Technological Anesthesia

The topic for this article came to me in a flash as I was innocuously talking about movies with a colleague of mine. We were talking about Remembrance Day and she was telling me how she couldn’t watch “Saving Private Ryan” as it was just too much for her; it was just much too intense. My response to her was that she’s very correct, that it’s an extraordinarily powerful movie and it wasn’t easy to watch. Further, I went on to say that I had a feeling that what Saving Private Ryan portrayed was probably very close to reality. My thoughts were that I didn’t mind the fact that movie was so graphic because the intent was to show how horrible war was – that the reality wasn’t John Wayne shooting some guy with a ten gallon hat who dropped down in a very tidy and dainty death.

Now, this started me thinking…

As a teen, I was a big fan of Star Trek. This conversation reminded me of one of my absolute favourite episodes. In this particular episode, the gang from the U.S.S. Enterprise was called upon to try to resolve a war between two feuding planets that had been going on for centuries. As Captain Kirk began to understand the situation, he came to the realization that these two societies had come up with a creative and “civilized” manner of warfare.

Instead of resolving their disputes with conventional warfare, each side had a computer which randomly selected citizens from the other planet. These chosen few dutifully marched towards the chambers where they were zapped into non-existence. The uppity-ups of society applauded this approach saying how humane, cost-efficient it was, not to mention the total lack of collateral damage. Kirk’s inevitable end of episode soliloquy stated that THIS was the whole problem – that they weren’t experiencing the travesty and the destruction of war so they didn’t have the incentive to resolve the conflict.

I relate this episode to something that I call technological anesthesia. Simply put, excessive use of technology in our day to day lives can numb our senses and distort reality.

There was a recent study where doctors noticed a phenomena where young male adults who normally are…how shall I delicately say – enamored with the thought of the physical attributes of the opposite sex are actually being diagnosed with withering sex drives. Their findings are that in many of these cases, these are men who spend just a bit too much time viewing the plethora of pornography online, and as a result, they’re quite desensitized.

There’s another aspect of technological anesthesia which becomes increasingly prevalent, and this is what are referred to as “trolls”. A troll is a term for someone who logs into a message board and posts something inflammatory or offensive, just to cause a ruckus. Many times when on message boards, there are “flame wars” or insults lobbed back and forth between combatants. The problem is that when we interact online, we often forget that there are actually people on the other end – all that we see are the digital personas and such, who cares if they’re offended or hurt by our words? It goes without saying that if you took all of the citizens of one specific inflammatory message board and put them all in a room and forced them to talk and engage with each other, I think that it’s safe to assume that the bravado which is displayed online would not be nearly as common, lest someone get a poke in the nose otherwise.

In my mind, this in a nutshell is one of the biggest problems with online communication, interaction and social networking. We have lost that humanity and are only seeing the bits and bytes of letters flowing across the screen without giving due consideration that the other person is someone’s daughter, someone’s father or someone’s aunt.

Tyrannosaurus Techs

There are many that believe that one of the contributing factors to the demise of the dinosaurs is the fact that from an evolutionary perspective, they were unable to adapt. In today’s society, this is exactly the context in which we refer to the same concept with people, products or companies today.

I find that with technology, it’s not always easy to adapt. I think that one of the main reasons why, is that technology grows at an ever-increasing pace and we simply don’t have time to get accustomed or to with the new technology. This is – I believe – one of the primary reasons why there is resistance to technological change. There is a comfort level that we have, with what we’re accustomed to, and to have that pulled out from under our feet can be very disconcerting.

However, this change is for most intents and purposes inevitable. Not to say that everyone has to adapt to technological change right away. If existing technology fits within your particular lifestyle, then all is good. As a matter of fact, I think that sometimes people that are able to buck the trend a bit have a certain charm!

I sometimes get asked what the impetus is for the subjects of my articles. For the most part, it’s just very random thoughts or experiences in my daily life.

In this instance, I was riding the subway and in the age of iPods and Blackberries and various other MP3-ish type of devices, I was just totally amused by the gentleman who was listening to music and then pulled out his CD player from his pocket, took out the CD and inserted a new one. As someone who listens to a lot of music, I was just aghast, I can’t imagine just having 3 or 4 CDs of music with me, but that’s just me. If this is how he enjoyed his music, then all the power to him.

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, I’ve seen so much change in technology. This rapid rate of change isn’t isolated to my generation – it will continue to escalate in the generations of my children, and their children.

This is what makes it important to remain open-minded with regards to technology. I think that this is ever more critical when working in the technology sector. Not only is it necessary to keep up to date with technology professionally, but to a very large extent, one has to be very forward thinking and be able to anticipate where the technology is going.

It’s like when we buy that new computer – based on the current “newest technology”. How often do we get the computer home and we are benefitting from the latest and greatest? And how long is it before we sit there, mumbling and cursing at this dinosaur on the desktop, while casting a sideways glance at the latest offerings from Dell?

I think that the biggest lesson that I’ve learned from having thought through this article is that it is critical to identify where I need to stay current and not to be a technological dinosaur. However, I think what is also equally important is to be able to take a look at those aspects of technology where maybe it’s okay for me to stay within my comfort zone. As I see how many different aspects of technology are changing, I’m gaining the wisdom to realize that I can’t, nor should I, try to keep up with all technology.

Instead, I will pick and choose where I need to stay with the crowd, and where I’ll be equally comfortable being the equivalent of the guy on the subway listening to his CD player.

Caught With My Technological Shorts Down!

Okay, not really a great visual to start off with for this article, but probably very appropriate.

One of the things that I’ve noticed with technology is that it changes gradually. Technology builds upon existing technology and improves on it. Very rarely – if ever at all, has there been an instance where I’m totally taken aback by an advance in technology. Like a biological evolution, it is very gradual. After all, when man lost his tail, it’s not like we (as in our ancestors, obviously not us!) woke up one morning to find a pile of tails on the ground!

There has been an innovation that has totally caught me by surprise, and quite honestly, the more that I am exposed to this technology, the more amazed I am. I believe that we are the cusp of an innovation that will – without being overly dramatic – change the course of our society.

What I refer to is a new technology called 3D Printing. Now, I think that this term is actually misleading and it does this a great disservice. When I first read the article headline, I was thoroughly unimpressed enough that I didn’t even bother reading through to the body. In my mind, I was thinking that this is a cute way that we can print our bar charts and pictures of kitties that it would be an advance that has some benefit, but really didn’t have any meat and potatoes to speak off.

However, the next day, I saw another article and I was curious enough to read through the article and what I read just amazed me. This technology is more about creating solid 3 dimensional objects out a digital specification of an object. Before I continued to read through, I thought that this was interesting, but not yet beneficial as I imagined that the “printer” was essentially creating a play-doh’ish kind of object that looks like the original.

Once again, I was wrong. There are many videos of this technology on YouTube. The one video that I saw was that they took a normal metal wrench and had it scanned in 3 dimensions. They then “printed” this wrench and then they demonstrated that the item was functional – they took this wrench and they tightened a bolt using it.

The latest “wow” factor is another article that I read recently was that in the UK, they used this technology to design and build components for a small kit-sized airplane. When all of the parts where completed, they were snapped together without using any tools, and the plane can not only fly but it can fly up to speeds of 100mph. For those interested, the link for the article is http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2023469/Aeroplane-created-using-3D-printer-world-Scientists-create-aircraft-100mph-max-speed.html. 

This is mind-boggling technology. I’m sure that it is very expensive and time-consuming, but in its infancy, most technology is.

The ability to prototype products will be phenomenal. This will allow designers and production staff to be able make quick changes and tweaks to the design of their products.

This technology will not just be rainbows and butterflies though; there will be numerous legal issues. For example, in the case of the wrench – if I purchase the wrench, I don’t have the right to be able to make a copy of it. The company that created the wrench spent numerous hours and dollars in product development and as such, this will be a real concern.

Where this would be an incredible technology is in the health-care sector. Can you imagine being able to go to the dentist’s in the future and if you need a partial denture, they can scan your teeth and produce an EXACT replica of each tooth? I’m sure that having the denture being exactly the same will make this so much easier. What about if someone needed to have their leg amputated? At least an exact replica of the existing let could be made and it should be so much easier to adapt.

We’re well on our way to the age of Star Trek and I anxiously wait for my replicator!

Paper Ghosts

For those of you who read my articles, you’ll perhaps notice a trend that I’m a great fence-sitter when it comes to the good and the bad of technology. Not that there’s anything particularly wrong about that – I think that it’s good to remain open-minded and see the pros and the cons of any situation or issue. However, as I thought about the subject of this article, I’ve come to the conclusion that this article will be a bit different and I will present a very definite opinion on thais subject.

There is an old saying that a ghost is a spirit that roams this earth because it doesn’t know that it’s died yet.

My recent revelation is that we have such a ghost among us now. This spirit that does not know that it has died a quiet and slow death is paper. I might surprise some people with the arguments presented here, especially with my love of reading and my *ahem* advanced number of birthdays. As I think along these lines, I see that technology has advanced to the degree where paper is not as necessary and in a lot of respects, it hinders us.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve obviously grown up with paper and I love the thought of a printed book, and I certainly can’t imagine my weekend routines with an early morning coffee and going to the front door to get my paper, but the benefits of the electronic age far outstrip the nostalgia of being able to hold printed paper.

Were paper to be made obsolete – basically eradicated from our world, would I miss it? Absolutely. The romantic side of me loves the theory of printed page, but I like to think that I’m pragmatic enough to accept its demise.

Through my lifetime, I’ve seen typewriters, adding machines and ledgers (physical paper based) having died a quiet death and we’ve managed just fine. Where all files were stored in file cabinets, there can be no doubt that our technological replacement of a database has given us capabilities that just simply weren’t possible with filing cabinet storage.

Paper has a wonderful feel and smell to it. Especially with a handwritten note you can get so much out of not only what was written, but how it was written and the underlying emotions and passion that you’d rarely see in an email. None of that is disputed. But the stark reality is that as a society, we evolve, and if we don’t evolve, we become extinct. Either or our tools become obsolete – or we do.

I’m not suggesting that paper will ever truly disappear from our world, but it is lost the vast majority of its usefulness and it has come to the point where it hinders us more than helps us.

Much like my “Cash is King” post, we need to accept technology into our lives and use it to whatever extent that we deem necessary.

When the ballpoint pen replaced the fountain pen which replaced the quill, I’m sure that there was equal uproar and concern about losing that esoteric aspect of our lives. We adapted and realized that the older way of doing things were wonderful, but totally impractical as a tool when we have so much more at our disposal.

To further illustrate my point (and yet, I know that I’m dating myself again!) I remember distinctly doing up assignments on a typewriter. When I made mistakes, I had to use white-out or replace the ribbon of the typewriter with the eraser ribbon and retype white powder over my mistakes.

It’s wonderful to be nostalgic – there’s nothing wrong with that but we need to keep in mind that we’re meant to expand our horizons – that one of the things that differentiate us from so many animal is our ability to use tools to grow.

Stupid Scam/Spam 101

Received an email today stating that I had a "express delivery" sent to me and that there was an attached file which included the tracking number and other delivery information.

Rule #1:  If you're going to try that scam, then do not let the recipient see that you've also sent it to numerous other parties.  Am I supposed to believe that we all have packages and that somehow the tracking number is the same for all of us?  How exactly is THAT supposed to work.

Rule #2:  Use a spell checker.  It's not that complicated of a technology and not using it destroys credibility, especially when you spell "adress" and "buisness".

Rule #3: Stop being such a dumb-ass.  Have you not figured out that people are not going to click on an attachment which supposedly contains the tracking number (which was also in the body of the email!).  Any reputable delivery organization would call, or at the very least give a 1-800 number for you to call to arrange for delivery.

I swear, people like this give scammers a bad name!

Security Breach - Redux

I don't think that it's a coincidence that a lot of my later articles have dealt with how security is implemented and the issue of security breaches.

I read an article today that I thought was very relevant to one of my points in the blog entry Multiple Locks -- One Key.

Within it, I mentioned that there one of the ways to work around using the same password on all sites without having to remember them all is to use a password manager.  Further, I go on to say that the only problem with this approach is if you use an online password manager, and it's security is breached, then all of  your passwords are potentially vulnerable to theft, which more or less defeated the purpose of having unique passwords.  The way around this is to have a standard prefix or suffix on all of your passwords, and don't write that -fix anywhere.  My example would if you added -@nan12w to all of your passwords.  That way, if the password manager was compromised, the full passwords wouldn't be.

Well it turns out that I wasn't far off the boat on this one.  The password manager site LastPass sent out a notice to their client that "they're not sure, but they think that their system was breached" and that users should keep this in mind and remain ever diligent.  This in itself bring up another interesting problem - as these attacks become more sophisticated, we may have instances where these companies are not even aware that their security has been breached.

This issue of security and protection is not going to go away.  Like it or not, we all have to remain sophisticated and intelligent and always try to make sure that our information is protected to the best of our abilities.  Quite obviously, these companies aren't doing a good enough job.

The Persistent Shadow

Regardless of the day and of any technologies in society, there will always be a segment of our population who would rather make their career out of subterfuge instead of putting in a hard day’s work. Unfortunately, that will always be the case.

There is a security leapfrog when it comes to those that are trying to protect our information and those trying to acquire it. As the ne’er-do-wells find some mechanism or scheme to steal our money, the guys in the white hat put in a process or technology to make it much more difficult for the criminal element to succeed. Of course, once this has been done, then the scammers go right to work looking for ways to circumvent the current security scheme.

One thing that has become readily apparent over the past few months is that fraud has become big business.

In the past, many of us had to deal with unsophisticated attempts by the fraudsters. It took no time for the vast majority of us to figure out that it was highly unlikely that we were the beneficiaries of some Nigerian will, or that we had won $5,000,000 in some lottery in which we had never bought tickets. Possible benefits from the fraudulent attempts were low; at the most, an individual might be duped out of a few hundred dollars.

In recent months, it has become evident that these attacks are more planned an d deliberate. Where fraudulent activity in the past was based on the concept of sending out millions of emails containing malware or that contained phishing attacks, there is a new gangster in town, and this one takes a more deliberate and patient approach. Not only is it more cost effective, but I believe that what they are finding is that the potential for reward is much higher.

Where the mindset of electronic fraud has undergone a fundamental change is that instead of attacking the consumer, the targets are now the holders of our data – the corporations that house our identities and financial information in their database. This type of fraudulent activity will become more and more common.

The other aspect of corporate database fraud that makes it more attractive to criminals is that it is an active attempt to break into the company data banks. The unsophisticated fraudulent email approach was very passive. All that the individual could do is to sit there and hope that 1 in a million individuals actually fell for the scheme.

Recent security breaches in the corporate world are not anomalies; these will be more and more common. A couple of months ago, a global player in the recognition & reward sector had their database breached, exposing individual names, addresses and other confidential information belonging to major credit card and reward program customers.

For the past two weeks, the entire Playstation network has been down as there was a significant security breach in their database as well. It’s currently believed that at least 100,000,000 (yes…one hundred million) subscribers were exposed. What makes this even more alarming is that it is believed that this theft of data has included credit card numbers, expiration dates and banking information. When one considers the value of 100,000,000 customer profiles, it becomes evident that for these individuals, even if it took them six months to plan an attack and to infiltrate an organization, the potential benefit far exceeds the cost.

On my way in this morning, there’s something else that I’ve realized and I think that this in an important point to keep in mind. There are many people out there that don’t necessarily purchase goods or services online and perhaps they think that they’re not at as much risk. The thing to consider is that anyone is at risk of having their information illegally accessed if their records appear in a corporate database.

The next time you go for an oil change, or swipe your rewards card at Indigo, or purchase an extended warranty at Futureshop, always keep in mind that the vast majority of your transactions with a company will be recorded in their database.

The sad reality is that all of us need to be continually diligent to checking banking or credit card transactions and doing a periodic review of our credit score and record.

Gone are the days of cash transactions, where a purchase transaction ended with the transfer of goods and cash.. The persistent shadow of fraud is our new reality and it is our responsibility to make sure that we practice due diligence to know who we deal with and how they protect our data.