RSSUp Front: DHS shelves domestic spy satellite program
By Angela Gunn and the Betanews Staff | Published June 23, 2009, 9:00 AM
Privacy advocates on Monday applauded plans by the Obama administration to kill a spy satellite program that would have pointed the cameras at domestic targets. Meanwhile, the company running the nation's biggest "Registered Traveler" program, intended to whisk customers through TSA lines, is out of business.
DHS shelves domestic spy satellite program
Afternoon of June 22, 2009 • The US Department of Homeland Security announced yesterday it's dropping the planned National Applications Office after asking state and local law enforcement how useful they'd find such imagery, and hearing back not really.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Los Angeles police chief William Bratton, writing on behalf of the 64-member Major Cities Chiefs Association, told DHS head Janet Napolitano, "Were the program to go forward, the police chiefs would be concerned about privacy protections and whether using military satellites for domestic purposes would violate the Posse Comitatus law, which bars the use of the military for law enforcement in the US."
The LA Times spoke with Rep. Jane Harman (D - Cal.), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee's intelligence and terrorism risk assessment subcommittee, who cited grave privacy concerns with the proposed surveillance.
Brill is less content, and the future is less "Clear"
Monday, June 22, 2009, 11:00 PDT • Clear, formerly known as Verified Identity Pass, posted a notice on its site stating that the service would cease operations.
Grant Martin, who reviewed the service earlier this year for Gadling.com, is sorry to see it go: "It's always sad to see a company fail, but in this case, it seems a bit more personal." Over at Wired, Ryan Singel was more arch, commenting that co-founder Steven Brill had already moved on to the Journalism Online project: "If Brill can't get enough corporate travelers to pay for airport convenience, it's not clear how he thinks he'll get enough people to pony up online news subscriptions to save online journalism." And Scott McCartney at The Wall Street Journal shrugged that the service didn't amount to much of a convenience for anyone in the end.
Biggest CAN-SPAM case yet elicits guilty plea
Morning of June 22, 2009 • Guilty pleas in a Detroit federal court Monday from five men facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and to violate the CAN-SPAM Act settled the largest CAN-SPAM prosecution to date, according to the Department of Justice. Alan M. Ralsky, Scott K. Bradley, John S. Bown, William C. Neil, and James E. Fite were accused of running a "pump-and-dump" stock-inflation operation in conjunction with several other men, three of whom have already pled guilty. Three more people await trial.
The takedown of Ralsky, called by some a "spam king," sat well with the Detroit Free Press' Ben Schmitt, who wrote, "On Monday, Alan Ralsky took on the new title of convicted felon." The 64-year-old could face up to six years in prison, as might Bradley, his son-in-law. (Happy Father's Day?) Much of the tech underpinnings of the scam were based in Fresno, and the Fresno Business Journal has its own take on events.
Dunkin' Donuts releases iPhone app
Around coffee break • The office pastry run is to be made easier for patrons of Dunkin' Donuts, who now have an iPhone app for coordinating their trips to that shop. Being at the epicenter of the Dunkin-Donuts-is-edible cult, Boston reporters went predictably hysterical over the app, with Kerry Skemp at Bostonist hyperventilating that "The new Dunkin Run web site and iPhone app will change your life." (Your reporter speaks for all of Seattle when she says it's cute that you East Coasters think that's coffee. You people cook with Betty Crocker ovens too?)
Jennifer Van Grove takes a calmer look at the new offerings, and Matthew Shear at the Christian Science Monitor advises us all not to bother.
Palm's WebOS SDK won't be finalized 'til late summer
August or so > Though Palm Pre users are expected to download their 1,000,000th application from the Apps Store late this week, developers are still waiting for the release of the software development kit. A post on the Palm Network Developer Blog confirms rumors that Palm hopes to make the SDK available to everyone by the end of summer, with a push starting now to get more people into the early-access program.
Meanwhile, Palm's encouraging the faithful to "explore other public WebOS resources, including the Rough Cuts edition of Mitch Allen's upcoming book and the sites run by our great community of enthusiasts."
Sascha Segan notes that in the meantime, Palm is remaining calm about various "jailbreak" efforts, making the geekish case that formal offerings will be technically superior. IntoMobile caught the Palm team in another moment of candor over the weekend, spotting a tweet that acknowledged the Pre's slightly annoying habit of adding apostrophes to whatever it thinks is a contraction.
FTC looks into blogger 'payola'
Later this summer, maybe > The Federal Trade Commission is reported to be working out a set of guidelines that would give bloggers legitmacy on a level with other publishers -- by requiring that they, too, abide by rules concerning false claims, conflicts of interest, or "gifts" from companies seeking coverage.
Peter Kafka at All Things D made the phone call, and the answer to the obvious question is yes, this does includes affiliate relationships. (In other words, if a site runs a book review and provides a link to Amazon, and if buying the book through that link would earn the review site a few cents, they have to say so. Which, frankly, a lot of sites already mention as an encouragement to potentially supportive readers.) Aaron Brazell is likewise interested in what it all means for affiliates, but points to a fiery Queen of Spain post by Erin Kotecki Vest spotlighting recent drama over the tendency of some bloggers to accept freebies without telling their readers they've done so. And One Fine Jay took a look at recent developments and is doing what a lot of bloggers are apt to do in the next few days and weeks: Write and post a disclosure policy.
The pain of regeneration, but all for a good cause
November 2009...and beyond! > All eleven Time Lords -- yes, including the new guy; yes, including the newer guy; yes, including Hartwell, Troughton, and Pertwee -- will appear in a new Doctor Who special benefiting charity.
As the Daily Mirror first reported, "Viewers will see the Time Lords regenerating and emerging one by one from the Tardis, each with their own quirky opening line." Sort of like the way John Madden used to introduce his picks for the "All Madden Team," only with time lords. Even the late actors' lines will be recreated using earlier footage.
AFTER THE JUMP: Tech headlines from around the Net...
a couple of quick comments and then real life calls
- To Morriscox- never lose your sense of humor. I love it even if it is directed at me. Since all of us do and say dumb things laughing at ourselves is the best way to keep things in perspective.
- what is sad about the character from Looney Tunes romp is that there were a few things in this piece that were worth discussing-
Note to Government- If you are going to deploy a satellite to spy on us, you might want to call it something less obvious.
Note on the case in Connecticut- this could have been a good discussion on the issue of free speech and hate speech.
Score: 0
|"All of you on this page and some others are nothing more than glorified mechanics as opposed to car designers.You wouldn't know what to do with code staring you in your face."
How would you know? You really have no idea what our coding skills might be. I cannot take anything else you say seriously if you're going to make that kind of error.
Score: 1
|who needs spy satellites when all the malls are filled with Israeli spies running those mall kiosks. Youtube search on ProThink.org videos on Israeli spies in the US.
Score: -1
|"DHS shelves domestic spy satellite program"
Translation: Department of Human Services is shelving the spy program due to the increase number of recipients for public assistance and their inability to find employment.
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|"DHS shelves domestic spy satellite program"
Translation: Launch was a success. All witnessing parties have been located and "removed". Manufacturers and launch personnel "accidentally" under launch vehicle during 1st stage ignition. ;)
Score: -6
|What? I thought it was funny.
Score: 0
|Heh... It's just Fathead up to his old games again.
Score: -5
|What, the thumbs? Eminently ignorable -- they don't do anything AFAICT but provide page views :-) . I keep hoping Nate will figure a way to keep the clicks and lose the visible tantrums, but for now I enjoy the bounty and laugh at the behavior.
(And in my kinder moments, I think, "If that poor little man gets some sort of happiness by figuring out how to repeatedly click a red button, who am I to take away what's clearly one of the few social interactions he's managed in this life? Those thumbs and his red stapler are probably all he's got." I'm just glad that the rest of us are able to, as one says to the pre-K crowd, "use our words.")
Score: -6
|Looks a lot like troll behavior to me.
Someone who has a beef about you personally and has signed up with multiple accounts on computers (both at home & work) and is now on a tear to give you as many thumbs down as possible.
Just a guess on my part, however this type of troll activity is very common and easy to spot. Best thing to do is ignore them.
I, for one, would be very much in favor of removing the whole "Thumbs-up/down" review policy because it really doesn't help. Also, after you looked into it, I did hear from the guys about the contest, but still have yet to receive the goods.
Score: 0
|Glad you heard from 'em, Straspey. Keep me posted and I'll keep pestering them as needed.
As for the troll, all women (and most men) writing about tech are familiar with the phenomenon; he's one of that legion of sad little men who just wish life would leave them alone with the ones and zeros, which don't laugh at them or hurt them or make them feel like they're missing something in life. (No one with anything actually going on in their life gives that much effort to gaming the thumbs thing and posting hysterical rants. Even I have to make an effort to write long comments, and they *pay* me to do so for pete's sake.)
Nate, Scott and I have had some conversations about this over the past year, especially since I suspect from the writing style above we're talking about the same guy posting under a different name. I think we agree that clearly the guy is troubled, but all of us here know that every publication attracts a few readers like that, and that most of the time you simply ignore them 'til you're bored and feel like flushing the account and letting the cycle start again. Unfortunately, comments expose the rest of the readership to the crazies, but in the end comments are a net win for a publication.
And now, my friends, I advise us all to ignore the guy. His opinions and his bad brain chemistry are his own, and nothing you or I can fix. If he needs dealt with, he'll be dealt with, but the thing to do for now is simply let him stumble down our virtual thoroughfare babbling to himself. Don't engage.
Score: 1
|I haven't posted in awhile but I would second Mz. Gunn's approach. I have seen Pc and another enage in a debate that was informing and helpful to me. so, I do appreciate it when people take that approach but put things in perspective: The Looney tunes writing is nothing compared to what you see on political sites or other forums. take from the site what is helpful and ignore what is not.
there are more important things in life.
On a final note to we can put it to rest, if the winners who deserve our praise haven't received their prize, post here and I'll send it to you so we can put that moronic posting on the winners page finally to rest.
Finally, to Mz. Gunn, I read that you were not feeling well so I hope you're feeling better and enjoying life and that is my wish to everyone.
Score: 0
|If he wants to spend his time modding me (and apparently Angela in the last few threads) down, hey, what's one more fan, right? For the most part we all ignore those anyway...just another
Thanks for mentioning that you haven't received anything Sturgess. At least I know I'm not the only one.
"Those thumbs and his red stapler are probably all he's got."
...don't forget the Mac (oh wait..he probably doesn't actually *own* one. Maybe his Mom does.)
;)
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|Sturgess ?? Methinks you have me confused with someone else ??
"...don't forget the Mac (oh wait..he probably doesn't actually *own* one. Maybe his Mom does.)"
LMAO !!!
Score: 0
|Heh..
Oops. So many people, so little Disk space. :p
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