3/3 defcon: fascism, fake friends, foia

obama joins critics of nonprofit group that oversees internet;

or, obama & china agree: fascist dictators should control the net*
army of fake social media friends to promote propaganda*
centcom says spy bloggers not 'friending' US targets*
bradley manning charged with 22 new counts, including capital offense*
when westboro won't take no for an answer, anonymous hacks - live!*
chaos as anonymous attacks toilet paper, sweden, itself*
scotus says at&t not exempt from foia*
if watson can win jeopardy, can ibm make cities smarter?*
'minority report'-style shopping? billboard profiles, shows ads tailored to your tastes*

2/24 defcon: transhumanism & you

video: human 2.0 - where biology & technology merge in 2029*
continuing saga of data security firm hbgary: air force ordered software to manage army of fake virtual people*
patent: nervous system manipulation from tv monitors*
internet 'kill switch' bill gets a makeover*
voice of america site knocked off by iranian cyber army*
india plans to tighten rules for cyber-cafes*
ibm's watson supercomputer goes to work for you*
as users move to smartphones, so do cyber-criminals*
british court rules assange to be extradited to sweden*

man v machine: final solutions company destroying humans again

despite reports, ibm programmers now backpedaling & saying that 'watson' did not crash during 'jeopardy!' 4hr taping...
from john c. dvorak of no agenda: When Watson failed to answer the Final Jeopardy! question correctly during the Tuesday Jeopardy! game show, yet still won the round, I realized my Monday column, predicting that the humans would be victorious, was wrong. While there is no doubt that this machine is a fantastic accomplishment, the Jeopardy! competition is skewed in favor of the Watson's fast buzzer clicker. I'd like to see a show consisting of nothing but Final Jeopardy! Q&A. You could clearly see the two men pushing their buzzers once the question was read, but the giant computer was getting the question electronically and could react faster than the other contestants. I mean, it's not as if the two men don't know the answer to these weird questions. So at the end of the last round tonight, you can be certain that the computer will have amassed a huge amount of money, unless they do something very strange like ask the questions in Pig Latin. Meanwhile, I cry foul because this contest gives an edge to the machine by making response time a key element. People versus machine, insofar as response time is concerned, is unfair. Make the machine have to read the question with a camera, and then it would be fair. Anyway, what IBM has done is quite remarkable. I now have no doubt that the machine will be the winner. My assertion on Monday was wrong, and I know why it was wrong. It's rigged.

video update: watson supercomputer wins at 'jeopardy!'*
machines beat us at our own game: what can we do?*

virtual eternity

Would you like virtual eternity? A digital simulation of yourself created by sophisticated--and creepy--simulation, gaming and artificial intelligence software. Your digital avatar would interact online and remember conversation and log questions where answers are yet to be added to the database. Intellitar's Virtual Eternity is already in the business. You can interact with co-founder Don Davidson's avatar at the company website. Ms. Smith in a recent blog Digital Cloning: Rise of the Cylons at NETWORKWORLD interviews Don Davidson and asks some of the difficult virtual privacy questions of the co-founder. Intellitar is in the Huntsville, AL area and Davidson's background includes long service at IBM.

ibm wants to control your car

ibm: the solutions company, the final solutions company...
from jalopnik: A patent application filed by IBM engineers reveals the company’s developing technology that will allow governments to shut down the engines of private automobiles via traffic signals. It’s like Skynet… only much worse. Engineers from IBM, suddenly free from the burden of making computers, are hoping to ruin the driving experience by handing over the ability to stop and start car engines over to traffic lights, railroad crossing gates and other transportation signals... The goal of the system is to lower fuel usage and optimize the movement of vehicles through intersections by controlling engine operations remotely via traffic signals. A railroad crossing could sense the vehicles in the general vicinity were going to be stuck for a while and would then cut the power to save gas. It's similar to the start/stop systems on a few modern cars but taken to perverse extremes.

defcon 5/6: global cooperation & orwellian legislation

cybersecurity meet ends with calls for 'global cooperation'*
summit in dallas targets cybercrime - sponsored by goldman sachs & microsoft, etc*
should google try to prevent terrorism?*
getting ready for tomorrow's space wars*
ibm's city sim trains planners to tackle future problems for growing urban centers*
watch the skies! are aliens really coming or is it a govt plot?*
internet 'hate sites' jump 20% in 1yr*
cyber attacks hyped to justify net regulation*
groups call 'privacy' legislation orwellian*
blackberry 'predicted a century ago' by pioneering physicist nikola tesla*
report reams admins for secretly snapping student pics*
facebook bug allowed users to eavesdrop on chats*
top 10 reasons to quit facebook*

defcon 4/22: takedowns, lockups & predictive analytics

google exposes government takedown requests*
google: US demanded user info 3,500 times in 6 months*
google hackers stole source code of global password system*
second banker accused of stealing high-frequency trading code*
mcafee antivirus program locks up pc's worldwide*
crime prediction software is here & it's a very bad idea*
precrime in florida: ibm's predictive analytics*
online game shoppers duped into selling souls*
microsoft's chinese labor scandal:
there's more trouble ahead for the rest of high tech*
cultivated play: farmville*
9 yr-old blamed for US school system hack*
1/3 of US teens with phones 'text 100 times a day'*
wikileaks claims facebook deleted its page, 30,000 fans*
draft of secretive intl copyright treaty leaked -
confirms fears on net freedom*
reverse-engineering artist busts biometric control grid*
'second life' players sue over illegal seizure of virtual property*
video: richard clarke says private firms should spy on net*
clarke says public aversion to regulation prevents govt from defending cyberspace*
facebook steps up lobbying, deepens ties with intel agencies, ftc*