The Death of Privacy

There's been a couple of recent stories. Both of these I meant to blog about independantly but just never really seemed to get around to it, but in retrospect, there's probably a lot of context that I share.

The more that I get immersed in this technology, the more that I'm concerned that we're on a runaway freight train. I'm very worried that things will not get any better and as a matter of fact, things will just get exponentially worse.

The first article was that I read from the CEO from Google who recently half joked that as a matter of practice, people should change their names once they reach adulthood based on the premise that all of this online history would otherwise follow them around.

That in itself (in jest or in not) is just exceptionally chilling. As I've written in the past, these digital footprints that we leave cannot be erased.

Let's say that it just become practice that once one enters the working world, you create a new persona. What does that REALLY fix? Isn't that just fixing the symptom rather than the disease? If I have a new identify as I become 21, am I not going to have the same problem with privacy in another 10 years when I'm 31? There's something very fundamental here that needs to be looked at, and I know that I'm not the first person to have this concern.

The other article that really made me question privacy was where I read that there are government agencies that are openly using satellite photos (aka Google Earth and the likes) to "spy" on individuals. This is matter of fact. I don't recall where (but I will find the original article) but it goes on to state that in one instance individuals in the muncipal govenment scan photos to see if houses have undeclared pools or structures that have been built without building permits. There was one country - Greece I think - that openly admitted doing this, and the only reason why they were was because it was a cash grab - it was a way to increase the city coffers.

Can someone please stop this ride, I think that I want to get off now.

Literati eReader

As some of you who may have been following my blog for awhile, originally, I pooh-poohed the concept of eReaders.  Upon further consideration and signficant drooling and seeing users, I'm beginning to think that I might have been premature in my dismissal of them.

Latelly, I've been doing a little reading, just checking out the differences between them and what seems to distinguish between a good and a bad eReader. 

In an article today, I was reading about a new one coming to market by "The Sharper Image" called The Literati.  Okay - I'm getting intrigued.  I love the fact that it has WiFi access to it's bookstore (not all of them do).  Also liking the fact that the bookstore that can be accessed is powered by Kobo, so there's a bajillion books available there.  Nice little bells and whistles - little things like being to change the type from black on white to white on black depending on reading conditions.

Beginning to think that this is a possibility - just in time for the buy-a-Christmas-present-for-myself season.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/204170/sharper_image_brings_ereader_to_the_masses.html?tk=rss_news

http://www.literatireader.com/

Microsoft Bing Maps - Hot Dog!

I will just go ahead and file this one under "A Use for Technology that I Would Have Never Conceived Of".

In Portland, they are incorporating the latest and greatest technology in conjunction with Microsoft Bing Maps. Apparently, there are a number of vendor foodcarts that are outfitted with auto-Twitter feeds (that in itself - wow - as they would say in 'The Princess Bride' "Inconceivable")! What is pretty interesting is that they're linking in these feeds with Bing Maps so that you Portlanders (Anna - is that the right term? lol) can see in real time not only where each cart is, but what their speciality is as well. Now THAT is a great use of technology. Get it incorporated it here in Toronto and I can do a real-time scan of food carts close to me and what they're serving. Oh - some of the carts are also intelligent enough to transit what they're out of, so if you've got a hankering for a Polish Sausage, you can see if your local vendor has any.

Apparently, they're also integrating FourSquare into this information so that in addition, you can see which of your buddies might be busting their diet and noshing on a 'dog or two.

2b or not 2b that iz the ?

This in itself is bound to raise the ire or some. It quite simply is known as txtspk (text speak). It is either the bane of all society for those that disapprove of it, or a wonderful way to separate themselves from the “older generation” for those that use it as part of their lives.

As part of the “older generation”, my first thought is that txtspk is not an appropriate way to communicate. Certainly, in today’s business environment, it is not acceptable (at least, not yet). To a certain extent, I feel that it portrays a certain amount of – ignorance might be a bit harsh – but at the very least, a laziness to communicate properly.

Txtspk began through both instant messaging and text messaging. The earlier versions of cell phones had no easy methods of writing text messages. The earliest cell phones allowed text messaging but it was extremely cumbersome as one had to use the numeric keys to type messages. Each number on the keypad had one of three letters, so the user had to “cycle through” each key to get the right letter. For example, to “type” the word later, they would have to press 5-5-5 (L) 2 (A) 8 (T) 3-3 (E) and 7-7-7 (R). Subsequent devices developed a mechanism called t9 which used predictive logic to guess what the likely word would be. Again, using the same example, the user would just have to press 5-2-8-3-7 and the system would be intelligent enough to predict that the most likely word formed with this sequence was “later”.

However, I think that the reason for the adaption for txtspk goes much deeper than this. Certainly the vast majority of cell phones today have full alphanumeric keyboards, so why would people still partake in txtspk? I think the answer is in how each younger generation attempts to distance it from the older generation.

Thinking back to when I was younger, we didn’t have txtspk, but we did have our own jargon – our own lingo. We would never dream of expressing ourselves in the same way as our parents, and I think that to an extent that is what is happening with txtspk.

As I mentioned, from a very fundamental (and probably archaic!) point of view, I don’t approve of txtspk. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll do the occasional LOL or BRB, but for the most part, I try to express myself appropriately.

The reason why this whole topic came to mind is that I was on my way home one day and I saw an electronic billboard in front of a restaurant, where the message scrolled across “UR going to love us”. I thought to myself “Wow, this is a pretty sad statement of our society when businesses are using txtspk”.

There are a few things that come to mind though. One of the basic tenets of advertising is that it is mission critical to be able to communicate to your target audience. It made me realize that if this restaurant was targeting teens, then this is probably a very appropriate method of “delivering the message”.

The other thing that I considered was that our vocabulary constantly evolves. New words are added to our lexicon, and I’m certain that archaic words are periodically purged from our dictionaries. How many times do we read an article where an established dictionary has added new words? In essence, they are accepting these words as part of our every day vocabulary.

Think back again to the evolution of our literature. Now – for the most part, our literature is relatively young, but probably the most common (and older) piece that I can think of is the bible. Every so often, the bible (or portions of it) is rewritten to make the message more relevant. I wonder if one was to read some of the original documents from 2,000 years ago, how much of the vernacular used would make the message confusing to us.

Will the “modern classics” like Shakespeare or Charles Dickens need to be spruced up in the future as part of the vocabulary becomes extinct? It’s hard to say, but I will say this, technology stands still for no person. As much as we don’t to adapt, sometimes, we’re forced to, albeit with a kick and a scream.

I’m not convinced that txtspk is “good”, but I think that the reality of it (unfortunate or otherwise) is that it is here to stay.

I’m sure that there are many of them, but I did find this one website that gives a good translation of txtspk for whoever is interested (be warned that there is so profane language in it!).  http://www.internetslang.com/

In closing, all that I can say is TTFN – CYL8R (ta-ta for now – see you later!)

The Long Arm of the Law

Two unrelated stories in the news this week on how the coppers tracked down those of nefarious and questionable ethics and conduct.

In the first case, the thief accidently dropped his cellphone and they were able to track him down by calling the entry marked "Mom" in his phonebook to establish his identity.

The second guy - guys like this, it's probably good that his lack of intelligence is off of the streets. A bank robber who had escaped, sent an email to the local newspaper, mocking the police as there were all sort of inaccuracies that they had noted. Apparently, the only inaccuracy that didn't escape their attention was the general ease that someone can track you down based on your email address/IP address.

At least he won't be spreading his questionable gene pool (with it's inherent lack of intelligence) while in the slammer!

Rubik's Cube

As a kid growing up, I was right in the middle of the Rubik's Cube fascination, but sadly was never able to solve it (not that I spent a lot of effort on it)!

Apparently, a group of mathematicians have cajoled Google into giving them some computing power to try to come up with the ultimate solution.  Based on this computing power, they have come up with a solution that they say can be used to solve ANY cube combination in 20 moves.

First of all, I'm astounded that it can be solved in 20 moves, but most of all, as a software developer, I'd be really interested to find out how they came up with this solution.  The article goes on to state that there are 43 quintrillion (a billion billion) possible combinations, so they couldn't have gone with a "hit and miss" approach I wouldn't think.

The solution is apparently hosted at Cube 20.org and it actually goes on to talk about how they solved the problem.  I am thinking that I should probably make it a goal to get a Rubik's Cube and get this sucker solved!

Tablet PCs. What Exactly Am I NOT Getting?

Okay - I'm confused here - someone...help me out.  THE latest craze seems to be tablet PCs.  Now, from a marketing/technical perspective - what are these "meant" to be?  Are they basically a revved up iTouch with more sophisticated computing power?  Are they meant to be the "next-gen" for computing devices meant to render Notebooks obsolete?

Here's the thing - my biggest problem with tablet PCs is the keyboard.  It's partly that as a touch typist, I detest virtual keyboards (no tactile feedback and such), but it's more than this.  From strictly an ergonomic perspective, a tablet PC makes no sense other than as a casual & ultra-portable computing device.

Keyboards are monitors (ergonomically) cannot be on the same plane.  They just can't.  If the tablet is tilted as a screen normally is, then so is the keyboard.  For minimal typing, sure, that's fine.

I cannot fathom how someone can do serious data entry on a tablet PC.  Seems to be Carpel Tunnel Syndrome just waiting to happen.

Thanks - but no thanks.  As slick and sexy as the iPad and other tablet PCs are, I'll pass.  Instead, give me a freaking iPod Touch with more than 32gb capacity.  I need at least 64mb and probably higher.  I'm just very sick and tired of cycling music in and out.

Yes! Now I FINALLY Can Say it and MEAN It!!

Just read an article that Playboy has agreed to remove ALL girlie pictures and risque content from their iPod/iPad apps to conform to Apple's standards.

Now if only I had had access to this version of Playboy as a young lad, I would have been truthful that I was only reading it for the articles :)

WikiLeaks - Pushing the Boundaries of Freedom of Speech

I've generally been pretty cautious about censorship in general.  I think that diverse opinions are integral in an democratic society.

I'm a little concerned with WikiLeaks though.  From what I've seen, their posting of military documents puts lives at risk and I'm just not convinced that freedom of speech should exist to this extent.  From what I've gathered, not only are military plans that are supposed to be highly classified being disclosed (potentially putting servicemen at risk) but I also have read that some of the documents name individuals in Afghanistan who have supplied information about the Taliban, and the Taliban can now use this information in retaliation.

All that having been said, one of the biggest problems of the Net is that even if it deemed that Wikileaks doesn't have the right to publish this information, how on earth can this be enforced?  I'd be very interested in talking to someone with experience in this area of law, but I wonder if an American resident publishes information through an ISP in a "neutral country", are the individuals liable or are they governed by the laws of the country where the ISP exists?

Blog Stats

Recently, Blogger.com has introduced traffic stats for their blogs. As a relatively small and likely rarely read blog, I find it interesting that there is some "international" traffic to TecHumanity. It's nice to dream and imagine that traffic is going to reach a "tipping point".

Aside from the US (Portland - is that you? lol) and Canada, I show some (minimal) traffic from Denmark, Russia, Ukraine, South Korea and Latvia of all places but they could just be spiders or bots. If these are real people, then drop by and introduce yourselves :)

FAIL - 101

Working away right now...I move my mouse, but the mouse pointer on my screen isn't working...Damn! My computer's frozen! Hmm - maybe my mouse is out of batteries (cordless).

No - wait. I've been sliding my cellphone on my desk, not my mouse. Never mind lol

An Interesting Dilemma

Stephen Hawking went on record as saying that the human race needs to abandon Earth and expand to other planets to ensure their contued existence. That's all fine and dandy, but the thought just occured to me. How on earth (as a saying, not literally!) can we have the infrastructure of technology on a new planet? Think of the logistics of this. I originally half in jest thought of there being no Internet access on NewEarth, but think of the ramifications of society having to revert to a technologically stunted environment.

I ponder how long it would take to get an infrastructure in place to support the technology that we're used to.

But then again, the thought of having a technologically immature society isn't all together unappealing.

...and in Today's SPAM

I can choose to:
- get breast implants
- join an art school
- get a free travel kit when I join the American Association of Retired Person, despite the fact that I am neither American nor Retired
- hire a local contractor to paint
or
- become a social worker.

I just LOVE spam and how it enriches my life.

I think that I'll go with the art school!