Categories
-Cross Currents 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 13.4 E-Commerce Ethics 7.4 No Secrets: Computers and Privacy 8.7 Social Networks

Sharing is Caring—or Is It?

The concept of sharing is everywhere on the Internet. In this thought-provoking Huffington Post blog post, Bianca Bosker asks whether Facebook and other companies are using the term to manipulate our feelings and extract information from us.
huffingtonpost.com/bianca-bosker/the-insidiousness-of-sharing-why-we-share_b_1728550.html

Categories
-Cross Currents 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 13.4 E-Commerce Ethics 7.4 No Secrets: Computers and Privacy

The Never-Ending Sales Pitch

If you’re tired of ads now, just wait ’til your smart phone gets a little smarter. It may soon deliver sales pitches to you based on your location, the weather, nearby friends, the contents of your last Facebook post, or just about anything else it can link to you. As your privacy slips away, your cash becomes an easy target for savvy tech companies.
huffingtonpost.com/bianca-bosker/the-age-of-continuous-consumption_b_1833454.html

Categories
-Context 10.1 Online Outlaws: Computer Crime 10.2 Computer Security: Reducing Risks 7.4 No Secrets: Computers and Privacy

How to Avoid a Personal Digital Meltdown

Wired writer Mat Honan recently lost just about everything he had stored on his computer and in the cloud. He literally watched while a malicious hacker wiped out his digital world.
This NPR story suggests five things you can do to avoid his fate.
Mat’s Wired article describes the hacker attack in detail.

Categories
-Context 13.4 E-Commerce Ethics 7.4 No Secrets: Computers and Privacy 9.2 Inside the Web

The Web is Watching You


http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_kovacs_tracking_the_trackers.html

If you think you’re covering your tracks as you explore the web, think again. This TED talk shows how we’re being tracked and suggests what we might need to do about it.
 

Categories
-Context 7.4 No Secrets: Computers and Privacy 9.3 Internet Issues: Ethical and Political Dilemmas

You Did Read It, Didn’t You?

npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/04/19/150905465/to-read-all-those-web-privacy-policies-just-take-a-month-off-work
Did you ever wonder about those privacy policies you’re required to accept before using popular web sites? This NPR story sheds a little light on those Internet annoyances.

Categories
-Inventing the Future 4.7 Inventing the Future: Tomorrow's User Interfaces I 5.8 Inventing the Future: Multisensory Interfaces 6.5 Inventing the Future: Shared Virtual Spaces 7.0 The Google Guys Search for Tomorrow 7.5 Inventing the Future: Embedded Intelligence and Ubiquitous Computing

Will Your Glasses Be Smarter than You?

Project Glass
The brave new world of augmented reality may be closer than you think. If it becomes a popular product, Google’s Project Glass may make touch-screen smart phones seem positively old-fashioned. This Huffington Post article describes this intriguing wearable technology, and the video gives you a sense of what it might feel like to spend time behind the lenses of smart glasses.

Categories
-Updates 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 7.3 Database Trends

The Big Impact of Big Data

One of the biggest buzz words in the computer industry today is actually two words: Big Data. Massive increases in computing power have made mountains of data accessible to businesses and governments. How does big data affect you? A page on the IBM site gives a quick overview of the business world of big data, while a pair of NPR stories aired in late 2011 focus on the impact of big data on our lives.

Categories
-Context 7.4 No Secrets: Computers and Privacy 8.7 Social Networks

Two Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Facebook

Facebook is a complex, ever-changing digital world. No matter how much time you spend there, it seems there’s always more to know about it. For example, did you know that Facebook filters out most of your posts before your friends can see them? Or that Facebook users are, in general, hiding more personal information than they did even a year or two ago? These two Huffington Post articles have details.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/facebook-posts_n_1311330.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/24/facebook-users-privacy-social-media_n_1299211.html?utm_campaign=022412&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-technology&utm_content=FullStory

Categories
-Updates 7.0 The Google Guys Search for Tomorrow 7.4 No Secrets: Computers and Privacy 9.2 Inside the Web 9.5: Inventing the Future: The Invisible Information Infrastructure

Google and Your Privacy: What Do You Need to Know?

Google has been getting plenty of of publicity lately because of major changes in its privacy policy. These two articles, one from Huffington Post and one from Consumer Reports, explain how these changes affect you and what you can do about them.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/google-privacy-policy-changes_n_1310506.html
http://news.consumerreports.org/electronics/2012/03/google-launches-its-new-privacy-policy-today.html

Categories
-Inventing the Future 1.7 Inventing the Future: Tomorrow Never Knows 4.4 The User Interface: The Human-Machine Connection 7.5 Inventing the Future: Embedded Intelligence and Ubiquitous Computing 8.5 Interpersonal Computing: From Communication to Communities 8.6 Inventing the Future: The Mind-Machine Connection 9.3 Internet Issues: Ethical and Political Dilemmas

Will Your Phone Read Your Mind in 2016? Ask IBM

asmarterplanet.com/blog/2011/12/the-next-5-in-5-our-forecast-of-five-innovations-that-will-alter-the-landscape-within-five-years.html
As noted in Chapter 1’s Inventing the Future, predicting the future isn’t easy. But when the predictions are backed by one of the world’s biggest technology innovators, they’re worth considering. In this short, clever video, IBM describes and illustrates “5 in 5″— five technological breakthroughs that could reshape our lives within five years.