Folks, just a quick "sharing moment" today-- I saw this interesting(brief ) 'slideshow', and thought you might enjoy it. It's humorous, and spot on.
"Some of the iPhone's users are, well, a bit uncool. Their unbridled iPhone enthusiasm can quickly cross the line into obnoxiousness. That's why InfoWorld has come up with the Ten Commandments of iPhone etiquette. Read on and be wise. (<--- click)
If you are a parent concerned about what your child is doing with their mobile phone-- whether or not they're talking to strangers, for example-- you may want to keep reading. This topic was spawned by a question from such a parent.
And if you're the kind of person who's easily agitated about technology and the erosion of privacy, a Luddite, a Big Brother Conspiracy Theorist, or anyone else who hasn't quite come to terms with the modern age we're living in-- you might want to stop reading here.
You've been warned. I will not respond to your e-mail.
Regular readers (and tech-savvy people in general) know that your computer use at work is monitored. And you've probably heard of "spyware" and "keyloggers" that record what you type (my readers have, and that's fer sher). And you know that GPS devices can pinpoint your location. 
And you know that cameras (usually hidden) are being installed everywhere-- as a crime and terrorism preventative, and to stop red-light runners. Cities compete to have the highest percentage of camera coverage.
And you know that modern phones allow text messaging, the sending of photos and movies, and surfing the Internet. (They are becoming more like little laptops everyday.)
And you know that the Internet can be a dangerous place. Especially for kids.
And thus the parent's dilemma. If you have a child, the day will come when they want a phone. I think that happens around the ages of 7-9, these days.
And being kids, they won't want just any old phone, but they will want a "kewl" phone; one with all the bell's and whistles. (Your hands are kind of tied on this.. nobody makes a "plain old cellphone" anymore. Haven't for years.)
"But Mom, everybody's got one!"
The answer, for you, may be to give your child a phone that allows you to see what they text and IM, control who their "contacts" are, and, maybe, even record their calls. It's called "parental monitoring", and the extent to which you use it is up to you.
[note: if reading that made your blood pressure go up a notch, refer now to the second paragraph.]
You don't need to buy a special phone.. or even a new phone, to monitor your child's activity.
* There is commercial software that can be installed on every type of phone-- such as RADAR and MobileSpy. These can notify you in "real time" if a parameter you set is being broken.
[note: did your employer give you your cellphone? Think, people. Think. Let's add two and two here.]
* There are USB dongles that read a phone's SIM chip --even if your child's erased their messages-- for $50.
So, if you're a concerned parent, you have several options that will allow you to find some middle ground. And if you're a Big Brother Conspiracy Theorist.. well, friend, it's twice as bad as you dare to realize and it's only going to get worse.
Today's free link: Concerned parents who have a child reaching the driving age (and Big Brother Conspiracy Theorists) might read my article "What Your Car Is Saying About You."
Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
post to jaanix
Folks-- business obligations require a reposting today, but I did have time to update it.
I have an embarrassing confession to make--I don't always know how to translate what someone has text-ed into English. I need a Text-to-English dictionary. This is just one more fact, added to an already long list of facts, that tells me I've gotten 'old'. We didn't 
have 'texting' when I was a teenager.
At first, I thought texting (aka "lingo") was simply X-treme Abbreviation. And then I thought it might be a combination of Vanity License-plate Language and X-Abbreviation. This thinking allowed me to read some of what I saw, but not all. I could decipher "gr8" and "l8r", but not "bb4n". It didn't help that I wasn't a "texter" myself (Use a cellphone and give myself ear cancer? Not this fella!).
And then it dawned on me-- these kids are using an Adult-proof secret code. They don't want me to decipher it. The world suddenly made a lot more sense. My friends and I had used code too.
Fortunately, there are resources available for those of us who are "lingo"-handicapped. If you see "A/S/L", but don't understand what it means, you can find out (age/sex/location?) -- and if you are a parent concerned about your child and what they're doing and saying on the Internet and in chatrooms -- I suggest you do.
If you're like me, and just want to try to increase your "hipness" quotient (or just avoid some terrible faux pas), you will also find these translation resources useful and interesting. My favorite is below, as the day's free link.
Parents (particularly parents of teenagers) it seems to me, are almost forced into learning texting, (What is the deal with teenagers anyway?) and a survey by Samsung has produced results that claim that text messaging is improving relationships between parents and teens. (Can you hear my skepticism?)
WiredParentPad has an interesting take on this, Do You Use Text Messaging to Stay Connected with Your Teens?
[a brief aside: has anyone else noticed a return of the "smiley"? What's up with that? They're lame, and I was glad to see them fade from popularity. Seriously. But.. it seems.. they're back. What's next, the Peace Symbol? :-D ]
Free link of the day: Lingo2Word. "Lingo2word is devoted to demistifying the new Internet shorthand language of Text messages, Chat rooms and Emails. We are devoted to the fun of text messaging in all forms, there is a whole new fun language out there just waiting for you!"
Copyright © 2007-8 Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
LONDON (Reuters) - Prices charged by cybercriminals selling hacked bank and credit card details have fallen sharply as the volume of data on offer has soared, forcing them to look elsewhere to boost profit margins, a new report says.*
Yes, folks, you read that right. If you want to buy a stolen credit card and PIN, now's the time because the price has never been better. A Platinum card -- guaranteed to be "fresh" and work when you use it -- can be had for $20.
This is because hackers have been so successful at planting Trojans on your machines, poisoning websites, and getting people to provide their identities through phishing (spam) e-mails, and using their botnets, that they simply have too much product.
We aren't just losing the war on cyber-crime, we're not even fighting one.
So.. since stolen credit cards are now a dime-a-dozen, what is the "shadow economy" organized cyber-criminal to peddle? "New types of stolen data are now commanding a premium, such as patient healthcare information that can be used for insurance fraud or to illicitly acquire and sell medicines.
Other premium data includes business information, company personnel files and intercepted commercial emails."
Yikes.
These kinds of news stories, and reports, never seem to make make the front page or headline the news. Billions are being stolen from us, every year, the problem is growing, and we don't seem to care.
And the media doesn't like finding the "guilty party" in this kind of story because the truly guilty are us.
* From a security perspective, the Internet is completely broken and needs to be scrapped and rebuilt. Nobody knows how to "fix" the old structure. The headline, Tech Experts Are Baffled isn't very reassuring to the public, and that might lead to the dreaded "consumer confidence" failure.
* We --the common everyday Internet surfer-- can't be bothered with securing our machines, or even learning enough of that "tech stuff" to realize our PC's are not convenient toys.
"Why get a new Vista or Mac computer? My Windows 98 machine lets me get on the Internet and play BlackJack.." How many times have I heard that???
Some experts say that 75% of all the computers are infected with malware. Wonder why?
What does this story's headline look like?
* We --the common everyday Internet surfer-- KEEP clicking on e-mails that promise us free iPods, or tell us that there's 750,000 Pounds Sterling waiting for us to simply pick it up.
What does this story's headline look like?
Awww, I'm getting depressed, angry, and.. frustrated. We deserve to have our identities stolen, and we can't blame the smart people for taking it from us when it's this easy.
Yes, a lot of this is not our fault. The Tech Industry continues to sell us crappy products, and would rather be first to market than to check the security of their technology. I wrote about this here, How the Tech Industry is Failing You.
To read the whole news story which triggered today's rant, click here.
To visit Finjan (one of the article's sources) and look at their quarterly analysis of the state of Web security and cyber-crime, click here.
I apologize. I didn't mean to bring you down. But if you think you can take more, why not read about how the credit card companies are putting unsecured transmitters into your cards now, so a criminal can pick your pocket wirelessly! Credit Card 2.0.
Don't you just love the folly of Man?
Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
California has the distinct reputation of being a legal trendsetter. We pass laws here that no one else would even consider-- and then those laws spread to other states whose High Mucketty-mucks say, "they got away with it in California, why not here?"
Before too long, it finds its way to your state.
Today, a law (passed earlier) comes into effect here in CA that will surely dig some hard-earned cash out of its citizens' pockets and get it back into the Govt's hands.. where it can do some good.. like maybe buy some time before insolvency. (California totters on bankruptcy, folks.)
That law is the Hands Free Cellphone Law.
As of today, you cannot use an ordinary, everyday cellphone while driving your car-- you must use some device which allows you to keep both hands on the wheel. Those folks under 18 can't use a cell at all. (And yes, it is one more excuse for them to pull you over: suspicion of violating the new law.)
Of course, sales of bluetooth earpieces is skyrocketing, and the motive for the law is to save lives-- some hired "expert" estimated 300 per year. This is what is known as a "win-win" (increase sales and save lives--wow!!!) but is actually a win-win-win.. if you like police states.
But.. this new law won't save any lives.. as this LA Times article points out. It isn't where your hands are.. it's where your head is at.
What would is if all the people out there focused on their driving and didn't make telephone calls while cruising our roads. I don't. And I manage.
But how are you going to put that genie back into its bottle?
And why the especially strict under 18? Was some lawmaker P.O.'ed at his kid the day they wrote it?
Aitch-ee-double toothpicks in a handbasket.
[note: I don't know how many folks drive while blabbing where you live, but this new law is going to affect everyone in CA.. except me.]
Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
For the sake of ratings, I simply must write something about the hot topic on the Web right now-- a topic so hot (how hot is it?) that the amount of "buzz" has caused the social networking/blogging site Twitter to crash under the burden.
That topic is Apple's WWDC (aka "Stevenotes"*).
The Worldwide Developer Conference has become (one of) the venues where Apple offers sneak peek (preview) at new products and technologies... A glimpse at what the immediate future holds.
(Personally, I find such teases annoying, but the iFanatics feel different, I guess.)
For instance, this year, we were told about OS 10.6 (aka "Snow Leopard").. which won't offer any new features and we might see it in a year. WooHoo!!! Yay!!! I mean.. yawn.
And we're told about a new version (2.0) of the iPhone's OS, which will affect every person on the planet. Not.
Can you tell? Even though this event is being held right up the road, and I am a World Renown Tech Journalist, I made no effort to attend, and am too experienced to get wow!-ed by the hype. I also confess, I am not a iPerson/iFanatic.
Yet, there are some interesting and relevant items to note: Namely, Apple's investment in bringing to us the "wonders" of cloud computing with MobileMe and the 20GB iDisk (and they're hoping.. the 3G iPhone). This video explains--
This $99/year service will work "cross platform" (Windows/Mac/Linux) and across devices.
Here we really are looking at "Web 2.0", and the future of computing. People, before too long, will be storing their whole lives and all their personal information on the Internet. So that we can share it.
Has anyone considered the security implications?
I'm an old dinosaur, and I'm a curmudgeon to boot.. I think there already is too much personal information available about us on the Web, and I'm not about to go putting my address book and calendar (and.. my accounting program?) there.
But those of the Look At Me Generation will probably be clamoring for it.
* A reference to the fact that the keynote address is usually given by Apple founder Steve Jobs.
Copyright 2007-8 Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
