Blog – Page 154 – Stilgherrian

13 March 201214 March 2012

Twitter avatars for Empire Day

On Monday I discovered by accident — well, by a 5am media release from the Prime Minister — that it was Commonwealth Day. Which used to be called Empire Day. Or even British Empire Day. I thought I’d celebrate by using a selection of avatars on Twitter. These are their stories.

From left to right, a slightly retro illustration of Britannia stolen from the Daily Mail; a model showing off the Fever Rule Britannia Sequin Dress, which you can hire from Bryony Theatrical; some random British military beefcake; Angus Stewart’s photo of Rule Britannia Pete; the DeviantArt profile picture of Britannia–Angel, a male of unstated age from the UK; and some random picture from Sodahead that you can trace back if you can be bothered.

11 March 2012

Weekly Wrap 92: Rosella invasion!

My usual weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This post covers the week from Monday 5 to Sunday 11 March 2012.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 128, “Cybercrime and the Russian mob”. Stephen McCombie, lecturer at the Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism at Macquarie University, explains why Eastern Europe is the perfect breeding-ground for online crime. And Chris Gatford, proprietor of Hacklabs, says that organisations’ networks are showing the same vulnerabilities as a decade ago. We’re not learning. And the payment card industry data security standard (PCI DSS) has failed us too.

Articles

Hacking up the facts, Technology Spectator, 7 March 2012, written following lunch with RSA’s Art Coviello.
Zero damage from last year’s RSA breach, CSO Online, 7 March 2012. A more accurate headline would be “Zero damage from last year’s hack, says RSA”, but that’s my fault for doing things in a rush.
Oz ethical hackers to be set professional standards, CSO Online, 9 March 2012. We now have an Australian branch of the Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers (CREST), with Alastair MacGibbon as its first CEO.

Media Appearances

On Saturday I was quoted in a Sydney Morning Herald article about the Finkelstein media review, Rising anger over plans to regulate blogosphere. Whoever was angry, it wasn’t me.

Corporate Largesse

On Monday, RSA paid for lunch at The Summit Restaurant. From the rather lovely menu I selected the campechana of ocean trout, school prawns, Pacific oyster and crab in a wet tomato lime ceviche, followed by the dry aged Angus beef cheek and loin noisettes with Jerusalem artichoke, grapes and majoram — along with some of the double cream and butter mashed potato, and the crisp garden leaves and cress salad with chardonnay dressing. I forgot to write down what the wines were, sorry, but I can show you the view in directions one, two and three.
Also on Monday, I had coffee with Brad Arkin from Adobe, and they paid. I didn’t see the need to take a photograph.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream (or they used to before my phone camera got a bit too scratched up). The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: Rosella in da House. Technically this is being posted in the wrong week because it’s from 4 March, but it accurately summarises the mood of this week I think. Some of the local avian wildlife at Bunjaree Cottages has started to get a little more friendly.]

11 March 201211 March 2012

Weekly Wrap 91: Information goes in, but doesn’t come out

My usual weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This post covers the week from Monday 27 February to Sunday 4 March 2012. Busy busy busy!

So busy, in fact, that this wrap is being posted a week late! That’s what I get for deciding at the last minute to insert a two-day cybercrime conference into my schedule. I did fit, but it was a bit tight. Shoosh.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 127, “Radiation, nanodiamonds and traffic lights”. From NICTA’s Techfest 2012, researchers explain how to protect their bionic eye circuitry with nanodiamonds, design radiation detectors for ports and airports, and update 40-year-old traffic control algorithms.

Articles

Not a single one. Strange week.

Media Appearances

On Wednesday I was on the panel for Recordkeeping Roundtable’s forum “Freedom of Information?”

Corporate Largesse

In the first part of the week I was at the Kickstart Forum. This meant airfares, accommodation at Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove and various meals paid for by Media Connect with the funds obviously coming from their corporate sponsors. Also, AVG gave us a small magnifying glass. Ninefold handed out t-shirts, plus I’ve got a hoodie on the way. Symantec gave us a three-PC license for Norton 360 version 6 and a single-Mac license for Norton Internet Security for Macintosh. And CA gave us men a Windsor shaving kit with mirror, brush etc. I don’t know what they gave the women.
On Thursday and Friday I attended the inaugural Cyber Crime Symposium, with food and drink provided by the Marriott Sydney Harbour thanks to the conference organisers.

Elsewhere

[Photo: Clear Blue Sky. The sky meets the distant Pacific Ocean, with the horizon an indistinct blur. This photo was taken from a Jetstar Airbus A321 somewhere over northern NSW.]

[Update 0900: Added in the corporate largesse from Australian cloud provider Ninefold, which I’d accidentally left out.]

26 February 2012

Weekly Wrap 90: Propaganda, technology and bird life

My usual weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This post covers the week from Monday 20 to Sunday 26 February 2012. Busy busy busy.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 126, “Mobile broadband: the next 5 years”. Marc Einstein, who leads Frost & Sullivan’s mobile and wireless analyst team for Asia Pacific, foretells the future.

Articles

CrypTweet encrypts Twitter direct messages, CSO Online, 21 February 2012.
You are what you surf, buy or tweet, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 February 2012. When I first pitched this story to the SMH, I was wondering whether it was only covering old ground. The feedback I got was most positive, so it seems it was a good idea after all. I’ve posted links to my source material.
Google search bias: the eternal PR battle , ZDNet Australia, 24 February 2012.

Media Appearances

None. That’s odd.

Corporate Largesse

On Thursday I attended NICTA’s Techfest technology showcase, and they served food and drink.
On Friday I had an Important Television Production Meeting at which food and drink were to be had. But I’m not sure that counts because that’s how they always go.
This morning (Sunday) I’m heading off to Kickstart Forum on the Gold Coast, the annual link-up of IT journalists with vendors who pay money. My flights, accommodation, food and drink are covered by the organisers, Media Connect, but really if you trace it back it’s a whole bunch of technology vendors. I’ll post a list of all the freebies we’re given next week.

Elsewhere

[Photo: Rosella Blur. A rosella is caught in a moment of impressionistic action. Yes, this was taken at the Bunjaree Cottages.]

26 February 2012

Separated at birth: Bob Katter and Ben Grubb?

So this image was sent to me in a very roundabout way, and I seem to have drawn the virtual short straw and ended up publishing it.

Could it be that Ben Grubb, deputy technology editor at Fairfax news sites smh.com.au, theage.com.au, brisbanetimes.com.au etc, is the secret love child of independent Member for Kennedy, Cloncurry’s own Bob Katter?

If you have a theory about what the connection might be, do tell me in the comments. People do need to know.

And no, I am not going to reveal who sent me the image.

If you find it to be particularly disturbing, do let me know and I’ll suggest some remedies.

22 February 2012

SMH: You are what you surf, buy or tweet

I have an op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald today about the surveillance society, something that’s already with us.

Computers can tell when your daughter is pregnant. Sometimes they know even before you do. In a recent feature for The New York Times, Charles Duhigg describes how Target in the US analyses everything it knows about its customers. A young woman buying unscented lotion, a large handbag, zinc and magnesium supplements and a brightly coloured rug is likely to be pregnant. So Target dispatches coupons for baby clothes.

When a father stormed into a store complaining that his teenage daughter had received the coupons, Target was forced to apologise. But days later, he realised the store was right…

You can click through to read the whole thing. But since it was written for the dead-tree paper and not the website there are no links.

Here’s the links to my sources:

The New York Times feature by Charles Duhigg, How companies learn your secrets.
A Forbes summary of that piece, How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did. It’s a good summary, but I do recommend reading the full NYT version.
An article explaining how Forbes capitalised on the NYT article in web traffic terms.
A 2006 piece from The Guardian explaining how much could be gleaned from the AOL web search logs, even though they were supposedly anonymous.
An article in Wired explaining similar things.
The 2010 academic paper Myths and fallacies of ‘personally identifiable information’ [PDF] by computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Vitaly Shmatikov. I reckon if you look for more papers from these guys you’ll discover a lot more of interest.

You might also enjoy some of my more recent articles on related topics:

Hacked or not, Ludlam’s a target of spies, ZDNet Australia, 25 January 2012.
Aus becoming surveillance state: Ludlam, ZDNet Australia, 20 January 2012.
Hey Facebook, we want to share, but this is ridiculous, Crikey, 23 September 2011.
Yet another free pass for Aussie spooks, CSO, 16 September 2011.
Has Facebook killed the undercover cop?, CSO, 25 August 2011.