Cognitive Dissidents

U2 manager takes Internet providers to task

Paul McGuinness, longtime manager of rock band U2, has called on Internet service providers to immediately introduce disconnection policies to end illegal music downloads and urged governments to make sure they do.

I think what he means is that people who download anything by "U2" should be cut off - possibly he has other motives in saying that - but I don't, because I regard "U2" as an overhyped rock band with second rate tunes that I won't waste my money on - let alone my bandwidth.

Basically I am so sick of "Bozo" and his third rate rock combo that if I never hear any U2 tune again it will be too soon - and as for having yet another rich little ego twit thinking he can save the world - I have a message: "Grow up and ditch the self-narcissim thing before you end up like a certain other celeb that is as crazy as you"

Tags: pseudo caring, twat, bozo, overweening narcisissm, bob geldof, how big are your houses, what is your carbon footprint, perfect convert for scientology, mainstream media garbage, its like rock maaan

Posted by Dr. K at 5:29 PM | Permalink

Just to make the point that the Iranians are somehow important in the "New Great Game" - I found this article which shows how Iran is being courted by both Russia and China.

Does that sound at all familiar?

A China base in Iran?

China's strategy is confined to the port city of Gwadar along the southwestern coast of Pakistan in Balochistan province, strategically located near the Hormuz Strait. Yet, due to the close US-Pakistan relations, it is highly improbable the US would permit Islamabad to enter into strategic relations with Beijing so that China, still lacking a formidable navy, could utilize it for power projection in the region.

Not so with Iran, which is constantly threatened by the US, and now France, and which already enjoys observer status at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), headed by China and Russia. Iran's bid to join the SCO has been stalled partly as a result of the standoff over its nuclear program, but will likely succeed in the not too distant future should the present patterns of Iran-Russia and Iran-China cooperation continue.

Regarding the latter, China has already surpassed Germany as Iran's number one trade partner. Sinopec, China's largest oil refiner, has just finalized a multi-billion dollar deal to develop the giant Yadavaran oil field, and this is in addition to the "deal of the century" contract for natural gas from Iran's immense North Pars field. Chinese contractors are also busy constructing oil terminals for Iran in the Caspian Sea, extending the Tehran metro, building airports, among other projects. And this while China arms sales to Iran have included such hot items as ballistic-missile technology and air-defense radars.

The growing Iran-China cooperation on the energy and trade fronts is bound sooner or later to spill over into more meaningful military cooperation and, in turn, this depends to some extent on the ebbs and flows of Iran-US and China-US "games of strategy", particularly if China feels additional pressure from the US on the geopolitical front.

For sure, Iran's willingness to show a greater willingness than hitherto to embrace China's naval vessels making port calls to Iran is now in the cards, this as a prelude to more extensive agreements up to and including provisions for a small Chinese naval outpost on one of Iran's Persian Gulf islands.

Read it all

Tags: china, russia, iran, nuclear weapons, threat, wwiv, cold war, old cold war, new cold war, the great game

Posted by Dr. K at 2:30 PM | Permalink

Is Ahmadinejad setting a trap for Israel and the US?

The Israel Air Force has managed to use that capacity with amazing skill and daring, as it showed last September when a dozen fighter bombers and support aircraft jammed Syria's Russian-supplied air defenses and destroyed a secret nuclear facility on the Euphrates river --- not far from Iran. The nature of that target has still not been revealed, but it must have been important enough to risk triggering a missile attack from Syria. That means the target was believed to be very important: most likely a joint Iranian-Syrian-North Korean nuclear facility.

In a very odd move, the Syrians are now rebuilding that mysterious concrete cube in exactly the same location --- even though the whole world knows about it now. Why should they spend vast amounts of money doing that, if it would only become another fat target?

One possibility is that it's a trap for IAF jets. Surround the concrete cube with enough new Russian anti-aircraft missiles, back it up with radars based on Russian ships that just happen to be doing the biggest naval exercise in years right now in the Mediterranean, and provoke another attack by announcing another nuclear breakthrough. It could be a baited ambush.

The whole thing smells like an Ahmadi-Nejad shell game, with Russian help: put your nuclear materials under a dozen different giant concrete shelters, and dare the enemy to attack all of them, without knowing which one has nuke materials. All of the sites would be heavily defended with state-of-the-art Russian anti-aircraft missiles. Not just one trap for attacking aircraft, but a dozen or more.

Tags: russia, iran, nuclear weapons, threat, wwiv, cold war, old cold war, new cold war, the great game, energy security, uranium prices

Posted by Dr. K at 2:06 PM | Permalink

• Nitesh Dhanjani
  (tags: security blogs phishing cyber-threat)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:41 AM | Permalink

• SANS Internet Storm Center; Cooperative Network Security Community - Internet Security - isc
  (tags: security internet hacking cyber-threat)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:40 AM | Permalink

• Free Press Release Distribution
  Interesting tool that enables companies and other people to publish press releases on the net
  (tags: pr pressrelease marketing free internet publicity self-promotion)
• Hacker's Handbook v3.0 (aka "The CyberThreat Handbook")
  PRLog do press releases online
  (tags: cyber-threat pr press-release publicity advertisting)
• warkit.pdf (application/pdf Object)
  Warkitting: the Drive-by Subversion of Wireless Home Routers
  (tags: cyber-threat hacking security)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:35 AM | Permalink

Whisky in the morning for Ken as sleaze row claims first victim - UK Politics, UK - Independent.co.uk

For years, Ken Livingstone has been the immovable face of London politics. Yesterday, as an avalanche of sleaze allegations engulfed his office and forced the resignation of a key aide, his position had never looked more precarious. Even for a man who thrives on controversy, the capital's Mayor has not had a good week.

A slew of accusations, including that he fortifies himself with whisky during morning question and answer sessions with members of the London Assembly – have sparked doubts that his astonishing political career can last beyond the mayoral election in May.

Mr Livingstone has cheerfully owned up to that particular habit, but he added: "I don't think I've ever reached Winston Churchill's levels, and as it didn't impair him in the destruction of the greatest evil facing humanity, it won't interfere with my continuing to lead Londoners to the sunny uplands of the future."

Tags: whiskey, whisky, red ken, ken livingstone, alcoholism, for medicinal purposes only, sun over the yardarm, denial, unblended malt, blended malt, blended whisky, cheap whisky, cheap alcohol, aa

Posted by Dr. K at 6:48 PM | Permalink

Record labels seek piracy clampdown

The record industry has called on internet service providers and governments to take stronger action against digital piracy, after revealing that another year of strong digital growth had failed to compensate for the continued slump in CD sales.

According to the 2008 IFPI digital music report released today, global sales of digital music via the internet and mobile phones grew by 40% to an estimated $2.9bn (£1.48bn) last year.

Some of the ongoing structural problems of the music industry date back to its delayed and confused reaction to the emergence of file-sharing and digital distribution at the turn of the century.

Tags: piracy, copyright violation, theft, crime, digital canon

Posted by Dr. K at 11:22 AM | Permalink

• hacksafe / penetration testing / tools / techniques
  (tags: hacking cyber-threat)
• sqlninja - a SQL Server injection & takeover tool
  (tags: security sql sql-injection cyber-threat)
• The Metasploit Framework
  (tags: security metasploit exploit hacking cyber-threat)
• WebInject - (HTTP) Web Application and Web Services Test Tool - Downloads and Release History
  (tags: hacking exploit cyber-threat)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:51 AM | Permalink

More fallout from the Tom Cruise Scientology Video - as a German historian likens Tom Cruise to Goebbels ..

German historian compares Tom Cruise speech to Goebbels

Guido Knopp, an expert on Second World War history, told Bild newspaper that Cruise's address to his fellow Scientologists "inevitably" recalled Goebbels.

Mr Knopp was referring to a video recording of a sermon Cruise delivered to Scientology members four years ago that surfaced on the YouTube website this week.

The Mission Impossible star asks fellow members of the church: "Should we clean this place up?"

Mr Knopp said it was bound to remind Germans of Goebbels' notorious speech in Berlin on February 18 1943 when he asked the audience: "Do you want total war?".

Mr Knopp said: "It may be the case that Cruise's delivery style is not uncommon in certain religious movements in the US.

"But for Germans with an interest in history, that scene where he asks whether the Scientologists should clean up the world and everyone shouts 'yes' is inevitably reminiscent of Goebbels' notorious speech."

Scientology - already referred to as a "sect that exploits its members financially" is under investgation in Germany ...

Tags: tom cruise, scientology, bare faced messiah, hubbard, oto, crowley, parsons, osho, bhagwan shree rajneesh

If you want to get an overview of Scientology read "Bare Faced Messiah" about the life and times of L.Ron Hubbard - a hack SF author who had links with the OTO and Crowley (although Crowley - to his credit - disavowed LRH) - and which the Scientologists tried to suppress ...

.. and no - I am not an "SP" - I just make links between the behaviour of Hubbard in his final days with the behaviour of other "cult leaders" such as "Bhagwan" (recently rebranded as "Osho") who died owning nearly 100 "Rolls Royce" cars donated by his followers ..

Posted by Dr. K at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

• Two AI Pioneers. Two Bizarre Suicides. What Really Happened?
  Excellent article from Wired about AI, the pressures of academia and suicide ...
  (tags: science ai mit)
• Smithsonian Magazine
  (tags: magazine history science art smithsonian)
• Siege of Sidney Street
  (tags: revolution anarchy history london europe)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:39 AM | Permalink

This made me LOL - I particularly liked the idea of "elephant mules" who swallow "up to six elephants at a time" to supply the black market in illegal elephats ..

What’s big, grey and gets you arrested?

What’s big, grey and gets you arrested? Keeping an eye on the news pages, I note with relief that the Government has, finally, made it illegal for anyone to keep an elephant in the back garden. While it would, perhaps, have been ideal for them to have implemented the ban before Christmas - the period when pressure to buy an elephant, as a gift, is most intense - it is good to see that, ultimately, sense has been seen.

For those regretful that they didn’t buy a six-tonne pet before the loophole was closed, there is little comfort. Now you’ll never be able to have that gigantic Diwali elephant parade from the patio to the shed. Not while keeping your respectability, anyway.

Because, yes, there will still be back-garden elephants available. It’s just that their purchase will now, inevitably, follow an established path: a black market will spring up to service the continuing demand.

Just as there are drugs mules, so, now, there will be elephant mules - flying out to Africa, swallowing up to six elephants at a time, then flying back into Gatwick or Heathrow, bearing their illicit cargo. Certain pubs and clubs will become notorious for then fencing the gear - although working out which ones these are should be fairly simple, given that it wouldn’t work anywhere much smaller than the Ministry of Sound, and all guilty venues will have huge piles of dung outside them, consisting of 28 per cent peanuts, 72 per cent buns.

What I’m sure will be most concerning our law enforcement agencies, however, is the knock-on effect of criminalising domestic elephant use. Plunged into a seething underworld, desperate elephant users may find that keeping an elephant ultimately proves to be a “gateway activity”. The more vulnerable in our society may well attempt to keep even more extreme things in their back gardens: a herd of impala. Six million locusts. Volcanoes. A major tributary, or swamp.

Indeed, watching the news reports last week on the flooding in Tewkesbury, I think I may have detected an active hotspot for the last of these already. And all because of a lack of joined-up thinking at No 10. Whoever said that being in government was easy?

Tags: humour

Posted by Dr. K at 2:01 PM | Permalink

Via Slashdot

"Researchers at the University of East Anglia are working to develop computerized lip-reading systems. Lip-reading is extremely hard for humans to master, but a software-based system has several benefits over even the most highly trained expert. The ultimate goal of the project is to convert lip-read speech into text. 'Apart from being extremely helpful to hearing-disabled individuals, researchers say that such a system could be used to noiselessly dictate commands to electronic devices equipped with a simple camera - like mobile phones, microwaves or even a car's dashboard. England's Home Office Scientific Development Branch ... is currently investigating the feasibility of using lip-reading software as an additional tool for gathering information about criminals or for collecting evidence.'"

Tags: software engineering, false positives, false negatives, computerised surveillance, 1984, endemic surveillance society

Posted by Dr. K at 11:27 AM | Permalink

• Mus (card game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (tags: games cards spain)
• Robbie & Helen's space
  (tags: travel morocco biking adventure africa blog photo-blog)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:34 AM | Permalink

• Analysis of Buffer Overflow Attacks
  (tags: buffer-overflow security internet cyber-threat)
• Japan's Ancient Underwater "Pyramid" Mystifies Scholars
  (tags: history archaeology forteana)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:40 AM | Permalink

• Sita Ram Goel
  (tags: india politics religion hinduism)
• Voice of Dharma
  eBook collection for people interested in India, Hinduism, and History
  (tags: hinduism india history religion)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:37 AM | Permalink

Scientologists try to block Cruise YouTube rant

Scientologists are attempting to block the spread of a video clip in which Tom Cruise zealously espouses his faith in the church.

"If you're on board, you're on board, just like the rest of us," he tells those of wavering faith. We are the authorities on getting people off drugs, we can rehabilitate criminals and unite cultures," he says.

Mr Cruise's emotional testimonial is accompanied by a guitar riff playing the theme from Mission: Impossible. Cruise, a Scientologist for 20 years, has recently emerged as one of the controversial church's most outspoken proselytisers. Some suggest that the actor, 45, has been elevated to one of the highest echelons of the secretive church, cryptically known as OT-VII.

Tags: scientology, tom cruise, mission impossible, lalo schifrin, copyright, copyright violation, cults, heretics, bare faced messiah, oto, black magick, crowley, hubbard

Posted by Dr. K at 12:03 PM | Permalink

• Al-Qaeda’s 007
  (tags: cyber-jihad cyber-threat hackers)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:44 AM | Permalink

Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software - Times Online

Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence.

The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees’ performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer’s assessment of their physiological state.

Technology allowing constant monitoring of workers was previously limited to pilots, firefighters and Nasa astronauts. This is believed to be the first time a company has proposed developing such software for mainstream workplaces.

Microsoft submitted a patent application in the US for a “unique monitoring system” that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read “heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure”, the application states.

The system could also “automatically detect frustration or stress in the user” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”. Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker’s weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he needed help.

The old question - "who watches the watchers?" comes to mind.

How will monitoring "heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure" help produce a better and more productive workforce?

Worse still - could the manipulation of these parameters within the software of this new "Working Police" be used to make a more compliant (but less productive) work-force ??

Either way - very soon we all will learn to chant "I Love Big Brother, I Love Big Brother" - because the software that records all this will let "Big Brother" (or even "Little Brother") know when we are telling the truth or not ..

The implications of this kind of monitoring are too vast to explore in one post - but right now I would expect an upsurge in colleges that teach Zen Buddhist meditational techniques to enable workers to hide their real feelings and hack the system ...

Now repeat after me "I love little brother, I love little brother" ...

Tags: intrusive monitoring, zen buddhism, microsoft, 1984, big brother, little brother, quislings, total surveillance, endemic survellance societies, corporate sllaves, the new feudalism

Posted by Dr. K at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Dozens in Texas town report seeing UFO

STEPHENVILLE, Texas - In this farming community where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO.

Several dozen people — including a pilot, county constable and business owners — insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.

"People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times," said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts."

While federal officials insist there's a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object's lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object.

Machinist Ricky Sorrells said friends made fun of him when he told them he saw a flat, metallic object hovering about 300 feet over a pasture behind his Dublin home. But he decided to come forward after reading similar accounts in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.

"You hear about big bass or big buck in the area, but this is a different deal," Sorrells said. "It feels good to hear that other people saw something, because that means I'm not crazy."

Sorrells said he has seen the object several times. He said he watched it through his rifle's telescopic lens and described it as very large and without seams, nuts or bolts.

Tags: ufos, fortean, urban myth, power and control, media blackout, conspiracy

Posted by Dr. K at 2:04 PM | Permalink

FBI wants instant access to British identity data

The US-initiated programme, "Server in the Sky", would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the "war against terror" - the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy.

Biometric measurements, irises or palm prints as well as fingerprints, and other personal information are likely to be exchanged across the network. One section will feature the world's most wanted suspects. The database could hold details of millions of criminals and suspects.

Britain's National Policing Improvement Agency has been the lead body for the FBI project because it is responsible for IDENT1, the UK database holding 7m sets of fingerprints and other biometric details used by police forces to search for matches from scenes of crimes. Many of the prints are either from a person with no criminal record, or have yet to be matched to a named individual.

...

The FBI is proposing to establish three categories of suspects in the shared system: "internationally recognised terrorists and felons", those who are "major felons and suspected terrorists", and finally those who the subjects of terrorist investigations or criminals with international links. Tom Bush, assistant director at the FBI's criminal justice information service, has said he hopes to see a pilot project for the programme up and running by the middle of the year.

Tags: big brother, endemic survelliance society, 1984, security theatre

Posted by Dr. K at 9:42 AM | Permalink

Organs to be taken without consent - Telegraph

The proposals would mean consent for organ donation after death would be automatically presumed, unless individuals had opted out of the national register or family members objected.

As if ID cards and lost data weren't a problem for the UK government - they are now committing themselves to yet another register of people - which, of course, we can trust - won't just be a money pit but will also ensure data security ...

I can just see it now - the "Death Register" makes the mistake of saying that you are dead and the "Opt-Out Register" can't find your name - the next thing you know they are cutting out your kidneys for resale recycling and the guy with the scalpel is saying "Sorry - but I'm just doing my job. See - your name is on this list (holds up deathlist printout) and this list (holds up unreadable fax copy of portion of opt-out list) and therefore - your kidneys are mine!!"

Wouldn't happen? Try reading this ...

Tags: IT failure, overblown IT projects, UK, organ transplants, jobsworth

Posted by Dr. K at 11:56 AM | Permalink

Afghan clerics want to clean up TV by banning soaps - Times Online

New television stations have proliferated in the past three years, offering a mix of hard-hitting news, which is often critical of the Government, and light entertainment shows, which draw the wrath of religious hardliners.

Tolo TV, Afghanistan's first commercial channel, shows three Indian dramas, The Story of Every House; The Trials of Life; and Because a Mother-in-Law Was Once a Daughter-in-Law Too. Some channels show as many as six daily. Clerics accuse the dramas of encouraging “stone-worship” even though Hindu images are pixellated and scenes of Hindu worship are cut.

The hardliners also oppose Tolo TV's pop programmes - Hop, a local MTV-style show, and Afghan Star, a talent contest.

After meeting the President, an Islamic council spokesman said: “The unrestrained programmes on TV have angered and prompted the ulemas [scholars] to react. Hop ... is spreading immoralities and hurts the sacred religion of Islam. Afghan Star encourages immorality ... and is against Sharia.”

Tags: hinduism, islam, afghanistan, intolerance, censorship, god porn

Posted by Dr. K at 12:57 PM | Permalink

The phrase "Por que no te calles?" - "why don't you shut up" - which was uttered (very publically) by King Juan Carlos to Hugo Chavez has enterered massively into Spanish media conciousness.

Not only do we have t-shirts and mugs (inevitable) - but also slippers with the phrase printed across - I guess they will do bras and socks next ..

Meanwhile the obsession with all things Chavez manifests itself on Spainish TV - which today asked the question "Are Hugo Chavez and Naomi Cambell lovers?"

This was based on the recent interview by Naomi of Hugo where it is reported he offered to pose "topless" like Putin and stated that his fashion leader was Fidel Castro "His uniform is impeccable. His boots are polished, his beard is elegant."

Of course this is the same piece of Spanish "telebasura" that also feigned shock and horror at the recent "Spice Girls" London show because of its "lesbian" tendencies ...

Suffice it to say that Spanish TV is no better and no worse than any other TV I've watched in the rest of the world - a bit like reading a "RedTop" but with visual bubblegum ...

Tags: hugo chavez, naomi cambell, fidel castro, telebasura, television

Posted by Dr. K at 10:55 AM | Permalink

Medco sys admin gets 30 months for planting logic bomb

A former systems administrator at Medco Health Solutions Inc. was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison today for planting a logic bomb that could have taken down a corporate network that held customer health care information.

Yung-Hsun Lin, 51, of Montville, N.J., was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J. Lin, who faced a maximum of 10 years in prison, pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud in September. He was responsible for programming and maintaining the servers at Medco, where he worked from 1997 to 2005.

This "young hacker" - only 51 - has just been found guilty of planting a "logic bomb" in the systems where he worked ...

Tags: hackers, hacking, logic bomb, litigation, prison, cyber-criminals

Posted by Dr. K at 5:55 PM | Permalink

Sounds like a pair of drunken chipmunks ...

The Yorkshire Ranter

Incredibly, years after Professor Ross Anderson's successful war with the banks forced them to admit first that card fraud existed, secondly that it was a problem, and thirdly that one major bank's IT department was implicated, and finally to replace the system, one of his PhD students is having to refight the war all over again - this time, because the banks are trying to deny that it is possible to breach Chip-and-PIN. Despite the existence of multiple security breaches, notably the failover attack in which readers are sabotaged so that the chip cannot be read, and the reader instead reads data off the back-up magnetic stripe, which is then used to make withdrawals in a non-PIN country, the yes card attack, in which a fake card is prepared whose chip responds "yes" to any given PIN, and the possibility of large-scale reader subversion (at least one type of card reader uses a small linux OS which can be remotely managed over a wide-area network; if the administrator security is compromised, an online attacker could do anything they liked with them. These are the ones involved in the Shell security breach), they are still trying to claim infallibility.

.. but is still not secure ...

Tags: wtwu, chipmunks, chip and pin, insecurity, not fit for purpose, rants

Posted by Dr. K at 5:18 PM | Permalink

I don't know - but I'd never heard of "Ron Paul" until this US election frenzy - but would you vote for a man who says this???

Ron Paul Statement on The New Republic Article Regarding Old Newsletters — Ron Paul 2008

For over a decade, I have publicly taken moral responsibility for not paying closer attention to what went out under my name.

Not doing anything about it - and yet claiming to have taken "moral responsibilty" for "not paying closeer attention to" - sounds like Ron Paul should be signing up for the "Nu-Labour" incompetence project that has been running in the UK for some years now ..

I have a new slogan for supporters of Ron Paul - "Ron Paul - Not Fit For Purpose ...."

Tags: ron paul, joined-up-government, spin-doctors, nu-labour

Posted by Dr. K at 2:00 PM | Permalink

The Secret Cause of Flame Wars

According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I've only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.

"That's how flame wars get started," says psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, who conducted the research with Justin Kruger of New York University. "People in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance," says Epley.

The researchers took 30 pairs of undergraduate students and gave each one a list of 20 statements about topics like campus food or the weather. Assuming either a serious or sarcastic tone, one member of each pair e-mailed the statements to his or her partner. The partners then guessed the intended tone and indicated how confident they were in their answers.

Those who sent the messages predicted that nearly 80 percent of the time their partners would correctly interpret the tone. In fact the recipients got it right just over 50 percent of the time.

"People often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they 'hear' the tone they intend in their head as they write," Epley explains.

At the same time, those reading messages unconsciously interpret them based on their current mood, stereotypes and expectations. Despite this, the research subjects thought they accurately interpreted the messages nine out of 10 times.

Email and IM are not responsible alone - if you don't know a person well enough to "get" their sense of humour - even interactions in "meatspace" can go astray very quickly ..

Tags: new flesh, cyber wotsits, communication, body language, email

Posted by Dr. K at 12:29 PM | Permalink

• Anti-Phishing Working Group
  (tags: security phishing internet spam)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:41 AM | Permalink

• Michel Danino - The Indus-Sarasvati Civilization and its Bearing on the Aryan Question
  (tags: india archaeology indus-valley)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:33 AM | Permalink

Stolen: Top secret entry codes to 73 police stations | the Daily Mail

Top-secret entry codes to some of Britain's biggest police stations have been stolen in an astonishing Scotland Yard security blunder.

The details - which gave confidential keypad access numbers to 73 police stations across London - were stolen from a car owned by a worker for a vehicle-maintenance contractor.

The disclosure raises disturbing questions about how highly sensitive information is being treated by private firms working for public bodies.

The security bungle on December 28 was so serious that the Metropolitan Police's most senior operational commander was woken at 1am after officers realised the theft meant terrorists or criminals had potential access to 80 per cent of London's stations.

Mo

Tags: insecurity, stupidity, laughing stock

Posted by Dr. K at 3:54 PM | Permalink

FAA: Boeing's New 787 May Be Vulnerable to Hacker Attack

Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet may have a serious security vulnerability in its onboard computer networks that could allow passengers to access the plane's control systems, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

The computer network in the Dreamliner's passenger compartment, designed to give passengers in-flight internet access, is connected to the plane's control, navigation and communication systems, an FAA report reveals.

The revelation is causing concern in security circles because the physical connection of the networks makes the plane's control systems vulnerable to hackers. A more secure design would physically separate the two computer networks. Boeing said it's aware of the issue and has designed a solution it will test shortly.

What Boeing should do it hire in some hackers to do a proper "penetration test" on the networks before allowing passengers anywhere near the thing.

As for the other "technical solutions" which were "proprietary" we all know that this type of "security through obscurity" never works - somewhere in the technical manuals for this plane - which are vital to all the maintenance engineers - there will be enough details to figure it all out.

Tags: boeing 787, hackers, stupid ideas

Posted by Dr. K at 10:58 AM | Permalink

Not fit for purpose: £2bn cost of government's IT blunders | Technology | The Guardian

The cost to the taxpayer of abandoned Whitehall computer projects since 2000 has reached almost £2bn - not including the bill for an online crime reporting site that was cancelled this week, a survey by the Guardian reveals.

The failure of the multimillion pound police site marks the latest chapter in the government's litany of botched IT projects, with several costly schemes biting the dust. Major blunders overseen by Downing Street have included the Child Support Agency's much-derided £486m computer upgrade - which collapsed and forced a £1bn claims write-off - and an adult learning programme that was subjected to extensive fraud.

Top of the ministries for wasting public money is the Department for Work and Pensions, which squandered more than £1.6bn by abandoning three major schemes - a new benefit card which was based on outdated technology; the upgrade to the CSA's computer which could not handle 1.2m existing claims; and £140m on a streamlined benefit payment system that never worked properly.

You could not make this up!! Why is the UK so incapable of getting IT right? How can we trust them to build new projects like ID cards and the proposed child registration database when they are so utterly useless at other projects?

Of course we already know we can trust them with our data - now we know we can trust them with major IT projects as well.

What we really need to do is start sacking the incompetents in charge of these projects - but given the way things work they are more likely to get promoted above their ability and end up with a "K" instead ...

Tags: it, government incompetence, government waste

Posted by Dr. K at 10:54 AM | Permalink

• SQL Injection Cheat Sheet
  (tags: sql security injection reference)
• Next-Generation Win32 exploits: fundamental API flaws
  (tags: shatter win32 exploit vulnerability)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:46 AM | Permalink

• Leading surveillance societies in the EU and the World 2007
  (tags: privacy surveillance 1984 statistics UK)
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Boom times for hi-tech criminals
  (tags: cyber-crime cyberthreat hackers)
• Charles Sheehan-Miles
  ... has just given away e-rights to his ebook ... the "digg effect" will help of course ...
  (tags: ccc writing freeware ebooks)
• Psychology Today: Dreams: Night School
  (tags: psychology dreams theory)
• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan | Music, Lyrics and English Translations
  Possibly the best Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan site on the web ...
  (tags: music qawwali nusrat)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:38 AM | Permalink

Advertising analysts lay their cards on the table - Times Online

Internet search is expected to contribute up to three quarters of all advertising revenue growth this year, while traditional media stagnates, according an influential industry forecaster.

WPP’s GroupM predicts that advertising will grow by 6 per cent in 2008, but without the contribution from Google and other search engines, the rate of improvement across other media would be only 1.5 per cent.

Internet advertising will also come close to overtaking television advertising in 2008, emphasising how fast the new medium has become a mainstream means of promotion. This year internet spending is predicted to hit £3.4 billion, up from £2.6 billion in 2007, on GroupM’s estimates.

The "Internet ad-boom" is only going to work if the utility of the services doesn't approach zero ... once spam-infested email and "drive by" infections become the norm - people will treat adverts on the web like they do viruses now ..

Tags: advertising, cyber-culture, south sea bubble, insecurity, data-theft, spam, viruses

Posted by Dr. K at 11:57 AM | Permalink

• Assassinated because she was a woman | The Australian
  (tags: islam pol)

Posted by Dr. K at 12:32 AM | Permalink

Pamela Bone says it all - yet again.

Assassinated because she was a woman

ARE women across the world mourning Benazir Bhutto? They should be. Not because she was a saint; she wasn't. She was at least a beneficiary of the billions stolen by her husband from the people of Pakistan. Nor did she do anything much for Pakistani women during her two periods of leadership, declining even to try to repeal the infamous Hudood laws whereby rape victims can be punished for adultery.

She should be mourned not because of what she was but because of what she symbolised. Her death was a political assassination, not an honour killing, as some have said.

Nevertheless it was a reminder of what we face. Bhutto was murdered because to her enemies she was Westernised, a traitor to her culture and an American stooge. She was murdered because she had vowed to bring secularism and democracy to Pakistan. She was murdered because she was all these things, and a woman.

"I know I am a symbol of what the so-called jihadists, Taliban and al-Qa'ida, most fear," she wrote in her autobiography, Daughter of the East. "I am a female political leader fighting to bring modernity, communication, education and technology to Pakistan."

Tags: bhutto, pakistan, islam, feminism, womens rights

Posted by Dr. K at 6:09 PM | Permalink