Technology Info

Trying to pass legislation that impacts how games can be sold or what has to be put on them is a popular and expensive way of sending the message that you’re concerned about the issues that affect the youth of today. Although every law attempted has gone down in flames, and has cost taxpayers at least $1 million through the years, politicians continue to line up to give it a go. The newest bill is A11717, proposed by Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, and it has already passed through the New York State Assembly. Now it’s on to the State Senate. It’s a familiar story, but in this case the New York government is asking for things the industry is already doing.

The legislation would require game consoles to include parental locks for mature content but, while this sounds good on paper, every current-generation console already has parental controls. Not only that, but the ESRB has done a great job of getting the word out on how to use said controls. The bill also wants to force games to show their ESRB ratings on the cover of the title, which is also something that is done industry-wide. Every game sold at retail has the ESRB rating on the front cover, with more detailed information on what content the game includes on the back of the box. Given that industry compliance on showing the ratings on games is already at 100 percent, it’s unclear what the law would achieve. (link)

No matter what you think of blogging, Internet-based citizen journalism is a real threat, not just to traditional media business models but to totalitarian governments. How do we know that bloggers are drawing blood? Because some governments are hitting back harder and harder; last year saw a tripling in the number of bloggers arrested around the world compared to 2006, according to a report from the University of Washington.

“Last year, 2007, was a record year for blogger arrests, with three times as many as in 2006. Egypt, Iran and China are the most dangerous places to blog about political life, accounting for more than half of all arrests since blogging became big,” said Assistant Professor Phil Howard, lead author of the World Information Access Report. Howard also suggests that the real number of arrests may be much higher, as not every arrest makes it into the media. (link)

A skirmish has been raging for days over the online Wikipedia biography of Industry Minister Jim Prentice, with anonymous government workers airbrushing out controversial details or buffing Prentice’s image, while others just as quickly revised the revisions.

So intense was the battle that Prentice’s biography was locked Thursday by Wikipedia administrators “due to vandalism.”

Literally hundreds of changes had been made to Prentice’s biography over the past week, with many originating from IP addresses that were traced to Industry Canada computers at the department’s Queen Street address in downtown Ottawa.

“Even though someone from within Industry Canada thought they were making these changes anonymously - and they are, in the sense of not knowing the precise individual - it was not very difficult to trace back the fact these changes were coming from within the department,” Michael Geist, a professor at the University of Ottawa, said Thursday in an interview. (link)

ACTA could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices.
On October 23, 2007, the Canadian Federal Government announced that Canada will participate in preliminary discussions with the United States, Mexico, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and other countries toward an anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA).

The main objective of ACTA would be to develop international standards to better combat the trade in counterfeit trademarked and pirated copyright goods. Provisions would focus on international cooperation, enforcement practices and legal frameworks, including enforcement systems. (DigitalJournal)

The British government is developing a proposal to centralize the data-retention practices of UK communications firms. Under current law, communications providers are required to retain certain kinds of data about their customers for a year, and to make that data available in response to government subpoenas. Under the new proposal, these records would have to be automatically submitted to a centralized government database. The government believes this will facilitate law enforcement access to the information, although a court order would still be required to access it. (ArsTechnica)

China has launched an investigation into online mapping services by Internet giants including Google and Sohu in an effort to protect state secrets and territorial integrity, state press said.

According to Min Yiren, vice head of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, authorities hope to get rid of online maps that wrongly depict China’s borders or that reveal military secrets, the People’s Daily said Monday.

The government began the investigation into the problematic maps in April and will continue it until the end of the year, the report said.

Min cited five areas of concern, with the redrawing of China’s borders and placing disputed territory outside the nation the top priority, it said. (link)

Setting up a wireless network can be a hassle … ok, it IS a hassle. Once you finally get everything up and running you’re still not done. Wireless security is a must for any network. (ABC’s of securing wireless networks) Despite the unlikely event that someone is tapping into your network, it’s better to be safe, than sorry.

On another front, Microsoft has been developing a forensic USB tool capable of bypassing PC security. Maybe this answers why there are so many bugs in the Windows OS? Hmm. So I encrypt my laptop, passwords all over, biometric security, and Microsoft is selling a USB tool for $99.99 that will undo all of that. *&^%$#@!!

Losing data? How about accidentally deleting data? Take a look at how the Bush government lost incriminatory emails, how convenient. I’m sure they went to great lengths to contact IT specialists, 2nd and third opinions while failing to contact an established data recovery company. What about the backups? Oh I see, accidentally wiped those too huh? (cover-up)

In the expanding world of cyber-information, Alberta needs to pull up its socks or risk having confidential data exposed, the provincial auditor general reported Wednesday.

Fred Dunn said government wide safeguards and benchmarks are needed to keep the system safe and cost effective. “The government departments as a whole need to do a better job identifying the risks,” said Dunn in his semi-annual report.

He said information technology programs are a patchwork quilt, varying from department to department. (news alert)

Japan faces a 16 percent slide in the size of its workforce by 2030 while the number of elderly will mushroom, the government estimates, raising worries about who will do the work in a country unused to, and unwilling to contemplate, large-scale immigration.

The thinktank, the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation, says robots could help fill the gaps, ranging from microsized capsules that detect lesions to high-tech vacuum cleaners.

Rather than each robot replacing one person, the foundation said in a report that robots could make time for people to focus on more important things.

Japan could save 2.1 trillion yen ($21 billion) of elderly insurance payments in 2025 by using robots that monitor the health of older people, so they don’t have to rely on human nursing care, the foundation said in its report. (link)

Looks like the government doesn’t know which side to take on the issue. For now it looks like they are going to dodge the issue until someone else (U.S.) takes a stand which they can adopt. Guess it comes down to whether or not criminal activity is taking place and how it could be proved in the court of law.

“Some of Canada’s largest ISPs – including Bell and Rogers – have employed “shaping” techniques for more than a year to manipulate Internet traffic flows, essentially slowing down certain kinds of Internet activity on their networks while giving priority to other data. Most of the data being shaped, or “throttled,” is peer-to-peer or “torrent” traffic, typically large files such as video files.” (link)

“On Friday, the National Union of Public and General Employees sent a letter to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) demanding that it investigate the impact of “traffic shaping” by ISPs on Canadian Internet users.

For more than a year, some of Canada’s largest ISPs – including Bell Canada and Rogers Communications Inc. — have employed “shaping” techniques, essentially slowing down certain kinds of Internet activity on their networks while giving priority to other data. Most of the data being shaped, or “throttled,” is peer-to-peer or “torrent” traffic, which is typically used to transmit large files, such as video files. ” (GlobeandMail)