

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That’s not our headline. It was suggested today by someone on the Department of Homeland Security Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report mailing list after it started a spam-like inbox flood. 
 
Here’s the story: DHS provides a daily summary of news items for its mailing list subscribers,  which includes people with security and disaster response roles, vendors and news media. But its mailing list was misconfigured today. Anyone who hit "reply all" reached everyone one the list,  triggering some 200 emails -- and counting.   The temptation to reach out was too much.  It quickly became a big networking party. (Although as time went on, frustration mounted prompting more and more people to send emails to everyone on the list asking everyone to stop sending emails to everyone on the list.)

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Wow! It's Wednesday's IT Blogwatch: in which we're really, really excited about a laptop battery that lasts 30 years. Not to mention  an awful, awful performance from Commander Riker hawking enterprise IT automation software...

A breathless Next Energy News reports:

Your next laptop could have a continuous power battery that lasts for 30 years without a single recharge thanks to work being funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. The breakthrough betavoltaic power cells are constructed from semiconductors and use radioisotopes as the energy source. As the radioactive material decays it emits beta particles that transform into electric power capable of fueling an electrical device like a laptop for years.
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Betavoltaics generate power when an electron strikes a particular interface between two layers of material. The Process uses beta electron emissions that occur when a neutron decays into a proton which causes a forward bias in the semiconductor. This makes the betavoltaic cell a forward bias diode of sorts, similar in some respects to a photovoltaic (solar) cell. Electrons scatter out of their normal orbits in the semiconductor and into the circuit creating a usable electric current.

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Civil libertarians have reason for hope: Congress has opened an investigation into the way in which AT&T and other telecoms participated in a potentially illegal NSA wiretapping and Internet-tapping program.

The Committee on Energy and Commerce has asked AT&T, Verizon and Qwest to provide details about how they cooperated with the NSA's secret plan to get information about customers’ telephone and Internet use. The request is part of a larger probe into the entire NSA program.

The telecom industry is clearly in the committee's cross-hairs, although Congress at the moment is treading lightly, blaming the feds rather than the industry itself for privacy violations.

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It's a phony Friday's IT Blogwatch: in which Apple's update is disabling iPhones, left right and center. Not to mention IKEA's new range of Ninja weaponry...

Gregg Keizer unlocks the news:

The iPhone firmware update released Thursday by Apple Inc. has disabled unlocked iPhones and wiped clean any evidence of unauthorized third-party applications ... Apple [had] warned customers that unlocked iPhones might be crippled, or "bricked" by the new upgrade ... it appears the company made good on its promise.
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iPhoneSIMFree, a group of unnamed developers who created the first commercial unlock hack, confirmed the bricking ... The 1.1.1 update also disables third-party applications installed on the iPhone using the popular Installer.app hack ... [as well as] non-iTunes ringtones, also added to iPhones using end-around software.

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I've been travelling on business again and am yet again dismayed by the treatment of customers (like me) by the airlines and the airports.

First off, I'm really not sure of the benefit of the electronic check-in machines for anybody who has luggage to check in. You arrive at the check-in area and they push you towards the electronic check machines (which, I'll agree, are really impressive), but if you have luggage you have to go through the electronic process and then wait in a similar sized queue just to drop off your bags. It doesn't seem to save you a whole lot of time.

Second, the security is getting to the point of being onerous. I left from Frankfurt and went through boarding pass control, security (including taking off belts, watches etc, and removing the laptop from my bag and having it 'sniffed' for explosives). Then I bought some drinks and sandwiches before going through the final checkpoint, passport control.

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I know the government needs money, but I don't think they should expect to levy an Internet access tax. According to this press release today, congress is being urged to extend a freeze on taxing Internet access as well as certain e-commerce transactions. When I look at my telephone bill I already see way too many taxes levied - most of which I'm not clear about as they aren't explained very well. To add another tax for just logging on would perhaps dissuade some consumers from connecting at higher speeds, or from connecting at all for that matter.

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Owners and managers of all types of companies will say in secret that they prefer employees who are recent immigrants or foreign nationals over natural born American citizens.  The following are anecdotes from interviews with some local businessmen and women in South Florida.

The owner of a construction company says that he pays a team of Mexican-American subcontractor who employs recent legal immigrants more than his own American workers because their work is consistently impeccable.  When he hires American workers, regardless of how much he pays them, they may show up or they might not on any given day.  Their work may be poor or excellent depending on their mood.  One outstanding American worker demanded twice the normal salary and worked well for two weeks, then disappeared with over $500 worth of materials, never to be heard from again.  Now that housing demand has lowered, he has a painful decision to make.  He can either keep the Mexican-American subcontractors and stay in business or keep his own crew of American workers and risk losing his business entirely.

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Show me the money! It's Tuesday's IT Blogwatch: in which the One Laptop Per Child gang give in, allowing ordinary Joes to buy one. Not to mention the risks of medical treatment abroad...

Nancy Gohring (with fried egg) reports: [Stop making this silly joke -Ed.]

Some of the low-cost PCs designed by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) for kids in the developing world will go to people in North America. That's the result of a program the group plans to launch on Monday that will let U.S. and Canadian residents pay $400 for one laptop to keep and one to give to a child in a developing nation.
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The offer will start on Nov. 12 and run through Nov. 26 ... Mass production of the laptops is scheduled for October, with the first units landing in the hands of kids around the world in early November ... The initial run will generate 40,000 units and production will quickly double and triple that capacity to meet demand.

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Is Unisys a weak spot the the governments security armor?  Unisys does quite a bit of contract work for the government, and they have also been involved in a couple of investigations of security problems.

About three months after the major VA problem with millions of veterans' data being lost by a VA employee, a desktop was stolen that contained the records of around 38,000 veterans.  It was in the care of Unisys, who is a contractor for the VA.

Now you have a Congressman asking for investigations into Unisys, claiming that they were responsible for the DHS network being hacked and information sent to a Chinese-language website, and it looks like the FBI is obliging.

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