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Greetings,

Happy Reading for Today.

<Karen>




GoodSearch
http://www.goodsearch.com/AddCharity.aspx
get your school of nonprofit some money simply by using the seach engine.

About Ada Lovelace
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/teachers/cwomen.html

Original Ada Lovelace painting purchased on eBay
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/36600/113/
Computer geeks on opposite ends of the Earth have found the original sketch of the world's first programmer. In a story worthy of a Hollywood movie, an Army sergeant in Tajikistan and a programmer in Texas resurrected the legend of Ada Lovelace by buying up her nearly 150-year-old sketch portrait on eBay.
Ada Lovelace, formally known as Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace is credited with creating the world's first computer program for the Babbage steam-powered calculating engine. The United States military named their Ada programming language after her and her portrait is used in some Microsoft hologram stickers.

Money lust lands hacker gang jail time
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200803/20080325/article_353399.htm
FOUR hackers were jailed yesterday for snatching more than 100,000 yuan
(US$14,179) from online bank accounts by stealing account codes using a
computer virus.


Personal data on stolen NIH laptop was not encrypted
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3442638
As a result, medical data on nearly 2,500 patients is at risk following
the February theft of a laptop from the locked trunk of a laboratory
researchers car.
The [National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute] recognizes that such
information should not have been stored in an unencrypted form on a
laptop computer, said Elizabeth Nabel, director of NHLBI, a division of
NIH. However, at the time of the theft, the laptop was off and protected
by a password that would take considerable computer sophistication to
crack, she said in a March 24 statement.

Audit reaffirms need for more IT staff at OU
A recently released state audit says Ohio University's information
technology department is understaffed, but OU says a plan is in place to
add employees.
The audit, released Tuesday by the Ohio State Auditor's Office, covers
the period from July 2006 to June 2007. The university has been
revamping its information technology operations since several computer
security breaches were discovered in 2006 that exposed the personal
information of students, faculty, staff and alumni.

Microsoft Confirms Jet DB Flaw, MS Word Attacks
Attackers are exploiting a buffer overrun vulnerability in the
lightweight database that provides data access to Microsoft Access,
Visual Basic and third-party applications.
An unpatched security flaw in Microsoft's Jet Database Engine is being
used to launch targeted attacks against Windows users, according to an
advisory from the software vendor.
The attacks, described by Microsoft as "very limited," are exploiting a
buffer overrun vulnerability in the lightweight database that provides
data access to applications such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft Visual
Basic and third-party applications
Technical details on this zero-day vulnerability are not yet available
but it is common knowledge that the Jet DB engine has suffered from
major security issues over the last few years.
In fact, proof-of-concept exploit code targeting multiple Jet database
engine flaws has been available on the Internet since April 2005. The
public exploit code affects the same "msjet40.dll" component referenced
in Microsoft's pre-patch advisory.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has decided that digital technology is here to stay, apparently.
The agency just announced that what used to be their Digital Humanities Initiative is now the Office of Digital Humanities.
"Time to get those new business cards printed, I suppose!" blogged Brett Bobley on the official NEH Web site. In addition to the presumed new cards and new building signs (changing DHI to ODH), one real but small change will be transforming the DHI--er, ODH e-mail newsletter to a Web-based update with an RSS feed. And it's true that an office does have a more permanent feel than an initiative. The mission, though, remains the same: To help scholars figure out new ways to analyze, preserve and teach materials using digital formats. Josh Fischman

Sneaky state employees may have inadvertantly exposed info to hackers
TALLAHASSEE -- State employees who tried to hide their computer tracks
by using a "proxy site" might have exposed their personal information to
hackers in Germany.
The Department of Financial Services found out late last week that, at
least five times, employees contacting the state payroll system had gone
through the proxies that throw up a dead end when supervisors try to
find out where a computer user has been. The department said there have
been no security breaches and no known cases of identity theft, but the
department has ordered a statewide re-set of passwords when employees
access the payroll system.
It doesn't involve e-mail or other computer systems, just the payroll
site where employees can view their W-4 forms and other payment data.

Larry Sanger has a suggestion for anyone who has some money they want to put toward a good cause -- give away textbooks online. In fact, he argues, a single fat-cat philanthropist could give any student with an Internet connection free high-quality textbooks and educational videos. Mr. Sanger is a co-founder of Wikipedia, the popular encyclopedia that anyone can add to or edit, and he now runs a spin-off of Wikipedia called Citizendium. This week Mr. Sanger posted a public appeal to philanthropists in the form of an online petition, outlining his vision of a world where textbooks cost children nothing. He's asking other Internet users to sign on, and about 20 have done so as of this writing. (The letter focuses on K-12 textbooks, but it seems that a similar logic could be used for college textbooks as well.) "Sometimes the simplest ways are the best," says Mr. Sanger in the petition. "This opportunity is 'low-hanging fruit.'" It's not clear how, exactly, a rich donor would set up an online textbook publishing operation, or who would decide what goes in the books -- details that seem crucial. But the idea of finding a new, open-source model for textbook publishing, supported by donors, seems part of a larger trend of using technology to give away educational technology. Think, for instance, of the effort to create a $100 laptop that will be given to children in third-world countries. So far those come pre-loaded with portions of Wikipedia. --Jeffrey R. Young


Ethics Updates
http://ethics.sandiego.edu/
Created in 1994 by Professor Lawrence M. Hinman of the University of San
Diego, the Ethics Updates site is designed primarily to be used to ethics
instructors and their students.

To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence [pdf]
http://www.nea.gov/research/ToRead.pdf
In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) published their
groundbreaking report, "Reading at Risk," which took a critical look at
voluntary reading patterns and test scores, and revealed some rather dire
trends along the way. November 2007 saw the publication of another thought-
provoking report, "To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National
Consequence." This 100-page report offers a comprehensive analysis of
reading patterns of children, teenagers, and adults in the United States.
The report draws on data from over 40 sources, including federal agencies,
universities, foundations, and associations. The report includes an
executive summary, introduction, and three sections: "Youth Voluntary
Reading Patterns," "What the Declines Mean for Literacy," and "Why More than
Reading is at Risk." Alternately enlightening and troubling, this report
will be of great interest to policymakers, educators, librarians, and
countless other parties. [KMG]

Intelligent Design vs. Evolution in the Classroom
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/newteacherevolution2.html

National Geographic: Prehistoric Time Line [Macromedia Flash Player]
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/prehistoric-time-line.html
Humans haven't roamed the earth for long, and our presence on this planet
only dates back around 190,000 years. There are approximately 4.3 billion
more years of Earth's history to explore, and this interactive and edifying
timeline created by National Geographic helps interested persons explore it.
First-time visitors can click around within the timeline to read short
descriptions of important events and developments in the Earth's history,
complete with visual materials. The events covered here include the initial
formation of the Earth all the way up to the recent Ice Ages and the birth
of modern humans. Along with this timeline, visitors can also view a photo
gallery of the Permian Age and learn more about mass extinctions. [KMG]

Lauren R. Donaldson Collection
http://content.lib.washington.edu/donaldsonweb/
In 1946, Lauren R. Donaldson and several of his scientific colleagues were
selected as radiation monitors for Operation Crossroads, which was the
codename for the first atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. During this
operation, two nuclear bombs were detonated above and below the ocean
surface, contaminating the organs and tissues of living creatures and plants
with large doses of radioactivity. Over the next twelve years, Dr. Donaldson
and his colleagues would return a number of times to perform research
related to these activities. Recently, the University of Washington
Libraries Digital Collections team digitized selected personal logs, photo
albums, papers, and ephemera from the surveys undertaken by this team of
researchers. Visitors can browse the collection, or they may wish to get
started by looking over the sample searches which include "1946 Operation
Crossroads" and "1947 Bikini Atoll Radiological Survey". Also, visitors can
learn more about Dr. Donaldson and peruse a finding aid for his own personal
and academic papers which are also held by the University of Washington.
[KMG]




Big future forecast for ‘asset monitoring’ system
A SOPHISTICATED “asset monitoring” technique
developed by BT researchers in Wales is expected
to evolve into a multi-billion-pounds industry.
From next month, the telecoms giant will start
rolling out a number of business packages that
will enable customers to access the new technology.

Welcome to the world of SPIT, op SPam over Internet Telephony.
It’s  the latest craze for spammers and it’s causing headaches for VoIP 
providers like Skype. SPIT is very analogous to SPAM, where VoIP 
subscribers receive actual unsolicited telephone calls offering 
typical SPAM type products like organ enlargement or weight loss 
pitches. The difference with SPIT though is can be much more damaging 
to a VoIP providers network because of the large bandwidth bottlenecks 
it can create. If not kept in check, SPIT can cause serious quality of 
service problems for VoIP providers, leading to a potential 
competitive disadvantage.

IT Labor Shortage Is Just a Myth
"For the past few years, we've heard a number of analysts and high- profile IT industry executives, Bill Gates and Craig Barrett among 
them, promoting the idea that there's an ever-present shortage of 
skilled IT workers to fill the industry's demand. But now there's 
growing evidence suggesting the "shortage" is simply a self-serving 
myth.
"It seems like every three years you've got one group or another 
saying, the world is going to come to an end there is going to be a 
shortage and so on," says Vivek Wadhwa, a professor for Duke 
University's Master of Engineering Management Program and a former 
technology CEO himself. "This whole concept of shortages is bogus, it 
shows a lack of understanding of the labor pool in the USA.""



Hacking a pacemaker
" The threat seems largely theoretical. But a team of computer security
researchers plans to report Wednesday that it had been able to gain wireless
access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker.
They were able to reprogram it to shut down and to deliver jolts of electricity
that would potentially be fatal . if the device had been in a person. In this
case, the researcher were hacking into a device in a laboratory. "


Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was a prime
mover in the expansion of much of this monitoring power, and had used it
in his prosecutions of organized crime.



2008 Pew News IQ survey
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=401
The current Pew News IQ survey provides an updated look at the public's
knowledge of political and world affairs. A total of 1,003 adults were
interviewed Feb. 28-March 2 and asked to answer a series of 12 multiple
choice questions. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 3.5
percentage points.


FBI Found to Misuse Security Letters
2003-06 Audit Cites Probes of Citizens
Justice Department official Glenn A. Fine testifies about his probe of
national security letters. (By Dennis Cook -- Associated Press)
The FBI has increasingly used administrative orders to obtain the personal
records of U.S. citizens rather than foreigners implicated in terrorism or
counterintelligence investigations, and at least once it relied on such
orders to obtain records that a special intelligence-gathering court had
deemed protected by the First Amendment, according to two government
audits released yesterday.
The episode was outlined in a Justice Department report that concluded the
FBI had abused its intelligence-gathering privileges by issuing
inadequately documented "national security letters" from 2003 to 2006,
after which changes were put in place that the report called sound.
A report a year ago by the Justice Department's inspector general
disclosed that abuses involving national security letters had occurred
from 2003 through 2005 and helped provoke the changes. But the report
makes it clear that the abuses persisted in 2006 and disclosed that 60
percent of the nearly 50,000 security letters issued that year by the FBI
targeted Americans.


Public.Resource.Org
A large number of early appellate cases have just been put on-line.
These cases, known as the Federal Reporter, First Series (F1), can be
viewed here:
These volumes were contributed by the Law Library Microform Consortium
(LLMC.com), a nonprofit consortium of law libraries founded in 1976 to
preserve the law in digital form.  LLMC's contribution means we now
have substantially complete coverage of appellate law, with about 11%
of the cases still missing.  Previous releases include F2 and F3,
which were purchased from Fastcase, and the early Federal Cases,
donated by the William S. Hein Co.  Substantial additional
contributions of case law have been received from Justia, Inc. and by
a broad-based coalition of commercial and non-commercial organizations
who are harvesting current opinions.
Our goal in this endeavor, dubbed "America's Operating System," is a
complete Internet collection of all U.S. federal cases and codes,
available in bulk for re-use without restriction.
LLMC was founded in 1976 by Jerry Dupont.  It is amazing to me that
Dupont not only foresaw the need but also acted upon it, helping
preserve the legal record of the United States.  LLMC's collection is
truly amazing and their contribution of F1 for bulk distribution means
a lot.

Concern over the issue of civil liberties will be further amplified by news yesterday that
commuters using Oyster smart cards could have their movements around cities secretly
monitored under new counter-terrorism powers being sought by the security services.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/16/youthjustice.children
Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain's most senior police forensics expert.
Gary Pugh, director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said a debate was needed on how far Britain should go in identifying potential offenders, given that some experts believe it is possible to identify future offending traits in children as young as five.


Only Corporate Whores own IP
AP Uses Dupre MySpace Images Then Asserts Copyright?


Web creator rejects net tracking
Excerpt:
The creator of the web has said consumers need to be protected
against systems which can track their activity on the internet. Sir Tim Berners-Lee told BBC News he would change his internet
provider if it introduced such a system. Plans by leading internet providers to use Phorm, a company parked controversy.
Sir Tim said he did not want his ISP to track which websites he visited.
"I want to know if I look up a whole lot of books about some form of cancer that that's not going to get to my insurance company
and I'm going to find my insurance premium is going to go up by 5% because they've figured I'm looking at those books," he said.
Sir Tim said his data and web history belonged to him.
He said: "It's mine - you can't have it. If you want to use it for something, then you have to negotiate with me. I have to agree, I have to understand what I'm getting in return."


Dollar no longer accepted in Amsterdam
"The U.S. dollar's value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in
Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.
"Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here," said Mary Kelly, an American tourist from Indianapolis,
 Indiana, in front of the Anne Frank house. "It's hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office.""

Breach Exposes 4.2M Credit, Debit Cards: Financial News -Yahoo! Finance
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080317/retail_data_breach.html?.v=5


Long-Distance Wi-Fi
Intel has found a way to stretch a Wi-Fi signal from one antenna to 
another located more than 60 miles away.
<http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20432/?nlid=945&a=f>
What the article fails to mention is that this technology would not be
legal to use in the United States due to the FCC's restrictions on effective isotropic radiated power.
There is a very good video explaining how RCP (Rural Connectivity
Platform) works
Headline: "Intel (r) Rural Connectivity Platform becomes a reality."
"The demo that was presented at the Berkeley Lab open house had two
antennas transmitting video via WIFI connection. One of the antennas
was on top of the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) at the UC Berkeley
campus which is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away from the lab in downtown
Berkeley."


Supermarket data breach affects 4.2 million accounts
The Hannaford Bros. supermarket chain said a breach of its computer 
system led to the theft of about 4.2 million credit and debit card 
numbers from its Hannaford and Sweetbay stores and other locations.
Hannaford, based in Maine, said about 1,800 cases of fraud have been 
tied to the breach, but no personal information -- such as names or 
addresses -- was accessed, and it has contained the breach. The 
security lapse is the latest to affect a large retailer, and comes 
amid tougher scrutiny on the payments industry following a breach that 
emerged last year that compromised as many as 100 million card numbers 
of customers of Framingham retailer TJX Cos.
Hannaford operates 165 stores in the Northeast. There are 106 Sweetbay 
supermarkets in Florida. The company said in a statement posted to its 
website that the stolen data was "illegally accessed from our computer 
systems during transmission of card authorization.''

Muslims keep their Girls out of public Schools
LODI, Calif. ­ Like dozens of other Pakistani-American girls here, Hajra Bibi stopped
attending the local public school when she reached puberty, and began studying at home.
Karima, right, with her sisters, Kiram, 8, and Kadhima, 14, playing with yo-yos in a study break at their Phoenix home.
Her family wanted her to clean and cook for her male relatives, and had also worried that other American children would mock both her Muslim religion and her traditional clothes.
“Some men don’t like it when you wear American clothes ­ they don’t think it is a good thing for girls,” said Miss Bibi, 17, now studying at the 12th-grade level in this agricultural center some 70 miles east of San Francisco. “You have to be respectable.”
Across the United States, Muslims who find that a public school education clashes with their religious or cultural traditions have turned to home schooling. That choice is intended partly as a way to build a solid Muslim identity away from the prejudices that their children, boys and girls alike, can face in schoolyards. But in some cases, as in Ms. Bibi’s, the intent is also to isolate their adolescent and teenage daughters from the corrupting influences that they see in much of American life.
About 40 percent of the Pakistani and other Southeast Asian girls of high school age who are enrolled in the district here are home-schooled, though broader statistics on the number of Muslim children being home-schooled, and how well they do academically, are elusive. Even estimates on the number of all American children being taught at home swing broadly, from one million to two million.


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