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Monday, August 31, 2009
US UNVEILS NEW RULES ON BORDER SEARCHES OF LAPTOPS
Washington: The Obama administration unveiled new rules for searching computers and other electronic devices when people enter the United States, attempting to address concerns about violating privacy and constitutional rights.
At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security defended such searches as necessary to detect information about potential terrorism plots as well as other crimes such as child pornography and copyright infringement.
"The new directives announced today strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders," DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement.
Between October 1, 2008 and August 11, 2009, 221 million travelers were processed at U.S. borders and about 1,000 searches of laptop computers were conducted, of which 46 were in-depth examinations, the agency said.
Searches often involve asking people to turn on the device to verify it is what it appears to be, the DHS said.
Privacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have pushed Congress to stop border officers from searching laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices without probable cause when people enter or return to the country.
The rules permit searches of such devices without a person's consent. The review is to be done in the presence of the owner, unless there are national security or law enforcement reasons to conduct it elsewhere.
Immigration and customs officers can also hold the devices or the data, which may be copied without the knowledge of the owner for further review, according to the rules.
The new regulations note that border officers should be particularly careful when handling legal or business materials or other sensitive data like medical records or information carried by journalists.
At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security defended such searches as necessary to detect information about potential terrorism plots as well as other crimes such as child pornography and copyright infringement.
"The new directives announced today strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders," DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement.
Between October 1, 2008 and August 11, 2009, 221 million travelers were processed at U.S. borders and about 1,000 searches of laptop computers were conducted, of which 46 were in-depth examinations, the agency said.
Searches often involve asking people to turn on the device to verify it is what it appears to be, the DHS said.
Privacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have pushed Congress to stop border officers from searching laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices without probable cause when people enter or return to the country.
The rules permit searches of such devices without a person's consent. The review is to be done in the presence of the owner, unless there are national security or law enforcement reasons to conduct it elsewhere.
Immigration and customs officers can also hold the devices or the data, which may be copied without the knowledge of the owner for further review, according to the rules.
The new regulations note that border officers should be particularly careful when handling legal or business materials or other sensitive data like medical records or information carried by journalists.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
MICROSOFT STRIPS TO SEDUCE LINUX
"The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion" said Albert Einstein.
When we look at relationships and the course history takes the past seems like an illusion wondering if it ever existed. It was just the other day that Microsoft and Open Source were bitter enemies.
One a packaged software corporate giant driven solely by profits. The other completely driven by passion by a group of geeks not even under the same roof.
In 2001, Microsoft had said "Linux is cancer." A few years MS started decided to apply balm to heal the cancer and mend its relationship with Linux through its Open Source initiatives. Its 2009 now and Microsoft, the once closely guarded organisation is stripping its soul, literally, to woo Open Source by releasing 20,000 lines of Linux code to the Linux kernel community in the name of interoperability something not even Bill Gates could imagine 10 years ago!
In Perspective
Imagine if one fine day India and Pakistan decide to get together and exchange their nuclear documents for the common good of the citizens of the sub-continent. Sounds unbelievable, right?
Microsoft and Linux have been the same. Besides ideological differences in terms of software creation, ownership and distribution there must be rarely a common ground between them. Microsoft's Chief Steve Ballmer in 2001 had said, "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches."
Linus Torvalds, father of Linux OS, on the other hand, led a one man army and created an entire guerilla front of geeks separated by geography but bound by passion that in time became the biggest threat for the biggest organisation on earth, Microsoft.
Besides another major difference is the way the two create software. Microsoft's model is solely driven by profits. Linux's model is solely driven by passion. Microsoft writes 1 line of code and gets 1000 patents for it. Linux is written and distributed under the GNU General Public License, which means that its source code is freely-distributed and available to the general public.
Microsoft - A confused organisation
Around 4 years ago things changed at Microsoft through its Open Source initiatives. What can be termed as a late reaction from a confused company that till recently was all against Open Source and GPL. Whether Microsoft was for Open Source or against it perhaps not even Microsoft was very sure!
In July this year came the biggest shocker from Microsoft. The once closed and highly guarded Microsoft decided to open 20,000 lines of Linux code to the Linux kernel community in the name of interoperability. In addition Microsoft also highlighted the ongoing investment the company is making to optimize PHP on Windows Server and the Microsoft SQL Server database system.
What motivated Microsoft to do the unthinkable to get literally get into the heart of Linux kernel? Sam Ramji, senior director of Platform Strategy at Microsoft, in a statement said, "The current economic climate has a lot of companies consolidating their hardware and software assets. Many companies are turning to Microsoft more frequently to help them succeed in a heterogeneous technology. So there's mutual benefit for customers, for Microsoft, and for commercial and community distributions of Linux, to enhance the performance of Linux as a guest operating system where Windows Server is the host."
And what was the objective of Microsoft doing this? Says Tom Hanrahan, director of Microsoft's Open Source Technology Center, "Our initial goal in developing the code was to enable Linux to run as a virtual machine on top of Hyper-V, Microsoft's hypervisor and implementation of virtualization."
The Linux View
From Linux side Greg Kroah-Hartman, Linux Driver Project Lead, said "Microsoft's contribution is a good move for Linux. I'm pleased to see Microsoft working to build a better relationship with the Linux community. I think that this will be good news for users and organizations who want to see better interoperability between Windows and Linux."
If Microsoft opening was a surprise, the bigger surprise came from Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux, "Microsoft hatred is a disease" said he.
Microsoft's Motivation - Greed or Interoperability
The big question is can Microsoft be trusted? What it couldn't do to Open Source all these years is this a new way of finishing Linux and making it obsolete.
There is a possibility. On the macro level Microsoft's Open Source could be to make Linux obsolete. Mary Jo in Zdnet says "Microsoft's goal is to convince OSS vendors to port their software to Windows. But Microsoft doesn't want OSS software to just sit on top of Windows; the company wants this software to be tied into the Windows ecosystem by integrating with Active Directory, Microsoft Office, Expression designer tools, System Center systems-management wares and SQL Server database."
Linus Torvalds has so far been very confident of Open Source and doesn't see Microsoft as a threat. Says he "I agree that it's driven by selfish reasons, but that's how all open source code gets written! We all "scratch our own itches". So complaining about the fact that Microsoft picked a selfish area to work on is just silly. Of course they picked an area that helps them."
He goes on to add "Does anybody complain when hardware companies write drivers for the hardware they produce? No. That would be crazy. Does anybody complain when IBM funds all the POWER development, and works on enterprise features because they sell into the enterprise? No. That would be insane. So the people who complain about Microsoft writing drivers for their own virtualization model should take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves why they are being so hypocritical."
Microsoft's Interoperability Argument
It is also true the way business and governments are operating in mixed environments which include both Microsoft and open source applications. Interoperabilty does make increasing sense especially for enterprise customers.
The Last Word
Microsoft is a commercial organization and its objective solely is profit. Microsoft's biggest worry right now is Google, which it sees as its biggest enemy that maybe eating into its bottomline soon. Call it desperation but Microsoft urgently needs to get into newer markets and also tap cheaper talent pools. The Open Source may just be the right platform to piggyback and also get closer to a community IBM, SUN and Google have been wooing and using for years now. IBM, SUN and Google are also commercial organizations using Open Source talent pool. Will someone also question their motives on wooing Open Source?
When we look at relationships and the course history takes the past seems like an illusion wondering if it ever existed. It was just the other day that Microsoft and Open Source were bitter enemies.
One a packaged software corporate giant driven solely by profits. The other completely driven by passion by a group of geeks not even under the same roof.
In 2001, Microsoft had said "Linux is cancer." A few years MS started decided to apply balm to heal the cancer and mend its relationship with Linux through its Open Source initiatives. Its 2009 now and Microsoft, the once closely guarded organisation is stripping its soul, literally, to woo Open Source by releasing 20,000 lines of Linux code to the Linux kernel community in the name of interoperability something not even Bill Gates could imagine 10 years ago!
In Perspective
Imagine if one fine day India and Pakistan decide to get together and exchange their nuclear documents for the common good of the citizens of the sub-continent. Sounds unbelievable, right?
Microsoft and Linux have been the same. Besides ideological differences in terms of software creation, ownership and distribution there must be rarely a common ground between them. Microsoft's Chief Steve Ballmer in 2001 had said, "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches."
Linus Torvalds, father of Linux OS, on the other hand, led a one man army and created an entire guerilla front of geeks separated by geography but bound by passion that in time became the biggest threat for the biggest organisation on earth, Microsoft.
Besides another major difference is the way the two create software. Microsoft's model is solely driven by profits. Linux's model is solely driven by passion. Microsoft writes 1 line of code and gets 1000 patents for it. Linux is written and distributed under the GNU General Public License, which means that its source code is freely-distributed and available to the general public.
Microsoft - A confused organisation
Around 4 years ago things changed at Microsoft through its Open Source initiatives. What can be termed as a late reaction from a confused company that till recently was all against Open Source and GPL. Whether Microsoft was for Open Source or against it perhaps not even Microsoft was very sure!
In July this year came the biggest shocker from Microsoft. The once closed and highly guarded Microsoft decided to open 20,000 lines of Linux code to the Linux kernel community in the name of interoperability. In addition Microsoft also highlighted the ongoing investment the company is making to optimize PHP on Windows Server and the Microsoft SQL Server database system.
What motivated Microsoft to do the unthinkable to get literally get into the heart of Linux kernel? Sam Ramji, senior director of Platform Strategy at Microsoft, in a statement said, "The current economic climate has a lot of companies consolidating their hardware and software assets. Many companies are turning to Microsoft more frequently to help them succeed in a heterogeneous technology. So there's mutual benefit for customers, for Microsoft, and for commercial and community distributions of Linux, to enhance the performance of Linux as a guest operating system where Windows Server is the host."
And what was the objective of Microsoft doing this? Says Tom Hanrahan, director of Microsoft's Open Source Technology Center, "Our initial goal in developing the code was to enable Linux to run as a virtual machine on top of Hyper-V, Microsoft's hypervisor and implementation of virtualization."
The Linux View
From Linux side Greg Kroah-Hartman, Linux Driver Project Lead, said "Microsoft's contribution is a good move for Linux. I'm pleased to see Microsoft working to build a better relationship with the Linux community. I think that this will be good news for users and organizations who want to see better interoperability between Windows and Linux."
If Microsoft opening was a surprise, the bigger surprise came from Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux, "Microsoft hatred is a disease" said he.
Microsoft's Motivation - Greed or Interoperability
The big question is can Microsoft be trusted? What it couldn't do to Open Source all these years is this a new way of finishing Linux and making it obsolete.
There is a possibility. On the macro level Microsoft's Open Source could be to make Linux obsolete. Mary Jo in Zdnet says "Microsoft's goal is to convince OSS vendors to port their software to Windows. But Microsoft doesn't want OSS software to just sit on top of Windows; the company wants this software to be tied into the Windows ecosystem by integrating with Active Directory, Microsoft Office, Expression designer tools, System Center systems-management wares and SQL Server database."
Linus Torvalds has so far been very confident of Open Source and doesn't see Microsoft as a threat. Says he "I agree that it's driven by selfish reasons, but that's how all open source code gets written! We all "scratch our own itches". So complaining about the fact that Microsoft picked a selfish area to work on is just silly. Of course they picked an area that helps them."
He goes on to add "Does anybody complain when hardware companies write drivers for the hardware they produce? No. That would be crazy. Does anybody complain when IBM funds all the POWER development, and works on enterprise features because they sell into the enterprise? No. That would be insane. So the people who complain about Microsoft writing drivers for their own virtualization model should take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves why they are being so hypocritical."
Microsoft's Interoperability Argument
It is also true the way business and governments are operating in mixed environments which include both Microsoft and open source applications. Interoperabilty does make increasing sense especially for enterprise customers.
The Last Word
Microsoft is a commercial organization and its objective solely is profit. Microsoft's biggest worry right now is Google, which it sees as its biggest enemy that maybe eating into its bottomline soon. Call it desperation but Microsoft urgently needs to get into newer markets and also tap cheaper talent pools. The Open Source may just be the right platform to piggyback and also get closer to a community IBM, SUN and Google have been wooing and using for years now. IBM, SUN and Google are also commercial organizations using Open Source talent pool. Will someone also question their motives on wooing Open Source?
BY THE NUMBERS:MOST INFLUENTIAL TWITTERS
Check out the pictures of MOST INFLUENTIAL TWITTERS here in the given link:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/29/top-twitters-celebrities-technology-webceleb09_0129_top_twitters_slide.html?partner=sify
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/29/top-twitters-celebrities-technology-webceleb09_0129_top_twitters_slide.html?partner=sify
IN PICTURES: CELEBRITIES WHO TWITTER
Check out the pictures of CELEBRITIES WHO TWITTER here in the given link:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/29/twitter-celebrities-famous-technology-webceleb09_0129_celeb_twitters_slide.html?partner=sify
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/29/twitter-celebrities-famous-technology-webceleb09_0129_celeb_twitters_slide.html?partner=sify
IN PICTURES: TWITTER TO FIND A JOB
Check out the pictures of TWITTER TO FIND A JOB here in the given link:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/07/twitter-tweet-jobs-leadership-careers-employment_slide.html?partner=sify
http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/07/twitter-tweet-jobs-leadership-careers-employment_slide.html?partner=sify
IS TWITTER TAKING OVER YOUR HOME LIFE?
We've all joked about the digital leash to our Blackberries and iPhones. It's hard enough to get through the weekend, let alone an hour, without checking e-mail, posting back-to-school checklists or the like on Facebook or Googling to find out some piece of trivia, like who sang "Eye of the Tiger." Some women, though, are taking their relationship with tech to a different and highly personal level.
Sara Morishige, the wife of a Twitter exec, famously tweeted updates during the recent birth of her daughter. She sent a tweet when her water broke and another after she'd decided to go with an epidural.
In pictures: 10 things Twitter says about you
Blogosphere responses mostly reflected distaste ("can't wait to hear about the colonoscopy" was one sarcastic post). The play-by-play of the birth - and the long tail of its comments - suggest that digital media is spurring changes to how we go about our analog lives.
David Weinberger, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, says what's really happening is that this constant and hyper-connectivity is happening without established social rules and etiquette; a digital dinner party without an Emily Post to guide us, if you will. "We know when we talk to a stranger face-to-face how much information is OK to reveal," he says. "But the same can't be said yet for Twitter."
At this July's BlogHer, an annual conference for female bloggers, blogger Alana Reynolds recounted how her husband exasperatedly and repeatedly asks her not to use Twitter during dinner with their children. Each time, she sheepishly puts her handheld device away. In an interview with ForbesWoman, she says they came to a truce: "I don't Twitter during family time and [he doesn't] complain when I really need to do it."
Another blogger described her pulse-pounding frustration while at the Parthenon in Athens recently; she had no Internet access on her iPhone. How could I get updates and detailed information on the ruins, she moaned to the audience, scoffing at someone's suggestion that she could have consulted a guidebook. A guidebook's information wouldn't be as up-to-date or detailed as a travel blog or site, she said.
"These are social worlds that we are constructing for ourselves that are as complex as our real worlds," says Weinberger. "People behave in them for the widest possible range of motives: to distance themselves or to involve themselves."
Danah Boyd, a well-respected expert on social media, also at Harvard, had this to say about Morishige's tweeting of her birth and the dinner-tweeter: "When 'family time' becomes obligatory, not everyone is particularly excited. As a result, you're seeing a reworking of who controls the situation. Control is the issue at stake here." In other words, women who are masters of their Facebook pages or Twitter profiles may not necessarily feel the same control over their analog environments when the screen is dark.
One technophile says she has observed - and overcome - the digital obsession. Blogger Lucretia Pruitt helps large companies reach audiences through social media. She describes a time when she decided to "go offline" for a weekend, as an experiment - no cell phone or Internet. She did, however post a message saying that if someone needed or wanted to reach her, she would answer her home phone. One friend e-mailed her 14 times. "When I called her back on Monday, she said, 'Are you mad at me?'" Pruitt reports with disbelief.
Still, she is raising her 6-year-old daughter to be a "digital native" - someone to whom technology is as innate as TVs or telephones are to older generations. "We know she's going to grow up constantly wired, where she'll have instant answers to questions and constant access to cellphones," says Pruitt. "[It'll be] a natural thing."
Pruitt proudly says that her daughter had a computer "before she could walk" and learned to spell by using the keyboard.
That said, her daughter isn't allowed to veg out in front of the computer. Pruitt insists that she play outside and limits her screen time.
Pruitt thinks the real problem is with adults - mostly mid-20s and up, who are still figuring out the relationship they want to have with connectivity. Some bloggers and tweeters, for example, think they have to respond to every e-mail and every comment on every post or tweet. It can take hours.
"In 2007, I would get up in the morning and try to respond to everyone," recalls Pruitt. "I realised you don't get up every morning and call everyone you know. You don't have to keep up on everything that's going on with everyone. If it's important, they'll re-tweet it or directly message you," she says.
In pictures: 10 things Twitter says about you
Betsy Weber, who leads online social marketing for TechSmith in Okemos, Mich., says she has made friends through Twitter - including, surprisingly, her neighbors. She organises events called Tweet-ups in which Twitter pals get together in the 3-D world. "For me, it's been great to get out from behind the computer and meet these people in person," says Weber. "And, I find that our local community is stronger and better connected because of these new connections being made online and then reinforced offline in person."
Alana Reynolds got back to a reporter seeking confirmation that she sometimes tweets at dinner. She e-mailed and said it was true, adding, "Can I get back to you a little later? I'm ironically on a date with my husband right now."
Sara Morishige, the wife of a Twitter exec, famously tweeted updates during the recent birth of her daughter. She sent a tweet when her water broke and another after she'd decided to go with an epidural.
In pictures: 10 things Twitter says about you
Blogosphere responses mostly reflected distaste ("can't wait to hear about the colonoscopy" was one sarcastic post). The play-by-play of the birth - and the long tail of its comments - suggest that digital media is spurring changes to how we go about our analog lives.
David Weinberger, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, says what's really happening is that this constant and hyper-connectivity is happening without established social rules and etiquette; a digital dinner party without an Emily Post to guide us, if you will. "We know when we talk to a stranger face-to-face how much information is OK to reveal," he says. "But the same can't be said yet for Twitter."
At this July's BlogHer, an annual conference for female bloggers, blogger Alana Reynolds recounted how her husband exasperatedly and repeatedly asks her not to use Twitter during dinner with their children. Each time, she sheepishly puts her handheld device away. In an interview with ForbesWoman, she says they came to a truce: "I don't Twitter during family time and [he doesn't] complain when I really need to do it."
Another blogger described her pulse-pounding frustration while at the Parthenon in Athens recently; she had no Internet access on her iPhone. How could I get updates and detailed information on the ruins, she moaned to the audience, scoffing at someone's suggestion that she could have consulted a guidebook. A guidebook's information wouldn't be as up-to-date or detailed as a travel blog or site, she said.
"These are social worlds that we are constructing for ourselves that are as complex as our real worlds," says Weinberger. "People behave in them for the widest possible range of motives: to distance themselves or to involve themselves."
Danah Boyd, a well-respected expert on social media, also at Harvard, had this to say about Morishige's tweeting of her birth and the dinner-tweeter: "When 'family time' becomes obligatory, not everyone is particularly excited. As a result, you're seeing a reworking of who controls the situation. Control is the issue at stake here." In other words, women who are masters of their Facebook pages or Twitter profiles may not necessarily feel the same control over their analog environments when the screen is dark.
One technophile says she has observed - and overcome - the digital obsession. Blogger Lucretia Pruitt helps large companies reach audiences through social media. She describes a time when she decided to "go offline" for a weekend, as an experiment - no cell phone or Internet. She did, however post a message saying that if someone needed or wanted to reach her, she would answer her home phone. One friend e-mailed her 14 times. "When I called her back on Monday, she said, 'Are you mad at me?'" Pruitt reports with disbelief.
Still, she is raising her 6-year-old daughter to be a "digital native" - someone to whom technology is as innate as TVs or telephones are to older generations. "We know she's going to grow up constantly wired, where she'll have instant answers to questions and constant access to cellphones," says Pruitt. "[It'll be] a natural thing."
Pruitt proudly says that her daughter had a computer "before she could walk" and learned to spell by using the keyboard.
That said, her daughter isn't allowed to veg out in front of the computer. Pruitt insists that she play outside and limits her screen time.
Pruitt thinks the real problem is with adults - mostly mid-20s and up, who are still figuring out the relationship they want to have with connectivity. Some bloggers and tweeters, for example, think they have to respond to every e-mail and every comment on every post or tweet. It can take hours.
"In 2007, I would get up in the morning and try to respond to everyone," recalls Pruitt. "I realised you don't get up every morning and call everyone you know. You don't have to keep up on everything that's going on with everyone. If it's important, they'll re-tweet it or directly message you," she says.
In pictures: 10 things Twitter says about you
Betsy Weber, who leads online social marketing for TechSmith in Okemos, Mich., says she has made friends through Twitter - including, surprisingly, her neighbors. She organises events called Tweet-ups in which Twitter pals get together in the 3-D world. "For me, it's been great to get out from behind the computer and meet these people in person," says Weber. "And, I find that our local community is stronger and better connected because of these new connections being made online and then reinforced offline in person."
Alana Reynolds got back to a reporter seeking confirmation that she sometimes tweets at dinner. She e-mailed and said it was true, adding, "Can I get back to you a little later? I'm ironically on a date with my husband right now."
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