June 26, 2017
Australia wants microphone companies to record terrorists’ conversations
OTTAWA – This week Canada, the UK, Australia, the US and New Zealand — aka the “Five Eyes” countries — meet in Ottawa. Yesterday, Australia announced it wants to push for microphone companies to give governments more access to people’s conversations.
The battle between governments and microphone companies for access to private conversations isn’t new. Terrorists can use private conversations, away from microphones, to communicate without fear of government eavesdropping. Microphone companies are often caught between a need to protect their user base’s privacy — by not recording everything everywhere— and helping to thwart terrorism. Meanwhile, governments have criticized these companies for allowing terrorists to operate out of earshot mostly unchecked.
While it’s unlikely that concrete policy changes will happen immediately, it’s noteworthy that Australia is making it a priority. “These discussions will focus on the need to cooperate with microphone providers to ensure reasonable assistance is provided to law enforcement and security agencies,” said Australian Attorney General Senator Brandeis.
May 18, 2009
Liffr takes social media world by storm
Step aside Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Liffr, is the latest new hot website to catch the attention of the digerati.
The site seems simple on first visit. A dark black background greets you with one simple space for text and the question “What did your life mean?”
You have 141 characters (one more than Twitter) to sum up your entire life. Rabbi Rafael Lowe explained the startup is meant to give your existence the same boost Twitter gives your lunch.
“People love sharing what they are doing on somethign like Twitter,” said Rabbi Lowe. “So think of the amazing love they’ll generate distilling their whole life. It will engage them in a kind of introspection that can only lead to revelation. Plus we have a business model. Selling ads to Life Insurance and estate planning companies.”
some have criticized Liffr for not being useful more than once. They say it lacks so-called ‘stickiness.’
But Rabbi Lowe disputes this. “Your life changes from moment to moment.” Liffr may only list one post from you, but unlike other social media services, it lets you change that post as your life evolves. Some of our users keep redefining their life every few minutes. That’s wonderful!”
Liffr also includes a history of revisions, similar to Google Docs, so people can look back on changes they’ve made.
“With Liffr, you CAN go back and relive parts of your life. It’s transcendent. And for a small fee we’ll even let you revert to previous versions. Micropayments are hot right now.
Celebrities have already started using Liffr, the most famous so far being Johnny Depp who’s Liffr post simply reads “pain.”
August 21, 2007
Employees lose $6 billion a year to work
(BOSTON) Workers lose billions of dollars a year in lost recreation time to their employers, according to a new study from Reinhart Analysts, published Tuesday.
The Workforce analytic company looked at the phenomenon of working from home, and found employers cost their employees up to US$6 billion.
“People think about work a lot on their off time. And not only think, but make decisions, hatch ideas, scribble notes,” Reinhart chairman Cindy Alpenson told SuBBrilliant News.
“And with the advent of the Internet, now they check email during off time, visit work websites, and Intranet sites and more.”
The Internet has allowed employers to expect responses from email and action on work projects more and more during off-time
Alpenson said her findings were based on a typical worker, earning average holiday time, working a 40-hour week. She then calculated the cost to workers if they spent an hour each day on work instead of relaxing. Work they don’t get paid for
“We got the extraordinary figure of US$6 billion in lost recreational time and work done essentially for free,” she said.
Alpenson said banning work from off-time was not necessarily the best way to combat recreation wasting.
“Employees can balance things out by surfing the Web at work. Watching videos on YouTube, socializing on IM and Facebook,” she said. “If allowed, this actually spreads the work out and makes the worker more productive, and allows ideas to come at more opportune times, rather than being forced into an 8-hour day.”
May 24, 2007
Letter E’s protest Web 2.0 Sites
“Unfair to Vowels” read one sign. “We’re not all silent!” read another. Silicon valley saw its first protest against websites conducted exclusively by a letter of the Roman alphabet.
Several letter E’s, who claim they’re out of work but a new fad in naming companies, have banded together to demand fair treatment and proper spelling.
“It’s a great time to be a G,” said one disgruntled vowel. “But let me tell the G’s of the world something. We were your friends, and now you’re digging our graves.”
Sites like Flickr lead the trend of dropping the letter e from a company name, making it easier to find a domain name.
“Twitter didn’t seem to have any problem finding a domain name that could put some of us to work,” said the E.
The letter E, often referred to as the most common letter in the English language has long had a close relationship with technology. Many standards are set by IEEE, which employs the most E’s of any sector of technology.
But the landscape has changed with the onset of Web 2.0 companies looking for a hip name.
“There’s a special place in hell for these sites right next Georges Perec,” said one particularly vocal E. In the meantime, the vowels will continue to petition silicon valley business to put E before everything.
March 2, 2006
More details on Apple Bono
(CUPERTINO, CA) – 
Mysterious Apple rumour expert, ross, continued to divulge information today about Apple’s secret acquisition of U2 singer Bono.
The poster said he got his information from simple market analysis.
“It’s a basic model that most tech companies follow, let’s look at eBay/Paypal and Skype – about a month before the eBay/Skype deal, Paypal were pushing Skype services,” explained ross. “Now lets look at Apple and U2 – see what’s happening?”
The new Apple Bono will come in two colors, a black and a white version, accroding to ross, “black being formal ware and white for promoting the brand.”
One other source said the new name of the lead singer would be the MacBono Pro, not the iBono.
Other expert rumour-spreaders said that Apple is also in the early stages of acquiring the Pope.