This is a blog of pointers, generated by
Bruce Umbaugh,
who also maintains the
X-Ray Net
mailing list. There's also an
archive of less current material.
The Chronicle: Daily news: 12/09/99 -- 01 Harvard University has filed suit in federal court in Boston against two men operating a Web site named HarvardYardSale.com that has for sale 65 Internet domain names incorporating the word "Harvard," such as harvard-lawschool.com and virtualharvard.com.
posted 9:56:23 AM
The Chronicle: Daily news: 12/09/99 -- 01 For-Profit Venture to Market Distance-Education Courses Stirs Concern at Temple U.
posted 9:55:53 AM
Be and Opera Software Team to Enable Rich Web Content On Internet Appliances
posted 5:16:21 PM
Dan Gillmor at Builder.Com Live! Best practices
The sites I come back to again and again follow these rules, and in this order:
1) They're useful.
2) They don't waste my time.
3) They're obvious.
4) They're bandwidth-friendly.
5) They're simple.
To amplify:
posted 5:15:20 PM
The Microsoft civil cases and wronged consumers (12/06/1999)
If you're a consumer, of course, don't hold your breath on any of this. Just be happy that the antitrust trial is sending an excellent message to monopolists -- a message that, once in a while, the government will take a strong stand on behalf of competitive marketplace.
posted 9:45:13 AM
The Chronicle: Daily news: 12/07/99 -- 01 The Department of Education sidestepped a potentially divisive debate with an accreditation agency Monday over the issue of distance education. But the dispute has raised questions over how the department will evaluate distance-education activities in the future.
posted 9:30:17 AM
The Chronicle: Daily news: 12/07/99 -- 02 [The other shoe drops.]
"To be competitive, we're going to have to market in such a way that is quantitatively different in order to be qualitatively different," said Gerald A. Heeger, president of University College.
posted 9:29:08 AM
Suck: Daily ( Hit & Run 12.2.99 )
According to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, America's children and teens are spending only 37 hours per week consuming media. While school-based media wasn't included in the study, 37 hours a week still seems disappointingly low to us. When we were kids, we used to top 50 hours a week easy, and we didn't have the Internet and Total Request Live back then to help us. We had to make do with Dynamite and Land of the Lost.
posted 9:10:54 AM
Bush camp miffed over parody Web site
posted 5:43:49 PM
Bush can't take a cyberjoke?
posted 5:43:19 PM
gwbush.com -- the original page that provoked the candidate. No longer the front page at www.gwbush.com.
posted 4:59:39 PM
First Internet domain name dispute filed at WIPO (12/03/1999) WIPO declined to identify the parties, but said the dispute concerned a domain name registered with Melbourne IT, one of the first five registrars accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to accept registrations in the top-level domains (.com, .net and .org).
posted 4:35:11 PM
Microsoft Settlement Talks in Chicago-Sources
posted 11:12:57 AM
U.S. Supreme Court to Revisit Miranda Rights Case
posted 11:12:22 AM
Puffinsplace Distance Learning
posted 10:59:43 AM
A reader asks, in response to my forward to the list about W32/Mypics.worm: "Bruce: For those of us who are infants in understanding the real danger of these kind of things, what should we do? Is there some action I should take ahead of time? Is this a serious threat for us? Whatcha think, oh Guru of the ether?"
The important lesson has not to do with this particular worm (Network Associates labels it "medium risk"), but, rather, with safe computing more generally.
You make yourself less vulnerable when you:
- Use virus detection software, and update your definitions file regularly. (See, e.g., Network Associates, at http://www.networkassociates.com/.)
- Pay attention to announcements that tell you how viruses work or that there is a new way they're getting distributed. Know the standard virus hoaxes and don't be sucked into perpetuating unreasonable fears. (See the aforementioned and their Virus Alerts Page, or CERT's Viruses and Hoaxes page.)
- Don't run unknown programs--which now (wonderful new world!) can mean something as simple as clicking on a hyperlink in an e-mail message. If the message smells funny ("Why is my sister-in-law sending me a spreadsheet?"), check with the purported sender, since some of the lovelier new worms spoof e-mail addresses when they propagate.
- Use your own system to protect yourself and others: automate little (JavaScript, Word macros, auto-execute) unless you know you're safe, avoid software monocultures (many recent attacks exploit all MS environments), back up to minimize loss in the event of a disaster
- Remember "Nick's First Law of Computer Virus Complaints" in the Computer Virus FAQ for New Users: "Just because your computer is acting strangely or one of your programs doesn't work right, this does NOT mean that your computer has a virus."
Number 2 is actually pretty important: educating yourself about how Bad Things work will help you sort things out for yourself when a news outlet runs a sensational story.
This is more or less off the top of my head, but thanks for asking, and I'll hope it helps.
posted 10:24:02 AM
W32/Mypics.worm
posted 9:57:55 AM
POYNTER ONLINE - "Codes of Ethics...and Beyond" by Bob Steele
posted 9:37:41 AM
JAY BLACK: An ethics audit of the professoriate
We live in an interesting yet perplexing time, when countless amounts of money and person-hours are being committed to teaching ethics to students and the whole range of professionals in our society. In most of our disciplines, a plethora of symposia, workshops, conferences, coaching sessions, research studies, scholarly outlets, and arguments are being devoted to understanding the moral dimensions of our crafts and ways in which students may examine their own lives and, some suggest, improve upon the professional lives of those who practice those crafts .Given the increasing sophistication of these efforts at applied professional ethics, why has there been so little attention paid to the ethics of the professoriate per se? Why haven't the same lenses that have been focused ever so sharply upon the transgressions and professional development of our graduates been focused upon the performance of those of us who work as professors and administrators, those who produce and administrate academia's vast research and publication enterprises?
posted 9:34:36 AM
FCC closes public comment on low-power radio
posted 1:42:25 PM
Digital players gear up to take on Walkman
posted 1:42:02 PM
Internet gives elderly 'window to life,' say researchers Is the fountain of youth available at the click of a mouse?
posted 1:41:12 PM
Technological distractions harmful, author says "The faster we go, the sloppier we're going to be," David Shenk, author of The End of Patience: Cautionary Notes on the Information Revolution, said yesterday at the World Center. "And the antidote isn't a simple one."
posted 1:40:48 PM
23 Fired for Email Violations [Dind't see this in my copy of the paper . . .]
The New York Times Company fired 23 employees in Virginia Tuesday for violating its email policy, The New York Times reported in its Wednesday editions
posted 12:09:28 PM
Orwellian Nightmare Down Under?
If you're in Australia, the government has the ability to modify your files. Its cyber spooks have been given legal power not only to monitor private computers around the country, but to change the data they contain.
posted 12:07:09 PM
The Cookie Leak Security Hole in HTML Email messages by Richard M. Smith
Since the invention of Web browser cookies by Netscape, the claim has always been made that they are anonymous and cannot be associated with any personal information unless someone provides this information.In this write-up, I will present a technique in which browser cookies can be matched to Email addresses without people's knowledge. The technique relies on a security hole that is present in both Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and Netscape's Navigator browser.
posted 12:06:27 PM
Sony Music Soundtrack For A Century
posted 11:49:33 AM