Interesting how each new advance in communications technology worries the pants off repressive tyrants.  The very thought of their humble subjects actually exchanging valid news and information scares them to death.  It all started with that despicable printing press ...
   
UAE says BlackBerry is potential security threat

Got one of those nifty new iPhones yesterday.

But so far, not good.  Not good at all.

I spent more than four hours yesterday trying to "sync" my new phone to the apps, contacts, music, photos, and settings from my old one, all to no avail.

After the initial sync iTunes prompts you to do when you plug in a new phone (which didn't work), then two more attempts at sync, then three total "restores" (which require restoring the entire phone software - a process which takes about an hour each time), I thought I'd finally gotten the apps, settings, and contacts transferred (but still no music, photos, nor podcasts).  And it actually seemed to work ... for about ten minutes.

Then, all of a sudden, other than apps which call Safari, none of the apps will stay open.  When you click on each one, it opens and then immediately closes.  I can find no setting nor configuration anywhere to change that.

In all this futzing around, I'm terribly afraid of losing my contacts data which would take weeks to recreate.  But nowhere can I find a way to back it up to a simple file on my PC.  So where is the iTunes "Export Contacts" option?  Where is their "Backup COMPLETE iPhone" option?  Where is "Restore ONLY apps"?  How about something so simple as "Replace old iPhone with new one"?

Let me be blunt ... the new iPhone looks and feels great.  Wonderful design and features.  But Apple's "iTunes" software is stunningly bad, utterly unintuitive, horrendously slow, and apparently simply broken.  Thus far, attempting to transfer my old phone to my new one has been an extended visit to Hell.

I write software in several languages.  I've built computers from the bottom up by soldering parts to circuit boards.  I've designed Internet network systems.  So I really DO know my way around computers and software.  But after unsuccessfully laboring with this for hours, I've given up.  I'll ask my partner (who is also a computer nerd) to try to make it work this weekend, but if he fails, I'll just return this thing.  The old one works just fine.  "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

So, needless to say, if you're considering buying your first iPhone, with no intention of transferring data from your old one to your new one, go for it.  Otherwise, whoa ... hold on.  Their software apparently needs MAJOR upgrades.

Signed,
Pissed

Visited a seedy bar, porn theatre, or strip club lately?

Married, but seeing a "friend" on the side?

Discussing possible employment with your present employer's competitor?

Been to a health clinic or financial counsellor?

Seeing a psychiatrist?

Making a few "non-taxable" bucks on the side?

If you can answer "yes" to any of the above (or anything similar), and your smart phone was turned on at the time, then beware ... your whereabouts may be firmly documented.

You see ... the GPS devices in current smart phones and other consumer devices frequently "phone home" to report your whereabouts to "the mother ship", so that not only can you use the apps which rely on that feature, but so that local businesses and services can present to you locally-targeted ads.  And in the process, your exact location is recorded on a server somewhere.

Is that information secure?  Can anyone other than your ISP access it?  Can the government?  Law-enforcement?  The IRS?  Your bank?  Your boss?  Your health insurer?  Your spouse's attorney?  Do you have any legal control over that information?

Scary prospect, isn't it?

Find out more here.

On the Macworld web site, a fellow by the name of Christopher Breen tells us how Facebook's recent threats to reveal his personal information throughout the greater Internet forced him to cancel his account there.

It's a well-written and thoughtful article.  In fact, it's very much like the customer-support article I wrote (in several successive versions) fifteen years ago for my GLIB and ZZAPP! subscribers.

My enterprises were not nearly so arrogant as to share the sort of information about our subscribers with the larger Internet which Facebook is now attempting to do, mainly because we knew very little of it, and we would never have done so without an explicit "opt-in" anyway.  In fact, both services' privacy policies clearly stated our promise to NEVER divulge anything at all (including such basic stuff as names and addresses already available in phone books), with anyone, ever, without a written court order.

But the larger issue (in fact, the overall guiding principle) which all Internet users should  keep in mind is not what you post to any individual site or service like Facebook (and thus expect to share only among selected individuals within it), but specifically what leaves your keyboard in the first place.

The mere transmission of personal data from your keyboard to your first connection to The Net (your ISP) typically happens over an utterly open unencrypted circuit, which anyone with the merest modicum of technical ability can easily read.  If you're right now using a wireless connection in your home, office, or a public "Internet Cafe", I can drive by (I don't even need to get out of my car), and with very basic equipment can record every one of your keystrokes, along with whatever is transmitted to you from The Net.  Perhaps you've read the recent news items about Google having done that with their cute little photo cars driving through your neighborhood.  And if your connection is "hard-wired", though that makes snooping into it is a bit more difficult, anyone who has ever tapped a phone can also tap your wired Internet connection.  Take my word for it ... that's happening right now, in probably hundreds or thousands of instances, while you read this.

Fortunately, when you connect to an on-line bank account or the check-out section of an Internet e-commerce business - and the address of the web site you're using begins with "https:// ...", the "s" at the end of that prefix indicates that business is providing to you a secure means by which all interaction there is encrypted, and thus reasonably safe from the bad guys.

But what about how that company handles your personal and financial information once they get it?  Well ... it's a crap shoot.  Large, well-known companies (banks, department stores, etc.) are relatively safe as an organization.  But how about the integrity of the individual tech guys working there who designed and maintain that "secure" web site?  Or the reliability of the technology they use?  Shit happens.  And little independent e-commerce sites?  They're the equivalent of your local corner mom-and-pop store.  Would you trust them with your credit card or personal information?  It's your call.  And oh yes, how about Internet porn and other "adult" sites?  Don't even go there.

And just BTW ... if you personally happen to be suspected of some sort of criminal activity, consider ALL your Internet communications, "secure" or otherwise, to be recorded 24/7.  I've toured our local police department's computer forensics lab, and it is ... in a word ... awesome.  Your town's law-enforcement agency probably has similar capabilities.  And "right down the road a piece" is a "Company" in Langley Virginia which specializes in that sort of thing, worldwide.  Back in the days when I ran an ISP, they routinely used a device called "Carnivore".  It was basically a PC running software which, when installed at an ISP, recorded everything transpiring through a targeted account.  That was then, and this is now ... their technology has improved dramatically since.

While this recent Facebook snafu is serious and worthy of your attention, it and similar wannabes are currently only the most visible potential "leaks" in your privacy.  Regardless of any claimed ability and willingness (or lack thereof) to guard your personal information, your privacy is only as good as the guys in control of it and the technology they employ.  And once anything is made visible on The Net, it spreads worldwide in an instant and is there forever ... it can never be effectively removed.

To put it simply ... if you don't want the world to know, don't transmit it to the Internet.  Anywhere.  Any time.  Ever.

Addendum:  There are currently available several techniques which can significantly improve Internet security - even with standard laptop computers - such as tunneling protocol, whole-machine encryption, fingerprint scanners, and identity card readers.  But because these typically require known identity procedures at both ends of the Internet transaction, they're typically only used by government agencies and security-conscious corporations.

News item:  According to a recent report, losses from Internet fraud more than doubled in 2009, with scams that falsely used the FBI’s name generating the most complaints, the law enforcement agency said.

The total dollar loss rose to $559.7 million last year from $264.6 million in 2008, based on amounts reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.

Remember - the FBI never ever makes first contact with anyone via e-mail.  It just isn't done.  So if you receive any e-mail message about any subject claiming to be from the FBI, delete it and forget it - it's a dangerous phishing effort to grab and use your personal information.

And as with all things Internet, the usual warnings apply:

• Never open any e-mail from anyone you don't know or with whom you don't have a prior business relationship.
• If you must open suspicious mail, never click on any link within it, and if such a link looks like a well-known site, manually type its address into your web browser.  Remember ... it's easy to disguise links in e-mail addresses.
• Especially if you ever visit porn, gambling, or non-U.S. web sites (they're most notoriously hideouts for Internet scam artists) first make certain that you have installed an effective virus protection program, that all it's appropriate options are turned on, and that it's definitions are up to date.

Little blue-haired ladies are apparently at it again:

5,000 'overtly sexual' iPhone apps purged

During periods of rough weather like this, if you yourself still have power, it's not unusual to encounter a higher number of web sites which seem to be unreachable.

When that happens to most of us, we wonder "Is it really down, or am I just unable to get there for some reason?"

Here's a handy web site you can visit to answer that question.

Keep this link handy.  When you visit it, then enter the address of the web site you're trying to reach, it will tell you whether it's up or "It's just you".

Bored?

Nothing on TV?

Even disinterested in further interactive time on-line (incredible as that may be)?

Then click on this link to watch Frontline's "Digital Nation" ... an extremely well-produced look at how our world is becoming increasingly wired - the good, the bad, and the ugly of our digital world.

Learn how the wonders of digital technology let us find more facts faster and that not only is grandma getting connected to her family once again (now that they don't write letters anymore), but that she's adding years to her life.

But also learn how leading researchers decry multi-tasking, proving that not only do we not actually do two (or more) things well at the same time, but  that our brains only give each task 50% of its available attention.  How kids who've grown up with digital media live 50% of their lives in virtual reality.  How those immersed in that virtual world increasingly confuse it with their real world.  How our military is technically disconnecting physically killing people from those who actually do it, and how they're using gaming centers to recruit future warriors.
 
I found it a fascinating 90 minutes.

See it here.

Heard of the new product called "iPad"? Interesting.  I've owned three IPADS for more than ten years.

In fact, when talking techie with my friends, they used to be amused by my occasionally transposing "iPod", "IPAD", and "iPhone".  I've owned 'em all.

Of course the new one is the Apple tablet computer announced today, to sell for something like $499.00 ... not the first tablet computer, to be sure, but this one does come with a few new bells and whistles.  It'll be interesting to see if it does much better than its many predecessors under other brand names.

But my IPADs far predate this one ... in fact going back to the early '90's when I was still running ISPs providing Internet access to subscribers. Created by a fellow named Phil Becker, who owned a company known as eSoft, the IPAD (Internet Protocol ADaptor) is a device which combines in one box all the various computer processes necessary to be an ISP.  It's an e-mail server, a domain name server, a T1 modem, an interface serving up to 56 dial-up modems, a web server, and much more.  A truly amazing invention, I once used two of them to run ZZAPP! Internet Services, just as other ISPs are still using them today.

The IPAD and its operating system are now supported by the IPAD Owners Association.

So ... got an iPad?  I've got three of 'em. Wanna buy one?

Just BTW ... this is what the gadget looks like ... it's a rack-mounted device measuring about 19 inches wide: