Detroit Free Press Hands-free phone not safer on road

"Drivers talking on cell phones are just as inattentive or likely to get into accidents as drunk drivers, even if they're using hands-free devices, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Human Factors.

People conversing on cell phones while behind the wheel performed just as poorly in a driving simulator as those with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08%, the level at which someone can be convicted of drunken driving in Michigan and most states, according to psychologists at the University of Utah.

Both handheld and hands-free cell phones impaired driving, the study found."

redux [12.11.05]
Science Daily Cell Phones, Driving Don't Mix

"Most people can rather efficiently walk and chew gum at the same time, but when it comes to more complicated "multi-tasking" – like driving and talking on a cell phone – there is a price to pay.

And no one, it seems, is immune."

Mei-Ching Lien, an assistant professor of psychology at Oregon State University. "Even with a seemingly simple task, structural cognitive limitations can prevent you from efficiently switching to a new task.""

redux [09.29.03]
CIO Magazine Why More Is Less

"BUSINESS CONDITIONS are so universally dismal that the corporate slogan for most American companies might as well be "We Do More with Less." That places a heavy burden on employees who are often stretched to their limits. Consequently, multitasking--both in the sense of doing more than one task at a time as well as switching among tasks--has taken on an added importance at companies that have experienced either layoffs or hiring freezes or both (usually both). Since these companies are now chronically understaffed, conventional wisdom decrees that those still on the job be as efficient as possible. Hence the need to juggle as many jobs as one can.

But there's a problem with multitasking. Not only does it take a personal toll on employees, it also doesn't work. "

redux [07.09.03]
The New York Times The Lure of Data: Is It Addictive?
[requires 'free' registration]

""It's magnetic," said Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatry instructor at Harvard. "It's like a tar baby: the more you touch it, the more you have to."

Dr. Hallowell and John Ratey, an associate professor at Harvard and a psychiatrist with an expertise in attention deficit disorder, are among a growing number of physicians and sociologists who are assessing how technology affects attention span, creativity and focus. Though many people regard multitasking as a social annoyance, these two and others are asking whether it is counterproductive, and even addicting."

redux [08.06.01]
NPR: Morning Edition The Thief of Time: Multitasking is Inefficient, Studies Show

""To do two things at once," said the Roman sage Publilius Syrus, "is to do neither." And this was 2,000 years ago, long before people tried to drive while talking on their cellphones and digging for tollbooth change and yelling at the kids and (ahem) listening to the radio.

Syrus may have overstated the case, but a new study concludes that performance does drop off when people try to accomplish more than one task at a time. Another sage -- William Shakespeare this time -- called procrastination "the thief of time." But it looks like multitasking is giving procrastination a run for its money."

CNN Study: Multitasking is counterproductive

"What are you doing right now as you read this article? Ordering supplies for the office from your distribution warehouse? Monitoring a screen for production equipment performance? Getting an e-mail back to your colleagues in the Denver office? Carrying on Instant Message conversations with three co-workers? Writing up a report in Word for the meeting on Wednesday? Eating the lunch you never have time to leave the desk for? Opening and reading traditional mail? Filing an in-house memo to Tech Services because your browser is acting up? Making a list of the clients you're expect to reach by close-of-business today? Trying to resize the fonts in the company newsletter so it fits on one page?"

David Weinberger The Price of Multitasking: Your Soul

"It's my assumption -- and I think it's as self-evident as human stuff gets -- that when we pay attention to something, we do so with certain affective qualities. That is, when we pay attention to the [Nazi Philosoper Heidegger pretending he Cares] cake that's now burning (because we were paying too much attention to the radio's description of Clinton's oral techniques or the shape of his member or his budget proposal's impact on macroeconomics or Hillary's oral techniques), we do so with some emotion, mood, or evaluation. And this is because attention isn't a dry and abstract or cognitive relation to the world. It's a relationship of caring. (Gosh, did Heidegger think of this before me? Damn! Wait, maybe I if I give it a made-up name I'll be able to trademark and claim it as my own thought. I've got it! Let's call it "e-careTM"!)"

"If this is true -- and you can take it from my sincere look and deep tone of voice that it is -- then it proves that humans can't multitask, at least not always. If attention were nothing but cognition, if it were like a flashlight sweeping over a dark world, then maybe we could multitask by wagging our attention back and forth. But if paying attention to two objects also means switching our emotions, feelings, preferences, mood and valuations, then, well, our souls just aren't enough like my sister Kate (who can shake them like jelly on a plate, for those of you who missed the Dave Van Ronk years of the folkie movement) to manage even rapid time slicing...except when dealing with matters that we don't really care much about."

Harold Pashler Task Switching and Multi-Task Performance

"We turn now to the limitations that arise when people attempt to perform two different tasks at the same time. While there is a large literature on relatively complex and continuous dual-task performance, the focus here will be on discrete tasks. The reason for this is that with more continuous tasks interference and switching are easily disguised for reasons that will emerge clearly below. Not surprisingly, limitations on simultaneous mental operations evidently arise at various different functional loci. Perceptual analysis of multiple stimuli can often take place in parallel, but when perceptual demands exceed a certain threshold, capacity limitations can become evident (Pashler, 1997) although non-perceptual factors (such as statistical noise in search designs) often masquerade as capacity limitations (Palmer, 1995). These limitations appear largely, but probably not entirely, modality-specific (Treisman & Davies, 1973; Duncan, Mertens & Ward,1997). Similarly, response conflicts arise when responses must be produced close together in time. These perceptual limitations are often most acute when similar or linked effectors are used, such as the two hands (Heuer, 1985)."

Digital Trends News California Mandates Cell Phone Recycling

"As of July 1, 2006, wireless retailers in California will be required to set up collection and recycling programs for unwanted cell phones. Lawmakers have a bit of a point when they argue some 500 million unused cell phones are sitting idle in the U.S. right now (with another 100+ million expected to be added to the pile during 2006), and these devices contain hazardous materials like arsenic, lead, and cadmium which do bad things to people and the environment. (But you've also got to ask yourself why lawmakers focus on phones and not, say, cars. But I digress.)

Under the state's Cell Phone Recycling Act of 2004, wireless retailers have to take back old phones that they sold, and either re-use the units or dispose of them properly. As of February 8, it also became illegal for individuals and small businesses to toss unwanted or broken phones into the garbage—you'll know these laws have entered the pop culture mainstream when you see an ADA on Law & Order or another crime drama hold a suspect for violation of hazardous waste rules for tossing an untraceable pre-paid cell phone into a river during a chase."

redux [04.19.06]
The Sun News Some states are getting tough on e-waste

"More than half a billion pounds of toxic electronic products are now going into the U.S. waste stream every year, polluting the groundwater with lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, plastics and brominated flame retardants. And with a rapid uptick in technological advancements looming, there's strong potential for the e-waste tonnage to rise by a factor of four or more in the coming years.

Eco-alarmists envision a virtual "tsunami" of high-tech garbage as consumption escalates, and we consumers finally feel compelled to empty our private "closet dumps," where 75 percent of discarded electronics still reside..."

redux [08.17.05]
The Christian Science Monitor Saying 'So Long' to E-Waste

"From cellphones to iPods, from PDAs to PCs, Americans love the latest gadget. Yet this profusion of innovation also creates a problem: obsolete electronic devices, many with toxic parts, are stacking up in closets and basements, and eventually end up in a dump. In all, Americans own about 2 billion electronic gizmos, or 25 per household.

This "e-waste" is only about 2 percent by weight of the nation's municipal solid-waste stream, yet it is one of the fastest growing segments. "

"Each year, some 50 million computers and 20 million televisions become obsolete, according to a recent Government Accountability Office study. But only about 10 percent of e-waste is recycled, the rest is landfilled, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates."

The Cincinntati Post Toxic waste from recycling electronics a growing threat

"Toxic waste from computers, TVs and other electronic devices discarded in the United States and dismantled in China and India is an even more severe problem than previously feared, according to environmental groups that seek better recycling programs."

""The extent of the contamination is even worse than we had feared. The levels analyzed are really scary and very concerning," said Ted Smith, founder of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and chair of the Computer TakeBack Campaign, which wants a ban on the export of electronic waste to developing countries where worker protections and environmental standards are weak."

redux [04.16.04]
News.Com Weighing the results of PC recycling

"With Earth Day just around the corner, Dell and other PC companies are stepping up their efforts to recycle old computing gear that businesses and consumers have been sitting on for years."

"By making its recycling goals public, Dell will likely put pressure on competitors such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM to follow suit. That could help encourage more recycling and establish a de facto method of measuring recycling trends for the PC industry as a whole. It could also help quell criticism that the industry has been slow to act on what environmentalists and legislators have deemed a growing pollution problem."

redux [04.07.04]
MSNBC Intel to launch environmentally friendly chips

"For environmental reasons, Intel Corp. plans to reduce the amount of lead in its microprocessors and chip sets by 95 percent starting this year."

"The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker, the world's biggest, said it is working with the rest of the industry to remove the remaining amount of lead that's needed to connect the processor's core with its packaging."

redux [03.09.04]
Wired News Short-Lived PCs Have Hidden Costs

"It turns out your computer is a much bigger material and energy hog than previously believed. The most effective way to reduce its oversized environmental footprint is to increase its useful lifespan, according to a new book released Monday, Computers and the Environment , by the United Nations University in Tokyo.

The average desktop PC and 17-inch CRT monitor takes an SUV-sized 1.8 tons of water, fossil fuels and chemicals to make, the book reports."

redux [07.07.03]
News.Com HP's take on recycling

"Most people viewing the carcass of an abandoned motherboard would see a useless collection of plastic shards and mangled wires.

Hewlett-Packard's Chris Altobell sees silver and gold.

Altobell is the marketing manager of HP's Product Recycling Solutions unit in Roseville, Calif., which processes 3 million pounds of used computer machinery each month, transforming giant corporate printers and cast-off 386 consumer machines into materials that can be spun into precious metals and plastic containers."

The New York Times Dell to Stop Using Prison Workers
[requires 'free' registration]

"Responding to concerns from both customers and environmental advocates, Dell Computer announced yesterday that it would no longer rely on prisons to supply workers for its computer recycling program.

Dell, the world's largest seller of PC's, said it had canceled its contract with Unicor, a branch of the Federal Bureau of Prisons that employs prisoners for electronics recycling and other industries."

redux [06.27.03]
The New York Times PC Makers Given Credit and Blame in Recycling
[requires 'free' registration]

"The nation's two largest personal computer makers, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, handle recycling of the waste from computer products in remarkably different ways, according to a report by environmentalists released today.

The report was prepared by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, a group that also focuses on health issues, and the Computer Take Back Campaign. It commended Hewlett-Packard for using "state of the art" practices in partnership with an expanding commercial recycling industry, while criticizing Dell for using low-cost prison labor in association with Unicor, an industrial prison system within the Justice Department."

redux [06.04.03]
BBC Recycling law boosts hi-tech transfer

"Every year, 1.5 million old, but working, computers are buried in landfill sites. Now, an impending EU directive could mean these discarded machines, and many others, enjoy a more useful life.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Weee) Directive makes electronics firms responsible for what happens to the gadgets and devices they produce once people have done with them."

redux [02.25.03]
The Straits Times: Singapore Toxic e-waste

"This is the end of the road for the toxic end-product of the computer age.

In towns such as this one on China's south-eastern coast, vast quantities of obsolete electronics shipped in from the United States, Europe and Japan are piled in mountains of waste."

"The real costs are being borne by the people on the receiving end of the 'e-waste'. In towns along China's coast as well as in India and Pakistan, adults and children work for about US$1.20 (S$2.08) a day in unregulated and unsafe conditions."

redux [02.05.03]
News.Com HP: Don't trash that old computer

"The computer maker is testing a program that gives those who recycle their old computers, monitors, printers or other gear a coupon worth up to $50 for any purchase of $60 or more on HP's online store. Under a program announced nearly two years ago, HP charges anywhere from $17 to $31 to recycle products. The company says the coupon will offset the amount customers must pay for the service, which ensures none of the gear ends up in landfills.

The need for recycling is growing, particularly as nonprofit agencies become less willing to accept older gear, said Renee St. Denis, manager of HP's recycling effort. The problem of what to do with all this aging equipment has become a major issue facing the tech industry."

redux [01.26.03]
The Japan Times Chips with everything makes for a hi-tech mess

"So what are the environmental impacts of producing and using a 32-megabyte DRAM computer chip that weighs a mere 2 grams? The UNU team found that to make every one of the millions manufactured each year requires 32 kg of water, 1.6 kg of fossil fuels, 700 grams of elemental gases (mainly nitrogen), and 72 grams of chemicals (hundreds are used, including lethal arsine gas and corrosive hydrogen fluoride).

To make matters worse, Williams believes his findings are conservative. "We think the real numbers may be twice that," he said, adding that rapid advances in technology aggravate the problem. "The fact that a chip has such a short lifespan, because the technology turns over so quickly, exacerbates the environmental impact.""

redux [01.10.03]
Wired News E-Waste: Dark Side of Digital Age

""The leadership continues to be by and large the Japanese companies, and the U.S. companies tend to be far behind," Smith said.

"A lot of (U.S. manufacturers') initiatives are piecemeal and not really designed to address the vast majority of consumer concerns," he added. "There is still an enormous amount of computer waste being exported to China.""

"The report also criticizes Dell's use of federal prison labor to recycle old computers, which it says exposes inmates to toxic chemicals without the same health and safety protections as workers at other facilities."

redux [12.03.02]
The Mercury News In switch, HP announces support for e-waste bill

"In a shift that will change how toxic electronic waste is recycled in California and possibly nationwide, Hewlett-Packard has said it will support state legislation to require PC manufacturers to bear the cost of computer disposal.

""The combined HP-Compaq company is the single largest manufacturer of PCs in the world. They are the linchpin for producer responsibility,'' said Smith, whose group helped expose the primitive recycling industry in China. ``The fact that they have changed their position vastly improves the likelihood we'll get a very good e-waste bill in the new session.""

redux [11.13.02]
Salon Silicon hogs

"If we all had to lug around the true environmental weights of the microchips in our iPods, cellphones or laptops, most of those portable gadgets would never make it off their docking stations, much less out the front door.

It takes 3.7 pounds of fossil fuels and other chemicals and 70.5 pounds of water to produce a single two-gram microchip, according to a forthcoming study in the Dec. 15 issue of Environmental Science & Technology, a publication of the American Chemical Society."

redux [05.22.02]
Wired News Tech Toxics' Tarnished Legacy

"California high-tech manufacturing companies are degrading the environment in developing countries, a new research report confirms.

Case studies done in Taiwan, Malaysia, India, Thailand, and Costa Rica by the California Global Corporate Accountability Project document water pollution and inadquate waste management resulting from component production."

redux [04.06.02]
NPR: All Things Considered Activists Push for Safer E-Recycling

"Americans will throw out about 10 million old computers this year. About two-thirds of these will be shipped to Asia for dismantling by rural villagers. The computers all contain mercury and lead, and the resulting toxic waste has become a threat to villagers' health and environment.

"A coalition of activists and lawmakers has been working to improve the situation, and in recent weeks they've gotten a signed pledge from electronic manufacturers in the United States to consider a new solution."

redux [05.04.00]
San Francisco Bay Guardian Silicon Hell

"Behind the well-paid geeks in cubicles and the sharp-dressed entrepreneurs is an industry that consumes as many resources, uses as many lethal chemicals, and generates as much toxic waste as some of the worst culprits of the pre-Internet age. And both industry workers and the people who live near the plants are feeling the effects: the toxins damage aquatic life in the bay, poison drinking water, and, increasing evidence suggests, kill high-tech industry workers.

While the federal government, local agencies, and hundreds of thousands of Bay Area residents and company workers are dealing with the computer industry's mess here in America, the same (or worse) problems are spreading worldwide."

Discover News Serious Study: Immaturity Levels Rising

"The adage "like a kid at heart" may be truer than we think, since new research is showing that grown-ups are more immature than ever.

Specifically, it seems a growing number of people are retaining the behaviors and attitudes associated with youth.

As a consequence, many older people simply never achieve mental adulthood, according to a leading expert on evolutionary psychiatry."

Bruce G Charleton The rise of the boy-genius: psychological-neoteny, science and modern life

"The mid-twentieth century saw the rise of the boy-genius, probably because a personality type characterized by prolonged youthfulness is advantageous both in science and modern life generally. This is the evolution of ‘psychological-neoteny’, in which ever-more people retain for ever-longer the characteristic behaviours and attitudes of earlier developmental stages. Whereas traditional societies are characterized by initiation ceremonies marking the advent of adulthood, these have now dwindled and disappeared. In a psychological sense, some contemporary individuals never actually become adults. A child-like flexibility of attitudes, behaviours and knowledge is probably adaptive in modern society because people need repeatedly to change jobs, learn new skills, move to new places and make new friends. It seems that this adaptation is achieved by the expedient of postponing cognitive maturation – a process that could be termed psychological neoteny. (‘Neoteny’ refers to the biological phenomenon whereby development is delayed such that juvenile characteristics are retained into maturity.) Psychological neoteny is probably caused by the prolonged average duration of formal education, since students’ minds are in a significant sense ‘unfinished’. Since modern cultures favour cognitive flexibility, ‘immature’ people tend to thrive and succeed, and have set the tone of contemporary life: the greatest praise of an elderly person is to state that they retain the characteristics of youth. But the faults of youth are retained with well as its virtues: short attention span, sensation- and novelty-seeking, short cycles of arbitrary fashion and a sense of cultural shallowness. Nonetheless, as health gets better and cosmetic technologies improve, future humans may become somewhat like an axolotl – the cave-dwelling salamander which retains its larval form until death."

ABC News Construction of a Charity Empire?

"As Warren Buffett signs away most of his fortune, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation finds its resources soaring to $60 billion, nearly doubling its opportunities to help the common good.

But what can the foundation do with that much cash? For starters, treat each of the 40 million people worldwide infected with HIV/AIDS. They can also cut world hunger in half and fund vaccinations that could save 6 million kids a year.

"When you look at the amount of resources that are now going to be in the Gates Foundation, we could be looking at literally tens of millions of lives saved over the next decade," said Dr. Nils Daulaire of the Global Health Council."

Fortune A conversation with Warren Buffett

"In any case, Susie didn't get very excited when I told her we were going to get rich. She either didn't care or didn't believe me - probably both, in fact. But to the extent we did amass wealth, we were totally in sync about what to do with it - and that was to give it back to society.

In that, we agreed with Andrew Carnegie, who said that huge fortunes that flow in large part from society should in large part be returned to society. In my case, the ability to allocate capital would have had little utility unless I lived in a rich, populous country in which enormous quantities of marketable securities were traded and were sometimes ridiculously mispriced. And fortunately for me, that describes the U.S. in the second half of the last century."

International Herald Tribune In Buffett gift, challenge for Gates

"And Bill Gates went further, saying that while he may be "overly optimistic," he felt that they had a real shot at finding cures for the top 20 infectious diseases in the world, as well as ensuring that every American has a chance at a decent education.

"Can that happen in our lifetime?" Gates said, sitting next to Buffett at the New York Public Library, where the gift was formally announced. "I'll be optimistic and say absolutely.""

Mercury News Fine print revealed in Buffett donation to Gates Foundation

"Buffett is giving the Gates Foundation more than $30 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock at the rate of about $1.5 billion a year. But the donation comes with some important requirements: The Gates Foundation must distribute Buffett's money in the year that it's donated. And each year's donation will be made only if Bill or Melinda Gates is alive and actively involved in the foundation."

Forbes Investing Billions

"Were The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation a public company, it would rank among the entire world's 400 largest by asset size--before getting a single dime of Warren Buffett's promised money.

But the $35 billion of assets listed on the foundation's latest financial statement, as of Dec. 31, is only one measure of its gargantuan magnitude. An active, aggressive player in financial markets, the foundation turns over the equivalent of its entire asset base on average about every two months. During 2005, the cash-flow statement shows, it purchased a staggering $250.7 billion of investments while selling $251.2 billion. Turnover at the foundation was at a far more furious pace than that at Berkshire Hathaway, the source of its new riches."

Network World Study: Internet partly to blame for your lack of close friends

"Increased use of the Internet, along with the number of hours people are spending at work, are factors contributing to a drastic decline in the number of close friends that Americans have."

""This change indicates something that's not good for our society. Ties with a close network of people create a safety net. These ties also lead to civic engagement and local political action," said Lynn Smith-Lovin, a professor of sociology at Duke.

New technology links people over greater distances, but cuts into face-to-face meeting time, the researchers said."

redux [05.25.06]
CNN Growing concern over Internet addiction

"While not yet defined as a true addiction, many people are suffering the consequences of obsession with the online world, warns Dr. Diane M. Wieland, who treats patients with computer addiction in her practice in Lansdale, Pennsylvania."

""Obsession with and craving time on the computer results in neglect of real-life personal relationships to the point of divorce," Wieland says."

""Denial is strong in Internet addicts who claim they cannot be addicted to a machine," Wieland notes. The "one more minute" response to being asked to go offline is common and is similar to an alcoholic who says they will quit drinking after "one more drink.""

redux [02.15.06]
ABC News Computer Addiction? Nah, Probably Just Modern Life

"Video games and the Internet have been subject to suspicion since the computer became a household fixture. One complaint: People get sucked into spending enormous amounts of time on the computer, to the detriment of other parts of their life.

But are they addicted?

The answer depends on what you mean by "addicted." Most experts say computers are not addictive in the same sense that drugs are, but they could be on the same level as gambling."

redux [10.27.05]
Netimperative Email and text drives families apart- survey

"Britons are communicating more frequently than ever, but many feel that the rise of text-based digital services has made communication with friends and family less personal, according to a new survey.

Internet service provider PlusNet found that one third of people in the UK feel that their relationships with friends and family have suffered, because they don’t physically talk with each other enough."

ClickZ Internet Edges Out Family Time More Than TV Time

"Internet use cuts into American TV consumption significantly less than it affects average time spent with family and friends, according to a recent study by the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society (SIQSS)."

"For the average respondent, an hour of time online reduces the amount of time spent with family more than twice as much (23.5 minutes) as it limits daily TV viewing (10 minutes). This amounts to 70 minutes less time spent per day with family, versus c. 30 minutes less time watching television. The study also found the average surfer gets 8.5 minutes less sleep per day due to time spent online."

redux [01.15.04]
MSNBC Internet 'geek' image shattered

"The findings of the first World Internet Project report present an image of the average Netizen that contrasts with the stereotype of the loner "geek" who spends hours of his free time on the Internet and rarely engages with the real world.

Instead, the typical Internet user is an avid reader of books and spends more time engaged in social activities than the non-user, it says. And, television viewing is down among some Internet users by as much as five hours per week compared with Net abstainers, the study added."

redux [11.26.01]
New Scientist Internet users more chic than geek

"Far from being friendless "nerds", internet users lead more sociable lives than non-surfers, according to new research in the UK.

A survey of 2500 randomly selected Britons revealed that internet users are more likely to belong to a community group, voluntary organisation or to go to church regularly. They also tend to be better paid and more educated than non-users.

There is a huge divide between those who surf and those who don't, says Andrew Oswald at Warwick University, who carried out the study. But contrary to popular opinion surfers are not slouched over their computer all day, he says: "They simply watch less television."

redux [08.09.01]
SiliconValley.Com Revisiting isolation and its link to the Internet

"As with the re-examination of first HomeNet families, the study of the "new" newcomers found Internet use was linked to more social involvement and psychological well-being. Kraut noted a "rich get richer" effect, where the Net appears to amplify one's innate social tendencies. Those who were extroverts were more likely than their introverted brethren to leverage the new medium to make more friends.

What is to account for this stunning turnabout? My guess is that what changed in the intervening years is the Net itself. It has more social tools, more avenues for personal connections, -- more of everything people need in order to thrive."

redux [07.23.01]
USA Today Study: Net use doesn't increase depression, after all

"Using the Internet at home doesn't make people more depressed and lonely after all.

A new, longer follow-up from a study that linked Web use to poor mental health -- heavily publicized three years ago -- shows that most bad effects have disappeared.

"Either the Internet has changed, or people have learned to use it more constructively, or both," says the study leader, psychologist Robert Kraut of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh."

redux [06.21.01]
Pew Internet and American Life Project Teenage Life Online: The rise of the instant-message generation and the Internet's impact on friendships and family relationships

"The Internet is the telephone, television, game console, and radio wrapped up in one for most teenagers and that means it has become a major "player" in many American families. Teens go online to chat with their friends, kill boredom, see the wider world, and follow the latest trends. Many enjoy doing all those things at the same time during their online sessions. Multitasking is their way of life. And the emotional hallmark of that life is the enthusiasm for the new ways the Internet lets them connect with friends, expand their social networks, explore their identities, and learn new things."

redux [10.25.00]
Powazek.Com on weblogs, the press, and changing the world

"I think all this hooey is simply public self-expression. And it's a good thing. If it makes you happy to call it a blog, go for it. You could call it a desk for all I care. Just keep doing it. I believe, now more that ever, that all this self-expression is going to change the world.

Haven't you noticed? It already has. How many people do you know who you've never met? Or, how many people have you met online? How much has being online changed your perceptions and ideas? Where do you go when you need to connect with other people? How much of your time is spent conversing with people who aren't in the same room with you? Where do you get your music? Your fun? Your ideas? Your ... faith?

Now think about life before you got online. See the difference?

Put simply, expressing yourself online is a gift to the web, because it lets strangers see the world through your eyes, if only for a moment. And if we all did that a little more, I think the world would be a more tolerant place."

redux [02.21.00]
Alertbox Does the Internet Make Us Lonely?

"In assessing the impact of the Internet, the question is not whether it replaces (fully or partly) some other forms of communication and social contact. Because the Internet adds its own new forms of communication and social contact. For example, people may well attend fewer meetings and events outside the house and yet feel connected to a community of others who "meet" on a much more regular basis online.

The question is whether the new lifestyle is enjoyable and whether it nourishes humans or causes them damage. There is certainly a risk that some people get overly caught up in chat rooms and role playing, but a different kind of study is needed to assess this problem."

Boston Globe Sailors' Social Security nos. on Web site

"Social Security numbers and other personal data for 28,000 sailors and members of their families have been found on a civilian Web site, triggering a criminal investigation."

"The breach comes amid a rash of government computer data thefts, including one at the Agriculture Department earlier this week in which a hacker may have obtained names, Social Security numbers and photos of 26,000 Washington-area employees and contractors."

Washington Post Spike in Laptop Thefts Stirs Jitters Over Data

"Week after week, Americans who conscientiously shred every piece of mail and all credit card receipts learn that their personal information was stored in the laptop of a low-level employee who casually took it out of the office and that it has ended up in the hands of some penny ante crook."

""By the time you add up a million here and 900,000 there and 4 million over there, you've covered most of the credit-holding and wage-earning population of the U.S.," said Marcus J. Ranum, a firewall designer, in an e-mail. "

redux [06.05.06]
CNN Hotels.com credit-card numbers stolen

"The names and credit-card numbers of 243,000 Hotels.com customers were on a laptop computer stolen from an employee of accounting firm Ernst & Young, according to sources familiar with the matter."

"The theft occurred in February, according to news reports, but Ernst & Young only recently was able to determine what was on the computer's hard drive."

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse A Chronology of Data Breaches Reported Since the ChoicePoint Incident

" The data breaches noted below have been reported because the personal information compromised includes data elements useful to identity thieves, such as Social Security numbers, account numbers, and driver's license numbers. A few breaches that do NOT expose such sensitive information have been included in order to underscore the variety and frequency of data breaches. However, we have not included the number of individuals affected in such breaches in the total because we want this compilation to reflect breaches that expose individuals to identity theft as well as breaches that qualify for disclosure under state laws."

"This chronology below begins with ChoicePoint's 2/15/05 announcement of its data breaches because it was a watershed event in terms of disclosure to the affected individuals. Since then, the "best practice" has been to disclose breaches to individuals nationwide -- in a sense, adopting California's notice requirement nationally."

redux [05.31.06]
The New York Times Technology and Easy Credit Give Identity Thieves an Edge
[requires 'free' registration]

"In an economy that runs increasingly on the instantaneous flow of information and credit — aggressively promoted by banks and credit card companies despite the risks — Phoenix and its surrounding area provide a window on one of the system's unintended consequences.

According to a Federal Trade Commission survey in 2003, about 10 million Americans — 1 in 30 — had their identities stolen in the previous year, with losses to the economy of $48 billion. Subsequent surveys, by Javelin Strategy and Research, a private research company, found that the number of victims had declined to nine million last year but that the losses had risen to $56.6 billion."

KSL.Com Child ID Theft a Big Problem

"It's a fast growing crime that affects all of us, including children. One Utah mother recently found that out when her daughter's identity was stolen.

It happens more than parents may realize. Lynnette Weed's daughter is sharing her identity with someone else. She may be only five-years old, but clearing her name has become a frustrating feat."

TMCNet Veterans not the only, or even easiest, targets of identity theft

"Veterans understandably are a little nervous after the apparent heist of 26.5 million Department of Veterans Affairs records from the home of a federal employee earlier this month.

But it turns out the vets have plenty of company."

"[Millions] of names and Social Security numbers are in danger of being scooped up each year, unbeknown to the individuals they belong to. About 50 million records kept by universities, financial institutions, government agencies and other sources were compromised last year in a fashion similar to what happened with the VA database, said Michael Stanfield, chairman and CEO of Intersections Inc., a Virginia-based data monitoring firm."

WFAA.Com Do you need ID theft insurance?

"With all the publicity surrounding it, many Americans are considering identity theft insurance to protect themselves from potentially disastrous consequences, including a reduced credit rating."

" Identity theft insurance typically costs about $600 a year as an add-on to your homeowners' insurance policy.

But security experts urge consumers to use caution before making such an investment."

Money Are you terrified about identity theft yet? If not, consider this: It could get you killed.

"As you've read these past few months, identity theft is becoming a huge problem, netting more than $50 billion annually for the crooks and leaving the victims with no end of headaches. With enough information about you, a criminal can get credit cards, cell phones, apartments and, yes, even medical care in your name, leaving you to deal with the collectors and credit bureaus when the perp skips on the bills. Not surprisingly, financial companies, including big names like American Express, Chase, Citi, Discover and MBNA, see opportunities in the hysteria over this, and they're hawking services designed to protect you from the threat. A few of them might be useful for some folks. But before you shell out one thin dime, take a deep breath and try to understand what the real risks are--and what's just lurid hype."

Katu.com Wireless piggybacking lands man in trouble

""He doesn't buy anything," Manager Emily Pranger says about the man she ended up calling 911 about. "It's not right for him to come and use it."

Pranger says 20-year-old Alexander Eric Smith of Battle Ground sat in the parking lot in his truck for three months, spending hours at a time piggybacking on the coffee shop's wireless Internet service for free.

When deputies told Smith to knock it off, he came back and is now charged with theft of services."

TechWeb Illinois Man Fined For Piggybacking On Wi-Fi Service

"In Illinois, riding piggyback on someone else's Wi-Fi could cost you some money.

David M. Kauchak, 32, pleaded guilty this week in Winnebago County to remotely accessing someone else's computer system without permission, the Rockford Register Star newspaper reported. A Winnebago County judge fined Kauchak $250 and sentenced him to one year of court supervision".

""We just want to get the word out that it is a crime. We are prosecuting it, and people need to take precautions," Assistant State's Attorney Tom Wartowski told the newspaper."

St. Petersburg Times Wi-Fi cloaks a new breed of intruder

"Richard Dinon saw the laptop's muted glow through the rear window of the SUV parked outside his home. He walked closer and noticed a man inside.

Then the man noticed Dinon and snapped his computer shut.

Maybe it's census work, the 28-year-old veterinarian told his girlfriend. An hour later, Dinon left to drive her home. The Chevy Blazer was still there, the man furtively hunched over his computer.

Dinon returned at 11 p.m. and the men repeated their strange dance.

Fifteen minutes later, Dinon called police."

CTV Police warn of Wi-Fi theft by porn downloaders

"Toronto police have charged a man with theft of telecommunications in a bizarre case that involves downloading child pornography from a laptop in a moving car and using other people's computer networks to obtain the images.

Locating insecure networks is known as "War Driving." It's the practise of driving around in a vehicle with a Wi-Fi enabled laptop scanning for vulnerable signals, usually in an effort to steal Internet bandwidth."

CFRA Cops Urge Computer Users to Protect Wireless Lap Tops

"Ontario Provincial Police charged a 25-year-old man last week under Section 326 of the Criminal Code - "Theft of Communications."

The OPP allege the man was using his lap top computer to steal a wireless Internet connection in Morrisburg."

Salon Is the NSA spying on U.S. Internet traffic?

" In interviews with Salon, the former AT&T workers said that only government officials or AT&T employees with top-secret security clearance are admitted to the room, located inside AT&T's facility in Bridgeton. The room's tight security includes a biometric "mantrap" or highly sophisticated double door, secured with retinal and fingerprint scanners. The former workers say company supervisors told them that employees working inside the room were "monitoring network traffic" and that the room was being used by "a government agency.""

" The importance of the Bridgeton facility is its role in managing the "common backbone" for all of AT&T's Internet operations. According to one of the former workers, Bridgeton serves as the technical command center from which the company manages all the routers and circuits carrying the company's domestic and international Internet traffic. Therefore, Bridgeton could be instrumental for conducting surveillance or collecting data."

San Francisco Chronicle AT&T rewrites rules: Your data isn't yours

"AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers' personal data with government officials."

"The new version, which is specifically for Internet and video customers, is much more explicit about the company's right to cooperate with government agencies in any security-related matters -- and AT&T's belief that customers' data belongs to the company, not customers."

redux [04.12.06]
Wired News AT&T Seeks to Hide Spy Docs

"AT&T is seeking the return of technical documents presented in a lawsuit that allegedly detail how the telecom giant helped the government set up a massive internet wiretap operation in its San Francisco facilities."

"AT&T's lawyers also told the court that intense press coverage surrounding the case, including Wired News' publication of Klein's statement, was revealing the company's trade secrets, "causing grave injury to AT&T." The lawyers argued that unsealing the documents "would cause AT&T great harm and potentially jeopardize AT&T's network, making it vulnerable to hackers, and worse.""

Wired News Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room

"AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers' phone calls, and shunted its customers' internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center, according to a former AT&T worker cooperating in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit against the company."

The secret room also included data-mining equipment called a Narus STA 6400, "known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets," according to Klein's statement."

Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF Files Evidence in Motion to Stop AT&T's Dragnet Surveillance

""The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now.""

The Mercury News Tangled up in spying controversy

"Narus executives confirm AT&T is a customer but say they do not know how the telecommunications giant uses its software. ``Once our customers buy our product, it's relatively opaque to us,'' said Steve Bannerman, vice president of marketing.

Narus CEO Greg Oslan said the company's software is designed to allow carriers to monitor all Internet traffic, including Web searches, e-mail content and attachments, and Internet phone calls."

"Narus was founded in 1997 and has more than 100 employees around the globe. Some of the world's largest phone and Internet carriers have signed up as Narus customers, including T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Brasil Telecom, Korea Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Saudi Telecom and Shanghai Telecom, according to the company."

CBS News Is The Shuttle Safe To Fly?

"NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has cleared the space shutting Discovery for launch on July 1, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr, over-riding warnings from his own chief engineer and top safety officials.

"If we're going to fly, we need to accept some programmatic risk and get on with it," Griffin said Saturday."

"In their risk analysis, officials label that failure as "probable/catastrophic," meaning it is "probable" that sometime in the final 17 shuttle flights, foam will be shed with "catastrophic results.""

redux [01.24.06]
Guardian Unlimited Shuttle a deathtrap, says astronaut

"One of America's most experienced astronauts has denounced the space shuttle as a deathtrap and accused US space officials of stifling all concerns raised about its safety.

The revelation comes as America prepares to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. Seven astronauts were killed on 28 January 1986, when their shuttle exploded 73 seconds after take-off.

Veteran astronaut Mike Mullane's outburst therefore comes at a deeply embarrassing time for the Nasa. Apart from dealing with the Challenger anniversary, it is now struggling to save its remaining space shuttles so they can complete the international space station.

redux [08.18.05]
The New York Times Report Faults NASA as Compromising Safety
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""It is difficult to be objective based on hindsight, but it appears to us that lessons that should have been learned have not been," the minority wrote, in a document appended to the final report of the group.

Even after two and a half years of intense work to make the shuttles safer, NASA managers "lack the crucial ability to accurately evaluate how much or how little risk is associated with their decisions, particularly decisions to sidestep or abbreviate any given procedure or process," wrote the seven panelists, who included a former astronaut and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office.

Managers and officials, they went on, "must break this cycle of smugness substituting for knowledge.""

Maciej Ceglowski A Rocket To Nowhere

"Future archaeologists trying to understand what the Shuttle was for are going to have a mess on their hands. Why was such a powerful rocket used only to reach very low orbits, where air resistance and debris would limit the useful lifetime of a satellite to a few years? Why was there both a big cargo bay and a big crew compartment? What kind of missions would require people to assist in deploying a large payload? Why was the Shuttle intentionally crippled so that it could not land on autopilot? 1 Why go through all the trouble to give the Shuttle large wings if it has no jet engines and the glide characteristics of a brick? Why build such complex, adjustable main engines and then rely on the equivalent of two giant firecrackers to provide most of the takeoff thrust? Why use a glass thermal protection system, rather than a low-tech ablative shield? And having chosen such a fragile method of heat protection, why on earth mount the orbiter on the side of the rocket, where things will fall on it during launch?

Taken on its own merits, the Shuttle gives the impression of a vehicle designed to be launched repeatedly to near-Earth orbit, tended by five to seven passengers with little concern for their personal safety, and requiring extravagant care and preparation before each flight, with an almost fetishistic emphasis on reuse. Clearly this primitive space plane must have been a sacred artifact, used in religious rituals to deliver sacrifice to a sky god."

redux [07.28.05]
The Telegraph We got it wrong, admits space shuttle chiefs

"The future of the American space shuttle programme was in doubt last night after Nasa suspended further flights while it determines why a large chunk of the shuttle's fuel tank broke away on lift-off."

"Nasa has acknowledged that, after spending more than $1 billion on safety improvements to deal with exactly this type of accident, it still does not know the cause."

""I honestly don't know how hard it is to fix this," said the Nasa administrator Michael Griffin yesterday. "If we had to go over it again, we would do something more than had been done. It was considered good enough to fly. That was an error.""

redux [02.22.03]
Washington Post Engineers' E-mails Warned NASA Downplaying Shuttle Problems

"In one e-mail sent three days before the shuttle's Feb. 1 disintegration as it hit the Earth's atmosphere, a Langley engineer complained that those managing Columbia's flight had chosen not to make simple studies to clarify landing risks and were treating such information "like the plague."

The engineer, Robert Daugherty, also said he understood NASA engineers at flight headquarters in Texas had privately estimated its safety during landing was "survivable but marginal.""

redux [02.01.03]
The New York Times Speed Makes Space Flight Very Risky, Experts Say
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"A success rate of about 95 percent is more typical of the trade, Dr. Postol said. With two catastrophic failures in 113 flights, for a 98.2 percent success rate, the shuttle program is not looking much different -- for sound physical reasons, he said.

"Capt. Bill Readdy, associate administrator for space flight and a former astronaut, said at a news conference yesterday afternoon: "Today was a very stark reminder that this is a very risky endeavor, pushing back the frontiers in outer space. And after 113 flights, unfortunately, people have a tendency to look at it as something that is more or less routine. Well I can assure you it is not.""

The Guardian Unlimited Nasa chiefs 'repeatedly ignored' safety warnings

"Fears of a catastrophic shuttle accident were raised last summer with the White House by a former Nasa engineer who pleaded for a presidential order to halt all further shuttle flights until safety issues had been addressed.

In a letter to the White House, Don Nelson, who served with Nasa for 36 years until he retired in 1999, wrote to President George W. Bush warning that his 'intervention' was necessary to 'prevent another catastrophic space shuttle accident'."

Richard Feynman Personal observations on the reliability of the Shuttle

"If a reasonable launch schedule is to be maintained, engineering often cannot be done fast enough to keep up with the expectations of originally conservative certification criteria designed to guarantee a very safe vehicle. In these situations, subtly, and often with apparently logical arguments, the criteria are altered so that flights may still be certified in time. They therefore fly in a relatively unsafe condition, with a chance of failure of the order of a percent (it is difficult to be more accurate).

Official management, on the other hand, claims to believe the probability of failure is a thousand times less. One reason for this may be an attempt to assure the government of NASA perfection and success in order to ensure the supply of funds. The other may be that they sincerely believed it to be true, demonstrating an almost incredible lack of communication between themselves and their working engineers."

redux [02.06.03]
Reason The Limits of Complexity

"The week has brought a painful reminder of the limits of complex systems and human fallibility."

"So there is the crux of the matter, across shuttle, software, and oil truck. At what point does complexity make a system more prone to break, rather than less? Can added cost always justify greater reliability? How do we know when the risk of something going wrong is too great?

If in answering such questions you require or assume perfection, something might go very wrong indeed."

Houston Chronicle 10 years after Challenger, NASA feels shuttle safety never better

"In 1988, SAIC evaluated the launch risk for NASA relying primarily on factors applicable during the shuttle's pre-Challenger era, including the flawed solid rocket booster. The assessment produced a range of risk with a mean probability of a shuttle loss at one in every 78 launches.

The risk mean for a shuttle loss during the liftoff improved to one in every 248 ascents when the assessment was repeated this year and the shuttle's post-Challenger actual track record was factored into the calculations.