Cutting Edge Technology in the news

[calikid]

What I want to know is, did this legislation get away from the Senator? Or is this an issue he is refusing to let go? If the latter, might be time for his constitutes to find new representation.
About-face on e-mail surveillance bill

Senator abandons controversial proposal
by Steven Musil

After public criticism of a proposal that would let government agencies warrantlessly access Americans' e-mail, a prominent senator says he will "not support" such an idea.

Sen. Patrick Leahy has abandoned his controversial proposal that would grant government agencies more surveillance power -- including warrantless access to Americans' e-mail accounts -- than they possess under current law. The Vermont Democrat said on Twitter that he would "not support such an exception" for warrantless access, a few hours after a CNET article disclosed the existence of the measure.

Leahy's about-face comes in response to a deluge of criticism, including the American Civil Liberties Union saying that warrants should be required, and the conservative group FreedomWorks launching a petition to Congress -- with more than 2,300 messages sent so far -- titled: "Tell Congress: Stay Out of My Email!"

Leahy's proposal would have allowed over 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would have given the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.
Story Continues

[Garuda]

From what I understand, he's withdrawn the amendments he had suggested to the Bill. The Bill itself is still up for discussion (and vote).

[calikid]

Forced to divluge password? Did this judge go to far? Making the plaintiff a victim for a second time.

Judge Orders Sex Plaintiffs to Hand Over Cellphones, Online Accounts
By Ben Weitzenkorn

A judge has ordered nearly two dozen women who are participants in a lawsuit alleging unlawful sexual harassment to hand over their cellphones, as well as login information for their email accounts, blogs and Facebook and other social-networking accounts.

The order was issued so that the defense may access photos, posts, emails, text messages and chat logs it deems relevant to the case.

The court order, issued by federal magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty in U.S. District Court in Denver on Nov. 7, cites as examples several items that were found on the Facebook profile of plaintiff Wendy Cabrera.

Cabrera was employed at an HoneyBaked Ham Company store in suburban Highlands Ranch, Colo., but was fired in 2010.

In September, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued HoneyBaked Ham, alleging that Cabrera was fired for complaining that manager James Jackman had propositioned female employees, fondled them and commented on their appearances.

According to the court order, between 20 and 22 women have since joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs.

The court order notes that Cabrera's Facebook account included statements indicating that she expected to see financial reward from the case; a photograph of Cabrera wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an obscenity she had claimed was offensive to her; writings on her post-employment situation and demeanor; and "self-described sexual aggressiveness."

"Should the outcome be different because it [the information] is on one's Facebook account [instead of stored elsewhere]?" the judge wrote in the order.

"There is a strong argument that storing such information on Facebook and making it accessible to others presents an even stronger case for production, at least as it concerns any privacy objection," he wrote.

"It was the claimants (or at least some of them) who, by their own volition, created relevant communications and shared them with others."

[Boss Demands Employee's Facebook Password]

The order requires that all plaintiffs joining in the EEOC lawsuit hand over "any cellphone used to send or receive text messages from January 1, 2009 to the present," as well as "all necessary information to access any social media websites" and "all necessary information to access any email account or web blog" used by the plaintiffs since Jan. 1, 2009.
story continues

[calikid]

So AT&T values us as customers, but doesn't hesitate to hand off customer personal data when the government comes knocking. And the government is so grateful, they hand out immunity from civil procedings... Privacy.... what's that?

Supreme Court confirms telco immunity on spying charges

The court declined to hear an appeal of Hepting v. AT&T, a case that was brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in 2006 after it was revealed that then-president George Bush had given the NSA full access to the databases of AT&T and others in a nationwide surveillance sweep following the September 11 attacks.

"We're disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision, since it lets the telecommunications companies off the hook for betraying their customers' trust and violating the law by handing their communications and communications records to the NSA without a warrant," said EFF legal director Cindy Cohn. "But the fight to stop the illegal spying on the American people continues." Story Continues

[CasperParks]

So AT&T values us as customers, but doesn't hesitate to hand off customer personal data when the government comes knocking. And the government is so grateful, they hand out immunity from civil procedings... Privacy.... what's that?

Supreme Court confirms telco immunity on spying charges

The court declined to hear an appeal of Hepting v. AT&T, a case that was brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in 2006 after it was revealed that then-president George Bush had given the NSA full access to the databases of AT&T and others in a nationwide surveillance sweep following the September 11 attacks.

"We're disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision, since it lets the telecommunications companies off the hook for betraying their customers' trust and violating the law by handing their communications and communications records to the NSA without a warrant," said EFF legal director Cindy Cohn. "But the fight to stop the illegal spying on the American people continues." Story Continues

Saw that one coming...

[CasperParks]

I have not downloaded the ieSpell for Internet Explore to use in forms. Afraid it would mess with spell check for the word program. My spelling is terrible without spell check.

If spelling gets complicated, I write in word then copy and paste into forms.

Somewhat hearing impaired. I do not hear and pronounce certain letters, vowels and consonants making spelling difficult. I grew up borderline hearing impaired, just below the mark for hearing aids. I almost did not make into the Navy because of my hearing. Years later as an adult, the cost of hearing aids was beyond budgets. Four years ago, the VA provided me with hearing aids.

It took me a minute to figure out “vowels” for this post.

I ended-up putting “vouels” into Google Search because Word wasn’t getting it right. Google asked, "do you mean vowels".

Word did catch "terrable" to "terrible" not "vouels" to "vowels".

What is amazing, Google search has a better spell check than Microsoft Word.

[calikid]

I have not downloaded the ieSpell for Internet Explore to use in forms. Afraid it would mess with spell check for the word program. My spelling is terrible without spell check.

If spelling gets complicated, I write in word then copy and paste into forms.

Somewhat hearing impaired. I do not hear and pronounce certain letters, vowels and consonants making spelling difficult. I grew up borderline hearing impaired, just below the mark for hearing aids. I almost did not make into the Navy because of my hearing. Years later as an adult, the cost of hearing aids was beyond budgets. Four years ago, the VA provided me with hearing aids.

It took me a minute to figure out “vowels” for this post.

I ended-up putting “vouels” into Google Search because Word wasn’t getting it right. Google asked, "do you mean vowels".

Word did catch "terrable" to "terrible" not "vouels" to "vowels".

What is amazing, Google search has a better spell check than Microsoft Word.

Reminds me of that Google joke by Amy Schumer:
"We need Google search in hospital deliver rooms. That way when a mother tries to name her baby Shaniqua, Google can say "Did you really mean Jennifer?"".

[calikid]

Free 5gigs of online storage? That Google, always upping the ante in the competition for online eyeballs. May have to check this one out.

Gmail allows 10 GB file sharing with Google Drive
By Doug Gross
(CNN) -- Frustrated that you can't share files the size of your entire music collection via e-mail? Google wants to help.

Gmail users can now send files of up to 10 GB using Google Drive, the Web giant's cloud-storage service.

That's 400 times bigger than files that can be shared in a regular e-mail, according to a blog post by Google's Gmail team.

And because the files are stored in the cloud, all recipients will always have the latest version of the file -- in the case of a document that's being amended over time, for example.



"So whether it's photos from your recent camping trip, video footage from your brother's wedding, or a presentation to your boss, all your stuff is easy to find and easy to share with Drive and Gmail," the post reads.

Drive, and before that Google Docs, already allowed users to share large files. But the new feature is more streamlined, letting them do so without leaving Gmail.

Launched in April, Google Drive offers users 5 GB of free storage, with each additional 25 GB going for $2.49.

The move is part of an ongoing effort by Google to synchronize its various services, from Gmail to social network Google Plus to the Android mobile operating system. The ability to sync with Gmail offers Google a built-in edge over standalone cloud storage tools like Dropbox.

"Should services like Dropbox be concerned? Story Continues

[Doc]

I don't trust online storage and really have no need for it, anyway. Also, I am trying to reduce my involvement with Google. I know they are all selling my information but Google is the only one that is probably selling it to the North Koreans.

[A99]

Casper,

Just a suggestion and I hope you try it out too. But go to Radio Shack and purchase an amplifier box. It's only somewhere around $25 dollars but, for me, it works like a charm. I too suffer from hearing loss to the extent that I can barely even hear my own voice when I talk unless I talk into that amplifier that's connected to an earpiece. And in one on one conversations, even in noisy enviroments, I can hear what someone is saying just as well as any normal hearing person when they talk directly into that amplifier. Hearing aids are for the birds. Even though they claim they have improved them to block out background noise, they in fact don't do that anywhere near effectively enough to justify their use. What good is it if the aid ends up turning up all of the noise in the room whereby drowning out the voice of the person you want to hear?
My hearing though is so bad, I was placed in a school for the deaf in first grade. But then we moved and I then was mainstreamed into a regular Catholic private elementary school because there were no schools for the deaf anywhere nearby. But it has not been easy because I have always had to rely on other peoples notes from classes throughout school, college and grad. school because I never could hear teachers or professor's lectures in my classes.
But anyway, I am thankful that at least I can hear as good as everybody else via amplification. The amplifier box works best for me and it's very cheap too! You should try it out!

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I'm just saying that if you have any difficulty in hearing people in certain environments, try out that amplifier box because it will correct that problem. Even if you only have a slight to low mod. loss... that amplifier might come in handy for you in certain situations.