Robots With Attitude: Maybe, Eventually

Humans are a little closer to building robots with attitude: a very little closer.

It's been nearly seven decades since von Neumann helped develop the first electronic computers: the first ones that handled ones and zeroes, anyway. Since then, the Lemming has been impressed with developments like transistors, fiber optics, and pay-per-view cable television.

But humans were still building computers that stored data one place, moved it somewhere else for processing, and then back to storage for the next process. Sure, it worked better than pressing symbols into clay tablets: but even humans realized that the artificial intelligence of these "electronic brains" was emphatically artificial.

Now, finally, humans have made a new sort of computer. Some of them, including a team that works for IBM.

Well, actually, it's a new kind of computer chip. And it'll need an entirely new sort of software, so the Lemming figures it'll be years before you'll see them in the electronics department.

Here's what got the Lemming started —

"Brain-inspired chip fits 1m 'neurons' on postage stamp"
Jonathan Webb, BBC News (August 8, 2014)

"Scientists have produced a new computer chip that mimics the organisation of the brain, and squeezed in one million computational units called 'neurons'....

"...Each neuron on the chip connects to 256 others, and together they can pick out the key features in a visual scene in real time, using very little power....

"...Instead of binary ones and zeros, the units of computation here are spikes. When its inputs are active enough, one of TrueNorth's 'neurons' generates a spike and sends it across the chip to other neurons, taking them closer to their own threshold.

"Software has to be written completely differently for these spiking-network systems...."

And now, the mellow moods of Festo and the Flying Mechanical Penguins.



The Lemming is not making that up.

There's more — from the mind of the Lemming, and elsewhere:

• "From the Mind of the Lemming: Amateur Night"
  (September 20, 2013)
• " 'While Strolling Through the Park One Day - - -' "
  (April 12, 2013)
• "Roomba Review, and Dancing Robots"
  (August 17, 2012)
• "Mars Rover Spirit: Not Bad for a Limited-Warranty Robot"
  (May 26, 2011)
• "Flying Mechanical Penguins"
  (February 12, 2011)

Putting a Face in Space: Yours, Not the Lemming's

"Asteroid mining company wants to put your face in space"
Irene Klotz, Reuters (May 30, 2013)

"A privately owned asteroid mining firm, backed in part by Google Inc's founders, launched a crowd-funding project on Wednesday to gauge public interest in a small space telescope that could serve as a backdrop for personal photographs, officials said.

"Planetary Resources, based in Bellevue, Washington, plans to build and operate telescopes to hunt for asteroids orbiting near Earth and robotic spacecraft to mine them for precious metals, water and other materials.

"It also plans an educational and outreach program to let students, museums, armchair astronomers and virtual travelers share use of a telescope through an initiative on Kickstarter, a website used to raise funds for creative projects...."

This looks like a good idea. The 'your face here' idea reminds the Lemming of days gone by when folks paid for the privilege of sticking their heads through holes in a picture.

The point, as the Lemming recalls, was to have a photographer capture the moment. It was, in the Lemming's opinion, one of the sillier uses humans have found for their technology: but popularity of those boardwalk photos was very human.

The Lemming is more interested in plans for timesharing orbital property. Quite a few of the 7,000,000,000 or so folks living on Earth might want to use a modest space telescope without having the cash to build and maintain a satellite and ground support network. There's the little matter of getting something into orbit, too.

A few more decades, and humans might be raising families in low Earth orbit. But that's another topic.

Related posts:

• "Asteroid Miners"
  (January 25, 2013)
• "Asteroid Apophis: No 'Earth Shattering Kaboom' "
  (January 11, 2013)
• " 'One Small Hop for a Grasshopper...' SpaceX's Reusable Rocket"
  (December 28, 2012)
• "The Dragon Flies: SpaceX Photo, and Some Drawings"
  (May 25, 2012)
• "Mineral X From Outer Space!"
  (May 9, 2011)

No Google Reader After June, But RSS Goes On

"How to Keep Following eagereyes After the End of Google Reader"
Robert Kosara, Blog, eagereyes (April 7, 2013)

"With Google Reader shutting down July 1st, now is the time to find alternative ways to follow your favorite blogs. For this one, you can now get new postings on Facebook and through a dedicated Twitter feed, in addition to the RSS feed. See below for some RSS aggregator/reader alternatives to Google Reader.

"Facebook and Twitter

"I don't use Facebook and Twitter to follow feeds, that's what I have my RSS reader for. But for people who like doing that, perhaps using Flipboard or similar, I have now created pure feed accounts. No talking, just links to new postings...."

The Google Reader has been a pretty good service, one the Lemming used occasionally. But as Robert Kosara points out, it's not the only way to keep track of blogs.

An important point is that RSS will still be around. Depending on who's talking, RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. It's a way to publish frequently-updated online content in a more-or-less standardized format. Google Reader used RSS, but it's far from the only RSS reader around.

In a way, today's situation reminds the Lemming of the days when America Online (AOL) was doing a good job of marketing its online community. Some folks seemed to think that AOL and the Internet were pretty much the same thing, and that's another topic.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Google Reader Ending, FeedBurner, and This Blog"
  A Catholic Citizen in (April 14, 2013)
• "The Lemming's Got a Feed (big whoop)"
  (March 10, 2012)
• "Blogging is Dead! Long Live Blogging!"
  (December 16, 2010)
• " 'Machine Gun Twittering:' Probably Not Cool"
  (June 23, 2010)
• " 'How to Make Your Blog Stand Out:' Trite Title, Good Advice"
  (May 21, 2010)

San Francisco-Oakland Bridge: LEDs, Cool Photo

(Teton Gravity Research, via Wired, used w/o permission)

"Check Out the San Francisco Bay Lights in 4K Glory"
Christina Bonnington, Gadget Lab, Wired (April 1, 2013)

"The Golden Gate Bridge has long overshadowed its grayer, plainer companion, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. That's changed, just a bit, now that the Bay Lights illuminate 'the other bridge' with the glow of 25,000 glittering LEDs.

"We've been lucky enough to see them each night since they first lit up March 5, and now you can enjoy them too - in stunning 4K definition.

"The video was shot with a RED Epic attached to Gyro-Stabilized Systems' C520, a portable five-axis gyro-stabilized camera platform. It's the first such system that is fully upgradable, interchangeable, and can accommodate 4K camera tech...."

It's a pretty cool photo. The copy in this post was cropped to fit the Lemming's format.

What's really impressive is what it took to get the video: for that you'll have to read the Wired article.

Normally, the Lemming would ramble on about LEDs, San Francisco, or maybe bridges. It's been one of those weeks, though, and the Lemming's taking a break.

Allegedly-related posts:

• "New York City, Stray Cats, Shag, and Sense"
  (December 28, 2011)
• "Television's Ephemeral Art: 'Click,' and It's Gone"
  (April 25, 2011)
• "Van Gogh, Art, and Greenish Phytoplankton"
  (November 25, 2010)
• "Bubbles!"
  (January 23, 2010)
• "Glow-in-the-Dark Flashing Tattoos? Prosthetics With Neural Interfaces? They're Coming"
  (November 20, 2009)

Internet Access Ends Monday: For DNSChanger-Infected Computers

"Malware may knock thousands off Internet on Monday"
Associated Press, via FoxNews.com (July 5, 2012)

"The warnings about the Internet problem have been splashed across Facebook and Google. Internet service providers have sent notices, and the FBI set up a special website.

"But tens of thousands of Americans may still lose their Internet service Monday unless they do a quick check of their computers for malware that could have taken over their machines more than a year ago...."

Not everyone is online as much as the Lemming: or wants to be. Since it's possible that you didn't hear about DNSChanger, and why it's a serious problem, the Lemming assembled this link list:

• "DCWG"
  (www.dcwg.org)
  DNS Changer Working Group
  • Created to help deal with Rove Digital's malicious DNS servers
  • Helps monitor DNS servers run by ISC
    • Under court order
• "Notifying DNSChanger Victims"
  Facebook Security (June 4, 2012)
• "Notifying users affected by the DNSChanger malware"
  Google Online Security Blog (May 22, 2012)
• "FBI - Check to See if Your Computer is Using Rogue DNS"
  (forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-if-your-computer-is-using-rogue-DNS)
  • "The FBI is seeking information from individuals, corporate entities, and Internet Services Providers who believe that they have been victimized by malicious software (“malware”) related to the defendants"
  (June 8, 2012)

The Lemming also offered free advice, which may be worth every cent:

• No foreign ruler wants you to transfer his wealth through your bank account
• The inheritance from a rich relative you don't know about
  • Doesn't exist
    • Neither does the rich relative
• "Free" usually isn't
• You won't make millions by stuffing envelopes
• If you wouldn't do it in your neighborhood, don't do it online
  • Cyberspace is real, too
  (June 8, 2012)

Bear in mind that the Lemming's not an online security 'expert.' Do your own research: and use your brain.

Alerts, Infections, and Maybe 64,000 Computers in America

"...Despite repeated alerts, the number of computers that probably are infected is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April. Of those still infected, the FBI believes that about 64,000 are in the United States.

"Users whose computers are still infected Monday will lose their ability to go online, and they will have to call their service providers for help deleting the malware and reconnecting to the Internet...."
(Associated Press)

Going from 360,000 to 277,000 infected computers, globally, meant getting the attention of computer users - for almost one of every four DNSChanger-infested units. That's not doing too badly, in the Lemming's opinion. Folks who use computers and go online aren't necessarily tech-savvy enough to know why good security is a good idea.

As it is, it looks like 64,000 folks in the Lemming's home country will be in for a surprise. You probably don't want to be one of them, which is why the Lemming re-posted that link list.

The resources set up in America are fairly easy to read, simple to use: and yes, the Lemming checked. The household computers here are clean. As far as the Lemming can tell.

DNSChanger: What Happened

"...The problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI went in to take down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service...."
(Associated Press)

There's more in yesterday's article: and even more in last month's Apathetic Lemming of the North post on the DNSChanger malware situation.

Related posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: Google, Facebook Affected by DNSChanger Malware! WHEN WILL IT END?!!!!"
  (June 8, 2012)
  Particularly
  • Malware, Facebook, and Counting Down to July 9
  • DNSChanger: Background and Help
  • Malware, the Internet, Lizard Men, and a Ranting Lemming
  • DNS Changer: Yes, It's Important
• "International Cyber Crime Ring Busted: 'By Jove, I Think They've GOT It!' "
  (October 3, 2010)
• "'Here You Have' - Nitwits on the Net"
  (September 12, 2010)
• "Microsoft, Domains, Zombie Computers, and Spam"
  (February 26, 2010)
• "'Work at Home,' Transferring Money Overseas: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"
  (November 3, 2009)

Turing Tests, Subcognitive Low-Level Association, and Perambulators

Today is Friday the 13th, which has very little to do with artificial intelligence, Turing tests, or the number 11:

• "Lemming Tracks: Triskaidekaphobia and a Rambling Lemming"
  (January 13, 2012)
• "Eleven; and Why is Six Afraid of Seven?"
  (November 11, 2011)

Computers That Think: Just Around the Corner (Again)

"Artificial Intelligence Could Be on Brink of Passing Turing Test"
Brandon Keim, Wired Science (April 12, 2012)

"One hundred years after Alan Turing was born, his eponymous test remains an elusive benchmark for artificial intelligence. Now, for the first time in decades, it's possible to imagine a machine making the grade.

"Turing was one of the 20th century's great mathematicians, a conceptual architect of modern computing whose codebreaking played a decisive part in World War II. His test, described in a seminal dawn-of-the-computer-age paper, was deceptively simple: If a machine could pass for human in conversation, the machine could be considered intelligent.

"Artificial intelligences are now ubiquitous, from GPS navigation systems and Google algorithms to automated customer service and Apple's Siri, to say nothing of Deep Blue and Watson - but no machine has met Turing's standard. The quest to do so, however, and the lines of research inspired by the general challenge of modeling human thought, have profoundly influenced both computer and cognitive science.

"There is reason to believe that code kernels for the first Turing-intelligent machine have already been written...."

Artificial intelligence, the sort exhibited by C3PO and HAL 9000, has been 'just around the corner' for decades. So far, what's been achieved is the release of several movies; and some robots. The robots are, sometimes, useful. But "intelligent?" Not so much.

• "Meet Fenway the Robot, Hospital Helper"
  (September 21, 2010)
• "HAL 9000, Skynet, and C3PO"
  (January 26, 2010)
• "Robovie-II and Robovie-IV: Robot Assistants for Store and Office"
  (January 7, 2010)

Part of that may have to do with how computers and the human brain are designed. Not the hardware: the functional parameters of the systems.

• Computers
  • Get correct answers
    • Based on vast quantities of data
      • All of which is precisely correct
• Human brains
  • Get correct answers
    • Based on very little data
      • Most of which is wrong

There's a bit of Murphy's Law in that joke. Besides, human beings process large amounts of data on the fly, without being aware of the process: as folks who started designing robots that can sense their environment discovered.

The point is that so far, artificial intelligence has been very good at doing rapid calculations that involve accurate data. Humans have survived because they're pretty good at sorting out relevant information from the deluge of data fragments pouring into the brain.

Back to that Wired article.

Subcognitive Low-Level Association, Dental Hygiene, and Perambulators

"...'Two revolutionary advances in information technology may bring the Turing test out of retirement,' wrote Robert French, a cognitive scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research, in an Apr. 12 Science essay. 'The first is the ready availability of vast amounts of raw data - from video feeds to complete sound environments, and from casual conversations to technical documents on every conceivable subject. The second is the advent of sophisticated techniques for collecting, organizing, and processing this rich collection of data.'

" 'Is it possible to recreate something similar to the subcognitive low-level association network that we have? That's experiencing largely what we're experiencing? Would that be so impossible?' French said...."

"...The human mind was thought to be logical. Computers run logical commands. Therefore our brains should be computable. Computer scientists thought that within a decade, maybe two, a person engaged in dialogue with two hidden conversants, one computer and one human, would be unable to reliably tell them apart.

"That simplistic idea proved ill-founded. Cognition is far more complicated than mid-20th century computer scientists or psychologists had imagined, and logic was woefully insufficient in describing our thoughts. Appearing human turned out to be an insurmountably difficult task, drawing on previously unappreciated human abilities to integrate disparate pieces of information in a fast-changing environment...."
(Brandon Keim, Wired)

The Lemming isn't sure that it's accurate to say that the human brain isn't "logical" because it doesn't operate the way that an Intel chip does. It sounds like saying that calculus isn't mathematics because it works differently from high school algebra. But the Lemming also thinks that parameter sounds like perambulator, and some calculus has more to do with dental hygiene than integrating functions. And that's another topic. Topics.

Good Question

"...He [Robert French] continued, 'Assume also that the software exists to catalog, analyze, correlate, and cross-link everything in this sea of data. These data and the capacity to analyze them appropriately could allow a machine to answer heretofore computer-unanswerable questions' and even pass a Turing test...."
(Brandon Keim, Wired)

Okay, let's assume that. An ideal set of software, loaded into an ideal computer, run by an ideal operating system, could - ideally - slice and dice a whole bunch of data. Really fast.

And, ideally, after lots and lots of data-crunching, this system could pass a Turing Test.

Maybe French is right, and real-world equivalents of C3PO are just around the corner. That would be - very impressive.

And, from the Lemming's point of view, very surprising. Making the jump from writing a sentence that human brains will process and put in the 'this might work' category is one thing.

Getting real software and hardware to process data, and successfully imitate what human brains do? That, so far, has been a fascinating and rewarding occupation.

But we still haven't seen an AI that can pass a Turing test. Some chatbots get pretty close to emulating the responses of a sleep-deprived, hung-over, heavily-caffeinated college student: and that's yet another topic.

Impossible! Or, Not

Does the Lemming think that AI will become intelligent? Briefly:

• Yes
• No
• It depends

A lot depends on what's meant by "intelligent." For quite a while, at least some folks figured that being "intelligent" meant being able to memorize enormous amounts of information, and recite it accurately. Which would make the Lemming's camcorder very intelligent.

A somewhat more sophisticated version of that assumption was that being "intelligent" meant being able to memorize lots of information, and use bits and pieces of it in appropriate ways. That's probably why authors often used playing chess as a way to say 'this character is really smart.'

Then Deep Blue turned out to be a better chess player than some human. The Wired article mentions that AI.

The point is that definitions of "intelligence" have shifted, as folks have realized that an overclocked abacus can out-memorize any human being.

What we don't have, yet, is an AI that can successfully handle large amounts of fuzzy facts; find patterns that are vaguely similar to previous experiences; reject the patterns that are silly; and come up with a shifting short list of patterns that might - or might not - apply in the current situation.

The Lemming thinks that an AI that's able to pass a Turning test might be possible: but it may require a new sort of logic. We've had this sort of thing happen before, sort of. Newton (or Leibniz, or Madhava of Sangamagrama, or somebody else) pulled calculus out of his head, when he needed a mathematical tool that didn't exist yet.

We know that it's possible for a data-processing system to act the way human beings do. Human brains do it all the time. The trick, in the Lemming's opinion, will be learning just how human brains pass Turing tests; developing a system to represent the process in an abstract way; and then developing languages and hardware to process data using that system.

That's a whole lot of developing.

Along the way, though, folks are likely to learn quite a lot about how human beings think, and how the human brain works. And, occasionally, doesn't work.

And those are - what else? more topics.

Related (sort of) posts:

• "The Lemming Meets Cleverbot"
  (January 27, 2012)
• "Nine Decades of Robots Turning on Their Masters"
  (January 25, 2011)
• "Asimov's 3 Laws, Real Robots, and Common Sense"
  (August 20, 2009)
• "Memristor: Cool New Technology from HP Labs"
  (April 30, 2008)
• "C3PO Will Have to Wait: Artificial Intelligence Today"
  (February 9, 2008)

QWERTY, Keyboards, Fluency, and Feelings

"The QWERTY Effect: How Typing May Shape the Meaning of Words"
Dave Mosher, Wired Science, Wired (March 7, 2012)

"A keyboard's arrangement could have a small but significant impact on how we perceive the meaning of words we type.

"Specifically, the QWERTY keyboard may gradually attach more positive meanings to words with more letters located on the right side of the layout (everything to the right of T, G and B).

" 'We know how a word is spoken can affect its meaning. So can how it's typed,' said cognitive scientist Kyle Jasmin of the University of College London, co-author of a study about the so-called 'QWERTY effect' in Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. 'As we filter language, hundreds or thousands of words, through our fingers, we seem to be connecting the meanings of the words with the physical way they're typed on the keyboard.'..."

Basically, what's on the right side of the keyboard tends to be easier to type than what's on the left - and folks tend to react better when something's easy.

Basically. There's a detailed explanation in:

• "The QWERTY Effect: How
  typing shapes the meanings of words"
  Kyle Jasmin & Daniel Casasanto (2012)

By page two, you'll be reading things like "...analyzed valence-normed words from three corpora...." Jasmin & Casasanto don't crank up the fog factor in an egregious to emulate erudition, unlike some academic stuff the Lemming's had to read: but some of what they discuss is a trifle technical.

Why "QWERTY?"

"...The QWERTY layout dates back to 1868. Until then, typewriters frequently jammed because some letters sat too close to one other on the keyboard. When typed in rapid succession, they sometimes stuck together.

"In response, inventors created the QWERTY layout and sold it to the Remington company. The layout has stuck ever since, and with the transition from typewriters to personal computers, it became ubiquitous...."

You'll find pretty much the same thing in Jasmin & Casasanto's paper.

Dvorak keyboards were all the rage a few years back. Maybe you use one. That keyboard arrangement makes sense - also from an ergonomic viewpoint - for folks who use today's non-mechanical gadgets with keyboards. And who feel like taking time to learn a new keyboard layout.

The Lemming uses the same sort of QWERTY keyboard that just about everybody else in the English-speaking world does - and that's another topic.

Bad News for Leszczynska

"...Jasmin and his colleague Daniel Casasanto, a social psychologist at the New School for Social Research, knew from previous research that the difficulty of using an object affected how positively or negatively people viewed it.

"The effect is called fluency, and it even seems to affect abstractions such as people's names. The more difficult it is to pronounce a person's name, for example, the less positively we might view that person...."

That could be bad news for a brilliant young attorney whose name is Jarizleifr Leszczynska. If he wants to get ahead in the firm of Johnson, Smith, and Roberts: well, that's another topic. Topics.

Chirality!

"Chirality?!" That means:

• "property of non-surimposable entities (for example, the right hand and the left hand)"
  (Glossary, PCAS)

Turns out, words with lots of letters on the right side of a QWERTY keyboard tend to be seen more positively than others. Particularly newer words, coined since QWERTY started being widely used.

Which brings up more questions:

1. Do folks who are left-handed react more positively to 'left-handed' words?
2. Is there a sinister bias involved?
3. Are kung fu fighting invisible ninjas behind it?

For what it's worth, the Lemming thinks:

1. That's a good question
2. Depends on what's meant by
   • Sinister
   • Bias
3. Not likely
   • At all

A tip of the hat to Brian Clark, copyblogger, on Twitter.

Slightly-related posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: "password" As a Password?!"
  (November 21, 2011)
• "A Touching Bit of Research: Tactile Sense and Decision-Making"
  (June 28, 2010)
• "Strange New Keyboards"
  (March 18, 2009)
• "Determined to Do Dvorak? Remap Details Discussed"
  (December 10, 2007)
• "Dvorak Keyboard: Great Idea!"
  (December 10, 2007)

NASA: Good News, Bad News, and a Stolen Laptop

"NASA to Beef Up Cybersecurity After Laptop Computer Theft"
Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com (March 8, 2012)

"NASA is taking steps to prevent another security lapse like the one that caused unencrypted space station codes to leak when a NASA laptop computer was stolen, the space agency's chief Charles Bolden told Congress Wednesday (March 7).

"The stolen NASA laptop was among 48 mobile devices taken from the space agency between April 2009 and April 2011, the agency's Inspector General office announced on Feb. 29. The laptop contained command and control codes for the International Space Station (ISS).

" 'I can take action there and I intend to do so,' Bolden told the U.S. Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation committee Wednesday (March 7). 'I can make it a policy or reemphasize the policy that when critical information is put on a laptop, it's encrypted.'..."

The good news is that folks on the ISS weren't in danger as a result of the laptop - and its data - getting stolen.

The not-so-good news is that NASA, and just about everybody else, is still getting used to the Information Age - and learning what is a good idea, and what isn't.

Encrypting data on gadgets that are easy to steal sounds like a really good idea.

It's not just NASA - SEGA, Sony, credit card companies, and a whole lot more outfits have been climbing a learning curve over the last few years.

Slightly-related posts:

• "Hackers Hooked: Some of Them, Anyway"
  (March 9, 2012)
• "Oops: pcAnywhere, Symantec's 2006 Norton Antivirus Hacked"
  (January 26, 2012)
• "Move Over, Sony: Sega Joins 'We Were Hacked' Club"
  (June 19, 2011)
• "3,300,000 People's Student Loan Data Stolen: That's a Lot of Zeroes"
  (March 27, 2010)
• "Flight 188, Distracted Pilots, and Dangerously Impractical Software?"
  (November 27, 2009)

Hackers Hooked: Some of Them, Anyway

" 'Lulzsec hackers' arrested in international swoop"
Technology, BBC News (March 6, 2012)

"Seven alleged hackers based in the US, UK and Republic of Ireland have been charged with crimes related to computer attacks said to have affected 'over one million victims'.

"The FBI said that five of the men were involved in the group Lulzsec, while a sixth was a 'member' of Antisec.

"It said that Lulzsec's 'leader' Hector Xavier Monsegur had pleaded guilty in August to 12 criminal charges....

"...The bureau said that Mr Monsegur - also known as Sabu - had admitted involvement in cyber attacks against the media groups Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) among others...."

How bad could this be - really? After all, it looks like the victims are Big Businesses. The Lemming will skip the usual stuff about corporate greed, oppressed classes, and the rest. You've heard it all before, anyway.

Good Morning, Information Age

A hundred years ago, hacking into networks run by large companies wouldn't have made a bit of difference in the lives of ordinary folks. Mainly because there weren't any computer networks to be hacked into.

That was then, this is now.

Large corporations use contemporary information technology to store data about folks who do business with them - which includes a whole lot of folks all across the economic spectrum. Some of the data may not be as important as, say, access codes to bank accounts. It's a little hard to imagine how lives would be disrupted as a result of X Factor contestant data getting stolen.

On the other hand, little things can add up. Particularly in a world that's increasingly interconnected. And where an increasing share of the 7,000,000,000 or so folks have Internet access - or know someone who does.

Contestant Data, a Porn Site, America's Congress, and All That

"Hackers claiming to be part of Lulzsec said they had carried out or have been linked to the following attacks:"

• May 7: US X Factor contestant database
• May 10: Fox.com user passwords
• May 15: Database listing locations of UK cash machines
• May 23: Sonymusic Japan website
• May 30: US broadcaster PBS. Staff logon information
• June 2: Sonypictures.com user information
• June 3: Infragard website (FBI affiliated organisation)
• June 3: Nintendo.com
• June 10: Pron.com pornographic website
• June 13: Senate.gov - website of US Senate
• June 13: Bethesda software website. User information
• June 14: EVE Online, League of Legends, The Escapist and others
• June 16:'Technical disruption' to the website of the CIA
• June 20: The website of the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) taken offline by denial of service attack
  (Source: BBC News)

The BBC article doesn't say, but presumably these dates are all in 2011.

Customers with data on Nintendo.com probably didn't appreciate having their data fiddled with: but life would probably still go on, even if every customer of a giant like Nintendo lost data they'd entrusted to the entertainment company.

The American Congress, now: that lot is supposed to be running this country, so there might have been serious consequences.

The same goes for networks used by the FBI, CIA, and Soca. Not that they're running any countries - conspiracy buffs notwithstanding - but the Lemming thinks that data used by national law enforcement might be more important than access codes for online games. But that's just the Lemming's opinion.

But - remember that we're living in a very interconnected world, and a big one. Get enough folks spending time unscrambling entertainment accounts, instead of going about their normal routines: and you've got the potential for some fairly large-scale consequences.

Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, and a 124-Year Sentence

"...According to the court papers Mr Monsegur formed Lulzsec last May. It said he acted as a 'rooter', identifying vulnerabilities in victim's computer systems.

"Alongside other recruited hackers he is also alleged to have attacked the US Senate, the cyber security firm Unveillance, Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.

"The FBI said he faced a maximum sentence of more than 124 years in prison if found guilty of all counts...."

That's 124 years, maximum, if found guilty: Mr. Monsegur will probably serve substantially less time. From his point of view, that's a sort of 'worst-case scenario.'

Is doing time for a dozen decades overkill for this sort of offense? That's a good question. It looks like Mr. Monsegur did an awful lot of damage - spread out over a whole lot of people, but still an awful lot of damage.

Whether or not the sentence is 'fair' or not: the Lemming hopes someone has the sense to make sure that Mr. Monsegur doesn't have Internet access while he's a guest of the legal system.

No Sudden Shortage of Hackers

"...Trend Micro's director of security research, Rik Ferguson, added that while this might mark the end of Lulzsec, it would be premature to say the same about Anonymous.

" 'Anonymous is a very different organisation to Lulzsec and other more closely linked groups - anyone can and does act in the name of Anonymous and their activities do not require individual hacker publicity or disclosure of personally identifiable details,' he said.

" 'The very fact that Sabu became the "celebrity" he was, illustrates the real difference between Lulzsec and Anonymous.

" 'I think the hackers we really need to worry about are those that trusted no-one and sought no glory in the first place.'..."

It would be nice if someone could wave a magic wand, and make everybody want to be nice to everybody else. Or, not.

Actually, the Lemming would be very, very, concerned if someone could do that. The situation could make Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" look like a Sunday school picnic, in comparison. And that's another topic.

It's somewhat reassuring to see another set of arrests. The Lemming's not being vindictive: it's a relief to see that law enforcement is taking 'cybercrime' seriously. It's also, in the Lemming's opinion, good that the legal codes in America and the United Kingdom now take late-20th-century information technology into account.

Will there be other hack attacks? Almost certainly. But it looks like folks are starting to take the issue seriously - and that's a good thing.

Related posts:

• Bad News
  • "Oops: pcAnywhere, Symantec's 2006 Norton Antivirus Hacked"
    (January 26, 2012)
  • "Move Over, Sony: Sega Joins 'We Were Hacked' Club"
    (June 19, 2011)
  • "Citibank Card Data Hacked!! (but keep reading)"
    (June 9, 2011)
  • "Lemming Tracks: Epsilon Breach, Spam, and Getting a Grip"
    (April 6, 2011)
  • "3,300,000 People's Student Loan Data Stolen: That's a Lot of Zeroes"
    (March 27, 2010)
• Getting a grip
  • "Lemming Tracks: 'password' As a Password?!"
    (November 21, 2011)
  • "Cloud Computing, Dropbox, and the Postcard Principle"
    (May 13, 2011)
  • "Lemming Tracks: China, Internet Traffic, and Why It Matters"
    (November 18, 2010)
  • "International Cyber Crime Ring Busted: 'By Jove, I Think They've GOT It!' "
    (October 3, 2010)
  • "Web Cookies: About 500 Words of Common Sense and Peanut Butter"
    (August 5, 2010)

Tuning in on the Brain's 'Voice'

"Science decodes 'internal voices'
Jason Palmer, Science and technology reporter, BBC News (January 31, 2012)

"Researchers have demonstrated a striking method to reconstruct words, based on the brain waves of patients thinking of those words.

"The technique reported in PLoS Biology relies on gathering electrical signals directly from patients' brains.

"Based on signals from listening patients, a computer model was used to reconstruct the sounds of words that patients were thinking of.

"The method may in future help comatose and locked-in patients communicate...."

So far, this sounds great. The fascinations of 'pure science' aside, this research could help folks whose brains are in good working order - but who have problems with connections to their bodies.

'What Could Possibly Go Wrong?'

"...Several approaches have in recent years suggested that scientists are closing in on methods to tap into our very thoughts; the current study achieved its result by implanting electrodes directly into a part of participants' brains.

"In a 2011 study, participants with electrodes in direct brain contact were able to move a cursor on a screen by simply thinking of vowel sounds.

"A technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging to track blood flow in the brain has shown promise for identifying which words or ideas someone may be thinking about...."

Okay, so let's assume that someone works out a way for a machine to focus on someone's brain, and display what they're thinking: at least give a real-time list of words they're thinking. What could possibly go wrong?

How about Big Brother using a supercomputer to keep track of citizens' thoughts, except the supercomputer develops a mind of its own and takes over the world? Think "1984" meets "The Terminator" on its way to "The Matrix."

It's 'good enough for a movie.' Quite a few, actually.

• "Science Fiction in the Movies: 'The Satan Bug' to 'The Matrix' "
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (January 26, 2010)

In the Lemming's opinion, someone's going to find a way to misuse this new technology. That's nothing new. Folks have misused technologies from fire to fax machines. Technology's not the problem: it's the people using it, and that's almost another topic.

It's the Lemming's opinion that if this 'brain reading' technology becomes practical: the benefits will outweigh the problems. Also, that someone will be convinced that this newfangled gadget means the end of civilization as we know it.

That cantankerous Luddite will probably be right: and the Lemming thinks we'll all benefit by the change.

Related posts:

• "The Pill That Listens: And Wait'll You See What's Next"
  (November 9, 2010)
• "Next-Generation Prosthetic Hand - and Intel Says Direct Neural Interface Brain Chips by 2020"
  (December 2, 2009)
• "Glow-in-the-Dark Flashing Tattoos? Prosthetics With Neural Interfaces? They're Coming"
  (November 20, 2009)
• "Tofu Turkeys, Genetically Altered Foods, and the Evil Eye"
  (November 14, 2009)
• "Brain Backups: Coming Soon?"
  (November 14, 2007)

The Internet "Shattering:" Oh, the Horror! Or, Not

"The Year the Internet Split in Half"
Blake Snow, FoxNews.com (January 7, 2012)

"One Internet, under no one -- but divisible after all.

"If there's one thing 2011 will be remembered for, it'll be the year the Internet split in half.

"In one corner, we have the traditional web, the one you've known and loved since the 90s. In the other corner, there's the 'app' or mobile Internet. It's the one ushered in by the iPhone, and it grew to record levels last year with help from Android, iPads, and tablets.

"And increasingly, there's different stuff on them...."

There's more, about "traditional" Internet content that's viewed with a browser, mobile applications on smartphones and tablets: and what a huge difference there is between the data that's accessed, depending on what system gets used.

Engadget editor-in-chief Tim Stevens gets quoted, saying that five or 10 years ago, folks were excited about new websites: and now the excitement is over new apps. As far as the Lemming can tell, the data folks see isn't all that different: the difference is in the software that they use.

And that apparently means that developers need to decide whether to concentrate on 'Web' content, or 'app' content.

Up to that point, the article's tone is fairly calm.

"Shattering?"

"...But the web isn't just dividing in two, Stevens said. It's shattering.

" 'I wish it were just splitting,' he told FoxNews.com. 'But the reality is the Internet is actually fragmenting into many small pieces. Apple's iOS and Google's Android are the most popular mobile operating systems, but there's also Microsoft's Windows Phone, Blackberry, HP's webOS and even specific apps for Google's Chrome browser.'

"A clear example is Shazam, one of the first must-have smartphone apps for its ability to quickly identify unknown songs. Four years ago, it was only available on iPhone, though coveted by users on the traditional desktop Internet.

"The app's relevance has since faded. But platform exclusive apps are alive and well today. For example, Adobe Flash software, Google Navigation, and third-party app stores are exclusive to Android...."
(Blake Snow, FoxNews.com)

"Shattering" is a dramatic, emotional, word. Someone whose business depends on developing apps, or websites, or browsers, may feel like their world is "shattering," now that some folks use Blackberry, some an iPhone, and others an Android.

Folks like the Lemming, who create content? Maybe not so much.

A few years ago, the Lemming decided to concentrate on content instead of chasing the latest tech fashions. Which isn't the same as ignoring changes in information technology.

Mobile devices are definitely out there, but the Lemming's stuff is mostly viewed with folks using browsers and some sort of computer. For example, so far this month a little over two thirds of all viewers used Windows, about an eighth had Macintosh systems, a tenth had Linux, and a bit over one percent each used iPhone, Ipad, or Android technology.

Change Happens - - -

"...Not everyone that the Internet is 'dividing,' however.

" 'We're arguing about different front-ends here,' says popular TechCrunch columnist MG Siegler. 'While apps and the web sometimes seem at odds with one another, it's important to remember that all are being powered by the same thing: the Internet.'

"Indeed, mobile apps and traditional websites often access the same servers, databases, and file protocols. But even Siegler admits to diverging uses for the modern Internet....

"...Semantics aside, resources being allocated to the Internet - whether web, mobile, or otherwise - are undeniably being split to follow the money...."
(Blake Snow, FoxNews.com)

There's more about the economic angle. Also a few anecdotes: which may have some truth behind them.

- - - Deal With It

Remember the 'good old days' of the Web, when earnest folks called themselves webmasters and told viewers which browser they should use?

"Best if viewed by [browser] at [resolution]" announcements aren't all that common today. Partly, the Lemming suspects, because too many viewers wouldn't change browsers to accommodate some developer's tastes. Worse, from the control-freak point of view, some folks actually preferred websites that didn't look good in [browser], at [resolution], and were hard to view in anything else.

'It's different' with today's apps: many of which apparently won't even work if someone has the 'wrong' sort of mobile device. Still, the Lemming thinks this could be the start of another 'war of the operating systems,' like the situation we had around 1995:


(Scott Adams' Dilbert (June 22, 1996), used w/o permission)

Around that time the Lemming was doing tech support work, and talked with someone who said - quite seriously - 'nobody uses Windows.'

Maybe this time around, folks in the tech end of information technology will decide on an 'industry standard' for mobile device interfaces. On the other hand, maybe someone will decide to woo the 'snob' market and peddle overpriced 'iSnubs' with solid gold cases and a keypad of matched diamonds.

If that happens, the Lemming thinks most of the rest of us will get by with something a tad more practical. And affordable.

More likely, we'll see more mobile devices that load relatively small amounts of content very quickly: and 'traditional' browsers that load large amounts of content fairly quickly. And, unless human nature changes, some folks will praise their browsers and sneer at apps; while others do the opposite.

Sensible folks will decide what technology best suits their needs, and use that.

Dead Web?

Finally, some good sense from Black Snow. Ryan and Derik are two teenagers mentioned in another part of Snow's piece:

"...When doing research and content creation, the traditional web environment is still ideal, most agree. Which explains why Ryan still reaches for the traditional web first when searching for cars to buy, multitasking, or writing.

"Conversely, it also explains why people like Derick, more interested in consuming information on a casual basis, reach for their iPhone first....

"...Translation: Apps will enjoy more and more features at the expense of websites overall. No, the web isn't dead, despite a loud proclamation from Wired Magazine. It's actually growing in places. Just not as quickly overall as the app and mobile Internet...."
(Blake Snow, FoxNews.com)

That makes sense, to the Lemming. Maybe the Lemming will start focusing more on content that's best viewed by some app. But not today. Or, most likely, this year.

Tech, Content, and Congress

What concerns the Lemming isn't so much the technology folks use, or the sort of content they produce and view: it's the way Congress keeps trying to 'protect' us from the Internet.

The Lemming likes freedom of expression: and that's another topic.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "SOPA: 20 Reasons Why It's a Really Bad Idea"
  (December 30, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: The Continuing 'Death' of Blogging, Hula Hoops, and Getting a Grip"
  (August 28, 2011)
• "FCC, the Internet, Regulations, Freedom of Speech, and a Ranting Lemming"
  (December 23, 2010)
• "Blogging is Dead! Long Live Blogging!"
  (December 16, 2010)
• "The Death of Communication Media!!!"
  (August 24, 2007)

SOPA: 20 Reasons Why It's a Really Bad Idea

"20 Ways SOPA Can Affect The Internet"
Info Carnivore (December 30, 2011)

"The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is now before the American Congress, waiting to be passed or not. With online piracy at an all time high, the US feels that it’s become almost impossible to manage traffic across borders. While the Congress ponders over this, the internet population is concerned as to how SOPA will affect the internet...."

The Lemming ranted about SOPA on Wednesday. Normally, there wouldn't be another post about the same topic for - maybe a week or more. In this case, the Lemming thinks a little repetition won't hurt.

SOPA may be well-intentioned, but the Lemming thinks that Congress should stop, take a deep breath, tear the thing up, and start over.

The Info Carnivore post is mostly a 20-point list about SOPA. It's not good news. Here's a sample:

Forget About Online Business, Freedom of Speech

"...1. Death Penalty For Online Businesses: SOPA authorizes sites that are reported for copyright infringement to be cut off from their domain name. ISPs can force advertisers and payment processors to suspend their services to the site...."

That "death penalty" phrase is a bit over-stated. The Lemming has heard or read nothing to indicate that business owners would actually be executed under SOPA provisions. Still, as a metaphor for driving a company out of business, it's appropriate.

"...6. Free Speech Rights Will Be Censored: Online businesses, user-generated content sites and social media sites will try to play it safe and start heavily censoring user content. This can stifle users’ free speech rights, making the internet a risky place to say anything at all...."

"It can't happen here?" The Lemming remembers McCarthyism and political correctness. Moving on.

'Who Needs a Trial?'

"...2. Sites Blocked And Sued For User Content: Sites which host copyright content uploaded by users can be blacklisted and blocked via ISPs, search engines and payment processors. This can be done without the benefit of a court hearing...."

Let's look at #2 again. Sites that host content uploaded by users can be driven offline. Maybe that doesn't sound so bad: SOPA is against pirates, right? Here's the problem: "...This can be done without the benefit of a court hearing...."

Let's look at a hypothetical situation. You wake up some morning, go online, and try to find something on CNET's Download.com. It's not there any more. Google reports that there's no such site. A few weeks, maybe months or years, later, you find out why. Somebody told the SOPA enforcers that something on Download.com was illegal. So the site was taken off the Internet.

Why bother with a trial?

Is that being alarmist? Maybe. But governments, governmental agencies, and officials have been known to do odd things.

The Info Carnivore post discusses what we can expect from SOPA:

1. Death Penalty For Online Businesses
2. Sites Blocked And Sued For User Content
3. Copyright Holders Can Sue Sites
4. Social Media Held Accountable
5. Small Tech Companies To Suffer
6. Free Speech Rights Will Be Censored
7. Downloading Free Content Will Become Risky
8. Legitimate Business Will Be Held Liable
9. Open Source Sites May Shut Down
10. DNS System Will Be Undermined
11. Internet Speeds May Slow Down
12. Downgrade Attacks Will Increase
13. Use Of Illegal Web Proxies Will Increase
14. Emergency Proxy Servers May Be Made Illegal
15. Streaming Sites Will Be Penalized
16. Online Album Sites Will Shut Down
17. Browsers Will Be Penalized
18. ISPs Will Infringe On Privacy
19. Legitimate Links Can Be Deleted
20. Browser Ability To Generate Fair Links Will Be Impacted

Pirated intellectual property is a real issue, one that should be addressed. But SOPA doesn't look like a solution.

Whether SOPA is an ill-considered effort to show how busy Congressional incumbents are, or an effort to grab control of what commoners may say or see on the Internet: SOPA looks like a really bad idea. For everybody except whoever winds up running it.

A tip of the Lemming's hat to danielsnyder1, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this post.

Related posts:

• "SOPA, Censorship, the Twits in Washington, and a Ranting Lemming"
  (December 28, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: Internet Freedom; or 'Be Careful What You Wish For' "
  (April 19, 2011)
• " 'Search Neutrality:' Deciding What We're Allowed to Find?"
  (January 22, 2011)
• "The Horror! Monster Comics that Scared Congress"
  (October 31, 2010)
• "Yogi Yorgesson's 'I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas' and the Hamms Bear"
  (December 15, 2009)

News and views:

• "20 Ways SOPA Can Affect The Internet"
  Info Carnivore (December 30, 2011)
• "Reddit Users to Target Supporters of SOPA in Congress After Successful Boycott of GoDaddy"
  Tech, Forbes, (December 28, 2011)
• "Online piracy a hot issue for Congress in January"
  Mike Snider, USA TODAY (December 28, 2011)
• "On Eve of Net Boycott, Dump GoDaddy Exodus Begins"
  Perry Chiaramonte, FoxNews.com (December 28, 2011)
• "What You Need to Know About SOPA in 2012"
  Dan Rowinski ReadWriteWeb (December 23, 2011)

2009 Preakness Beating: Phones, Freedom, and a Ranting Lemming

Freedom is a funny thing. Folks want it for themselves, but aren't always comfortable when others use their freedom. When the uncomfortable folks wear a police uniform, bad things can happen.

From yesterday's news and views:

'Don't Nobody Look!?' 'Nothing to See Here!?'

"Taking Liberties: iPhone, YouTube and the First Amendment"
Douglas Kennedy, FoxNews.com (December 1, 2011)

"The YouTube video shows the 2009 Preakness. A woman lies bleeding on the ground inside Pimlico Race Course in Maryland after an altercation with police.

" 'How many times are you going to punch her, someone yells at the five or so cops, who are holding the woman on the ground.

" 'Was that necessary?' another person screams.

"An officer at the scene can be heard telling bystanders to stop videotaping the incident with their cellphones.

" 'Turn that off,' he says, claiming it's 'illegal' to tape the police in a public place...."

That's where the Lemming got really, really, interested.

If it's "illegal" to tape the police in a public place, the police departments all over the United States must be routinely breaking the law. The television series "Cops" has been running since 1989, broadcasting footage recorded by dashcams.

Of course, 'that's different.' Those dashboard cameras are part of the police department inventory, and are used as a law enforcement tool.

Back to that article.

"Illegal," or Embarrassing?

"...So is it really 'illegal?' It's a question many courts are facing these days with the proliferation of cell cameras and other handheld recording devices.

"Chris Sharp was at Pimlico that day and also pressed the record button on his phone. The woman on the ground was a friend of a friend, and Sharp caught the entire confrontation, including what he calls 'the beating.'...

"...Unlike the YouTube video, Sharp says he caught the initial takedown.

" 'I got the whole thing,' he said as he paced back and forth in the parking lot behind the headquarters for the Maryland American Civil Liberties Union.

"Unfortunately, Sharp said something similar to the police at the scene. 'I told them I got it all.'..."

Sharp, in the Lemming's opinion, made a really big mistake at that part: assuming that his story is essentially accurate.

Telling someone you think is committing a violent crime, that you've got video evidence of the crime, when the perpetrator can hurt you, is, again in the Lemming's opinion, not prudent.

Collecting - and Destroying Evidence?!

"...He says the police then took his camera and erased all the contents, including the video and all his pictures.

" 'After they took my phone,' he said, 'and then gave it back to me, everything was off of it… my personal videos of my son and family and friends.'

"Sharp and his attorney are now suing the Baltimore Police Department, claiming it violated the First Amendment...."

Things get a little technical at that point. Essentially, some folks think that the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to America's Constitution, give Americans certain rights.

Some of them aren't all that much of an issue today, like Amendment III:

"No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law."

Then there's Amendment IV:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

A key word there is "unreasonable." The Lemming figures the police officer who apparently erased the evidence he was confiscating thought what he did was "reasonable." At least, using the "I want to do this, so it's reasonable" principle.

On the other hand, Amendment I doesn't mention cell phone cameras, or videotape. Not once:

First Amendment: Cell Phones, No; Freedom, Yes

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Which makes sense, considering that video recording devices hadn't been invented in 1791. Those excerpts, by the way, are from:

• "Bill of Rights Transcript Text"
  The Charters of Freedom, National Archives, United States

Freedom ISN'T Conformity

"Freedom" can mean quite a few things, depending on who you listen to. A regrettable number of folks seem to think that "freedom" means, "free to agree with me." McCarthyism and political correctness are two recent examples of that sort of aberration.

It's the Lemming's considered opinion that freedom is the:

• Condition of being free
• Power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints
  (Princeton's WordNet)

Folks in a society have to agree on some things, like which side of the road to drive on, and whether a red traffic light means "stop" or "go." Beyond that sort of thing, the Lemming thinks that freedom allows folks to make decisions.

Even if they're not exactly what the Lemming decided.

At least, that's the way it should work.

The First Amendment's "establishment clause," and odd notions about religious beliefs - - - is a topic for another blog:

• "My Take on the News: Religion, Politics, and Freedom"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (October 28, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Conspicuous, Maybe: But Not Typical
  • Faith, Reason, and Politics
• "The Establishment Clause; Religious Freedom; and Getting a Grip"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (October 5, 2011)
• "Sex, Science, and the Home Schooling Parent"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (September 17, 2011)
• "First Amendment Suspended for 9/11 Memorial Service: Wrong, but Understandable"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (September 10, 2011)
• "Religious Freedom, Niemöller, and Muslims in America"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (April 7, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Why the Rights of Muslims Matter to This Catholic

American Police: Sensible, Professional, Mostly

"....[Attorney] Jeon says the police 'harangued' Sharp to give them his phone, claiming they wanted it for evidence.

" 'Then, she says, 'they took the phone and deleted the so called "evidence." They were the ones who broke the law.'..."

At this point, what happened at the 2009 Preakness seems to be a 'he said/she said' situation. Since Sharp's video no longer exists, it can't be used as evidence for or against anybody. That's assuming that it exists, of course.

In a perfect world, everybody on every police force would act - perfectly. We probably wouldn't even need police. But this world isn't perfect, some folks are not safe to be around - and, unhappily, a few of them wear police uniforms.

Please note, the Lemming said "some," and "a few." Each time that the Lemming was detained by the police, they acted in a sensible, professional manner: and that's another topic. The Lemming is also aware that wearing a police uniform doesn't guarantee good behavior.

The Lemming hopes that there were enough witnesses to piece together what really happened: either to exonerate the law enforcement folks involved; or identify a problem before someone gets hurt. Hurt more.

If that video existed, what happened is daft: at a minimum. Seriously: Identifying something as "evidence," and then destroying the evidence?! In front of an interested witness? Without, ah, dealing with the witness later?

Never mind ethics and Constitutional rights: that's daft. And stupid.

"Ridiculous," No: Dubious, Maybe

Back to that article, again:

"...'This is ridiculous,' says Rod Wheeler. 'This lawsuit should go nowhere.'

"Wheeler is a former Washington, D.C., detective and current police advocate.

" 'Police officers,' he continued, 'do not need citizens out there with cameras videotaping each and every move that they make.'..."

The Lemming has no reason to doubt that Wheeler is sincere.

However: being sincere, and being right, aren't necessarily the same thing.

For folks in police uniforms, "...cameras videotaping each and every move that they make...." may be inconvenient, uncomfortable, or embarrassing: but that doesn't make it wrong.

Like the Lemming said:

• dashcams
• Cops

Granted, that example is a case of the police videotaping themselves.

Wheeler is probably right about police, some of them, 'not needing' citizens recording visual evidence of their activities. The rest of us, though, are arguably better off with citizen video. 'Checks and balances,' and all that. Back to the article, yet again:

Cameras "In the Way?"

"He says cameras get in the way of good law enforcement.

" 'They interfere with the arrests and, actually, that's exactly what happened with that arrest in Baltimore.'...

"...'These individuals were standing back hollering, taunting the police,' he said. 'They were interfering and obstructing the arrest.'..."

Wheeler has a definite point of view. He may be right. The Lemming wasn't at the 2009 Preakness, and doesn't have all the facts. Sometimes bystanders really do interfere with and obstruct legitimate police work.

Sometimes they interfere with and obstruct the activities of uniformed thugs.

The Lemming doesn't have enough facts to form an opinion about the 2009 beating.

Moving on.

"Recording" isn't "Interfering"

"...Sharp says he certainly did not interfere with the police.

" 'I can't disagree more,' he said. 'I was nowhere close to the incident going on.'

"He said he now believes recording the police is an important right that needs to be preserved.

" 'I think we have a right to videotape anyone we want to, especially someone that's a public servant,' he said.

"The ACLU urges anyone with questions about what they can and can't videotape in public to view their video called '"Know Your Rights.' "

Like the Lemming said, every time the Lemming and the police got up-close-and-personal, they acted sensibly and professionally. And, in a few instances, had very good reasons for detaining the Lemming. Not that the Lemming is 'one of those criminals,' and that's yet another topic.

The idea that observing and recording actions done in public is 'interfering' with the actions doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Not to the Lemming. But then, the Lemming doesn't get hissy fits over security cameras in a parking lot, or the Highway Patrol using radar to determine how fast the Lemming is driving.

Photographers Should Obey The Law: So Should Police

The Lemming's no great fan of the ACLU, but they put together a pretty good resource, "Know Your Rights: Photographers." (ACLU)

Here's an excerpt:

"...Your rights as a photographer:

"When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything that is in plain view. That includes pictures of federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police. Such photography is a form of public oversight over the government and is important in a free society.

"When you are on private property, the property owner may set rules about the taking of photographs. If you disobey the property owner's rules, they can order you off their property (and have you arrested for trespassing if you do not comply).

"Police officers may not generally confiscate or demand to view your photographs or video without a warrant. If you are arrested, the contents of your phone may be scrutinized by the police, although their constitutional power to do so remains unsettled. In addition, it is possible that courts may approve the seizure of a camera in some circumstances if police have a reasonable, good-faith belief that it contains evidence of a crime by someone other than the police themselves (it is unsettled whether they still need a warrant to view them).

"Police may not delete your photographs or video under any circumstances.

"Police officers may legitimately order citizens to cease activities that are truly interfering with legitimate law enforcement operations. Professional officers, however, realize that such operations are subject to public scrutiny, including by citizens photographing them.

"Note that the right to photograph does not give you a right to break any other laws. For example, if you are trespassing to take photographs, you may still be charged with trespass...."

The next part of that page, advice on what to do if a police officer stops you, starts with:

"Always remain polite and never physically resist a police officer...."

That's good advice, in most situations: in the Lemming's opinion.

The Lemming's done photography, professional and otherwise, and had to learn America's rules for photographers. What the ACLU said matches what the Lemming got from other sources. It's also 'common sense.' But that's the Lemming's take on the matter: and the Lemming doesn't think that photographers can do anything they want.

The Lemming also thinks that America's police are:

1. Generally
   • Professional
   • Competent
   • Focused on public safety
2. Not perfect
   

Number two is why the Lemming thinks it's okay to consider the possibility that someone in a police uniform may not have acted properly. Even if that person "collected evidence," and deleted information that showed what happened.

Related posts:

• "Freedom, Even For 'Those People Over There' "
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (November 11, 2011)
• "FCC, the Internet, Regulations, Freedom of Speech, and a Ranting Lemming"
  (December 23, 2010)
• "Police Abuse: America isn't Russia"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (February 19, 2010)
• " 'Criticism is Terrorism:' Chavez and Twitter 'Terrorists' "
  (February 1, 2010)
• "It Can Happen Here: 'Hate Speech' and Censorship"
  (January 12, 2008)

Earthquake Data Inspires Techie Art

"Catastrophe Becomes Art With 3D Printing"
Sarah Mitroff, Geek Tech, blog, PCWorld (November 1, 2011)

"It's been almost eight months since the massive 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake hit Japan, leaving devastation in its wake. In an attempt to extract art and beauty out of that terrible event, British artist Luke Jerram has created a 3D-printed sculpture of the seismogram (the read-out from a seismometer) from that earthquake.

"Called the 'Tōhoku Japanese Earthquake Sculpture,' the piece is 11 inches long by seven inches wide and is made of frosted beige-yellow rings. Jerram constructed the piece by taking the design from a nine minute span of seismometer data from the earthquake and creating a 3D image with a computer aided design program. Then he printed the design using a rapid prototyping machine...."


(Photo and sculpture by Luke Jerram, via Wired, used w/o permission)

It's remarkable, what folks can do these days. The sort of information technology Luke Jerram used to create this sculpture is, the Lemming has read, generally used to make parts for in-development gadgets and machines like automobile engines. Not exactly 'artsy' stuff.

The Wired post is a nice-enough piece, giving the writer's impression of the sculpture. There's also a link to photos and a video on the sculptor's website. (www.lukejerram.com)

What the Lemming didn't find in the Wired article - or the page that the link leads to - was anything about what that warm beige material was. Some sort of synthetic, presumably: but that's guesswork on the Lemming's part.

As far as the Lemming's concerned, it's an attractive piece of art - and an intriguing application of modeling technologies.

The Tōhoku earthquake is what some folks are calling 東日本大震災 - that huge earthquake that hit parts of eastern Japan back in March. Maybe you read about it: The Fukushima power plant was international news for quite a while after the quake and tsunami, and other places didn't fare too well either.

Vaguely-related posts:

• "Alexander Calder, Mobiles, and Encouraging the Kids"
  (July 22, 2011)
• "Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011: Posts"
  Including
  • "Rikuzentakata's 'Tree of Hope:' and a Philosophizing Lemming"
    (April 16, 2011)
  • "Lemming Tracks: 2011: Japan's Worst Earthquake? Yes and No"
    (March 29, 2011)
  • "Good News from Fukushima, Japan?"
    (March 22, 2011)
  • "Japan's Earthquake, Divine Retribution, and the Tower at Siloam"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (March 15, 2011)
  • "Japan, Good Taste, Common Sense, and a Duck"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (March 15, 2011)
• "African Art, Photos, and a Whacking Great Generalization"
  (June 21, 2010)
• "Museum of Glass: 'Hot glass. Cool art.'"
  (March 27, 2010)
• "Mini-Sculptures - Big Humor in Small Art"
  (August 21, 2007)

We interrupt for a special bulletin: STEVE JOBS IS STILL DEAD! This blog will resume normal posts on Wednesday

As 'celebrity news' goes, this isn't at all bad:

"Silicon Valley elite honor Steve Jobs"
AFP (October 16, 2011)

"Silicon Valley nobility arrived at Stanford University on Sunday to pay tribute to revered Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

"Security teams from Apple and Stanford along with local police officers cordoned off the main quad on campus, only letting pass those with invitations to the private event....

"...Responses to invitations were directed to Emerson Collective, a philanthropy founded by the Apple co-founder's wife, Laurene Powell Jobs.

"Amid global mourning for the death of the man behind iPhones, iPods, iPads, and Macintosh computers, California Governor Jerry Brown declared Sunday as 'Steve Jobs Day' in the western US state...."

The Lemming doesn't mind this follow-up on a celebrity's death: partly because Steve Jobs became a celebrity for what he contributed to the world's cultures.

That's a welcome change from the usual news about:

• Some media star's latest incarceration for
  • Shoplifting
  • Public intoxication
  • Reckless driving
  • All of the above
• A sports 'great' beating up someone
  • Again

Celebrities, News, and Silliness

Not that everyone who's on the 'grin until your lips hurt' side of the camera is a chronically inebriated kleptomaniac with relationship issues. And I'm sure that quite a few professional athletes get through an entire season without forcing their managers to deal with the courts. The quiet ones don't seem to get much publicity.

There's something about celebrities that seems to bring out the 'silly' in people.

Like the 'Princess Di is Still Dead!!' items that littered journalism a few years back; or seemingly endless 'royal wedding' coverage, more recently.

Or news that '[celebrity] is dead:' given national coverage after some caffeinated journalist read something online. Maybe news editors have gotten more savvy these days.

Steve Jobs, Humanity, the Big Picture, and the Lemming

For what it's worth, the Lemming's sorry to see Steve Jobs gone. He made a real contribution, by helping change the way most folks relate to information technology. That's a big deal.

On the other hand, the Lemming thinks that, just as humanity somehow struggled on after whoever learned to use fire died: humanity will endure the death of Steve Jobs. Maybe the next-generation iPod or digital nose hair trimmer won't be quite the huge splash it would have been with Jobs' colorful personality pushing it.

But the Lemming strongly suspects that somehow, somewhere, someone is going to get a new idea or two. And others will realize that the idea's a good one.

Then, quite likely, it'll just be a matter of time before we see editorials warning about how the new idea will

• Bring about the end of civilization
• Kill some cute animal
• Generally spread chaos and destruction

Sorry: It's Monday, and it's hit the Lemming with unusual severity this week.

Related posts:

• "Steve Jobs, 1955-2011: Computers and Hyperbole"
  (October 7, 2011)
• "Copyright Infringement Case: Over a Tattoo?!"
  (June 11, 2011)
• "'The Report of My Death' - Bill Cosby, This Time"
  (August 3, 2010)
• "Rebuilding Japan, Living in a Big World"
  (April 18, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Japan, the Aflac Duck, and the Lemming
• "Dolly Parton Dead? Another Reason I'm Not a Journalist"
  (August 25, 2008)

iClouds on the Horizon?

"Enduring Genius"
Jobs left plans for more Apple products
Thomas Grillo, Boston Herald (October 10, 2011)

"The Apple genius stockpiled fours years worth of blueprints for fresh products to ensure his company's success, according to reports.

"Despite his illness, Jobs, the co-founder and CEO of Apple who died last week at the age of 56, had been masterminding updated versions of the iPod, iPad, iPhone and MacBooks, and overseeing the development of the delayed iCloud project, which will allow Apple users to store music, photos and other documents remotely, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

"Carl Howe, director of Yankee Group's Consumer Research group, said he's not surprised that Jobs was at work on future Apple products, noting that the design registration for the iPad was completed in 2004 but not introduced to the marketplace until last year.

" 'It's not like these guys plan only a quarter or two in advance,' he said. 'Jobs anticipated new products years ahead.'..."

We'll probably be hearing about Steve Jobs for quite a while. As the Lemming opined last week, Mr. Jobs had quite a bit to do with developing the interconnected world we have today.

That said, the "future Apple products" sound a whole lot like current Apple products:

• Probably with new features
• Possibly with better performance
• Maybe with some number of bugs fixed
  • And a lower number introduced

Even the "delayed iCloud project" isn't all that new: at least, "cloud computing" has been around for years. This blog's first post about cloud computing was in January, 2009, as the Lemming recalls.

Back then, cloud computing would cause the death of the PC. The Lemming sounded off on "death of" articles last month. (September 28, 2011)

The Lemming thinks "cloud computing" makes sense for some functions. In a way, this blog is an example of cloud computing. The Lemming uses a desktop computer in central Minnesota to connect via the Internet with servers run by blogger.com: and it's those servers that store the posts.

Until some millennial day, when Internet connections never fail and data stored online is absolutely, positively, failsafe secure - the Lemming thinks that quite a few business and personal data storage and management will be done on-site.

How hard is it to make "failsafe" systems? Let's look at a definition for the term:

"failsafe- A process that uses controls and logic to stop an improper operation or transaction before it occurs and creates an error condition or defect. ex.- an entry program for distributing a single charge to several departments by percent that will not update if the individual entries don't add up to 100%."
(Bridgefield Group)

The example Brigefield Group gives shouldn't be too hard to get right: says the blogger who doesn't have to write the code; and get it approved by a gaggle of managers. More complex operations, like an online database? The Lemming suspects that making something like that "failsafe" when it comes to security will be somewhere between extremely difficult and flat-out impossible.

But the Lemming's been wrong before.

Vaguely-related posts:

• "Steve Jobs, 1955-2011: Computers and Hyperbole"
  (October 7, 2011)
• "Cloud Computing, Dropbox, and the Postcard Principle"
  (May 13, 2011)
• "Cloud Computing: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"
  (April 22, 2011)
• ""Flail the Rude Fresco?!" - It's Not the Technology"
  (February 14, 2011)
• " 'Manage - - - Like It's the 1800's!' "
  (December 5, 2010)

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011: Computers and Hyperbole

For once, the rumors were right. A celebrity really is dead. Steve Jobs' life and death were major news yesterday

World Leaders and Steve Jobs: Not Bad for a Kid From the Apricot Orchards

"World tributes pour in for Steve Jobs"
Laura Smith-Spark, CNN (October 6, 2011)

"International leaders in politics and business are paying tribute Thursday to Apple visionary Steve Jobs, whose death at age 56 has saddened many around the world.

" 'Steve Jobs transformed the way we work and play; a creative genius who will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his family,' British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted.

"French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote on his Facebook page that Jobs was a great entrepreneur, innovator and major player in the world's technological revolution.

" 'As inspired as he was inspiring, Steve Jobs will remain one of the great figures of our time,' Sarkozy said, as he paid tribute to the American's courage in both his work and personal life.

"Ireland's Prime Minister, or Taoiseach, Enda Kenny also gave his condolences in a statement paying tribute to the man who brought the world the iPod portable music player, the iPhone and the iPad tablet...."

There's more of the same as the article goes on. Steve Jobs, once Apple CEO and Chairman, made a difference. A big difference. Around the world. A whole lot of national leaders have said so: occasionally online.

Not bad for some kid from California's apricot orchards.

---

End of an Era? Yes - End of the Innovators? Not Likely

"Apple's Steve Jobs Dies at 56"
Associated Press, via FoxNews.com (October 6, 2011)

"Steve Jobs saw the future and led the world to it. He moved technology from garages to pockets, took entertainment from discs to bytes and turned gadgets into extensions of the people who use them.

"Jobs, who founded and ran Apple, told us what we needed before we wanted it.

" 'To some people, this is like Elvis Presley or John Lennon. It's a change in our times. It's the end of an era,' said Scott Robbins, 34, a barber and an Apple fan. 'It's like the end of the innovators.'..."

"End of the innovators?" "THE innovators??" What, we've seen the last of folks like Αρχιμήδης, 諸葛亮, Benjamin Franklin, or Nikolas Tesla? Somehow, the steel industry endured the passing of Bessemer, movies survived the death of Disney, and the Lemming thinks we haven't seen the end of innovation. Not even close.

Remember the story about the fellow who said the United States Patent Office should close, because everything that could be invented: had been invented? In 1900 or so? It may not be true: but that's not the point.

Over-the-top hyperbole and Elvis aside, Steve Jobs has been one of the big innovators, and - in the Lemming's opinion - an even better publicist for information technology. He will be missed.

Back to that Associated Press piece:

"...President Barack Obama said in a statement that Jobs 'exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity.'

" 'Steve was among the greatest of American innovators -- brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world and talented enough to do it,' he said.

"Jobs had battled cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant in 2009 after taking a leave of absence for unspecified health problems. He took another leave of absence in January -- his third since his health problems began -- and resigned in August. Jobs became Apple's chairman and handed the CEO job over to his hand-picked successor, Tim Cook....

"...The news Apple fans and shareholders had been dreading came the day after Apple unveiled its latest iPhone, a device that got a lukewarm reception. Perhaps, there would have been more excitement had Jobs been well enough to show it off with his trademark theatrics.

"Jobs started Apple with a high school friend in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976, was forced out a decade later and returned in 1997 to rescue the company. During his second stint, it grew into the most valuable technology company in the world with a market value of $351 billion. Almost all that wealth has been created since Jobs' return....

"...He helped change computers from a geeky hobbyist's obsession to a necessity of modern life at work and home, and in the process he upended not just personal technology but the cellphone and music industries.

"For transformation of American industry, he has few rivals. He has long been linked to his personal computer-age contemporary, Bill Gates, and has drawn comparisons to other creative geniuses such as Walt Disney. Jobs died as Walt Disney Co.'s largest shareholder, a by-product of his decision to sell computer animation studio Pixar in 2006...."

One more thing before moving on. The Lemming learned a lot from doing time in American academia, but let's get real. Some outfits insist on seeing on that piece of paper colleges and universities swap for time served need a college education. Folks who want to work for a bureaucracy need a diploma.

Others can pick up the experience they want long before graduation. Steve Jobs is one of them.

Here's how Mr. Jobs explained the advantages of being a college dropout:

"...'All of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it,' he said at a Stanford University commencement address in 2005. 'I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.'

"When he returned to California in 1974, Jobs worked for video game maker Atari and attended meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club -- a group of computer hobbyists -- with Steve Wozniak, a high school friend who was a few years older.

"Wozniak's homemade computer drew attention from other enthusiasts, but Jobs saw its potential far beyond the geeky hobbyists of the time. The pair started Apple Computer Inc. in Jobs' parents' garage in 1976. According to Wozniak, Jobs suggested the name after visiting an "apple orchard" that Wozniak said was actually a commune.

"Their first creation was the Apple I -- essentially, the guts of a computer without a case, keyboard or monitor......."
(Associated Press, via Foxnews.com)

That's when the world changed.

---

World Leaders, Nerds, and Steve Jobs

"Tributes for Apple 'visionary' Steve Jobs"
BBC News US & Canada (October 6, 2011)

"World and business leaders have been paying tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who has died at the age of 56 from pancreatic cancer.

"US President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev said Mr Jobs had changed the world.

"Microsoft's Bill Gates said it had been 'an insanely great honour' to work with him. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg remembered his 'mentor and friend'.

"The Twitter microblog site struggled to cope with the traffic of tributes...."

After quite a great deal more of that, BBC gets to what the Lemming thinks is a really major contribution Steve Jobs gave the world:

"...Mr Jobs built a reputation as a forthright and demanding leader who could take niche technologies - such as the mouse and graphical user interface, using onscreen icons rather than text - and make them popular with the general public. ..."
(BBC News US & Canada)

Nerds who read this? Please don't be offended by what's coming: the Lemming's something of a nerd. More than 'something,' according to #3 daughter.

Nerds are great people: some are also geeks. But the most brilliantly innovative nerdy geek could develop a world-changing technology: and live in obscurity until the nerdy geek's socially ept (why not?? 'the opposite of inept') sibling showed the world why they wanted - and needed - wind-powered automatic ear wax removers. ("It'll blow your mind!")

---

"Steve Jobs is the Chairman of the Board...."?!

"Steve Jobs"
Apple.com (still online, as of noon (Central) October 7, 2011)

"Steve Jobs is the Chairman of the Board of Apple, which he co-founded in 1976. Apple is leading the consumer technology world with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, its family of iPod media players and iTunes media store, and its Mac computers and iLife and iWork application suites. Apple recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

"Steve also co-founded and was the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, which created some of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time including Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatouille. Pixar merged with The Walt Disney Company in 2006 and Steve now serves on Disney's board of directors.

"Steve grew up in the apricot orchards which later became known as Silicon Valley, and still lives there with his family."

"Steve Jobs is the Chairman of the Board of Apple...." "Is?" Present tense?? The Lemming can think of several explanations, some more plausible than others. Steve Jobs:

1. Isn't dead, he's
   1. Secretly running Apple from a bunker in northern Minnesota
   2. One of the shape shifting, space alien, lizard men who run the world
      • And is
        • Boston Corbett
        • Victor Grayson
        • Elvis Presley
          • Or did Elvis really die as the Montauk monster?
   3. Been forced out of Apple and is hiding in
      • A bunker in northern Minnesota
      • A secret basement under Apple headquarters
      • A Bangkok warehouse
2. Is dead
   1. Apple will
      • Learn to cope without Mr Jobs
      • Become a Dilbertesque American corporation
        • With clueless management
        • Hoping for a federal bailout
          • Remember the Big Three automakers?
   2. He's
      • Secretly running Apple from a bunker in northern Minnesota
        • Communicating with Tim Cook through a magic iPod of his own design
        • Telepathically influencing the operations of Apple
          • Which he's done since his death in 1985
            • In a freak lab accident
      • The victim of a conspiracy involving
        • The CIA
        • Microsoft
        • The shape shifting, space alien, lizard men who run the world

Maybe the Lemming shouldn't make jokes about this. Apart from the matter of poor taste, there's the possibility that someone's going to believe one or more of those crazy conspiracy theories.

Seriously, apple.com Has a very nice, tasteful, splash screen up, with a monochrome portrait of Steve Jobs, his name, and 1955-2011. Folks working there probably have better things to do at the moment, than updating Mr. Jobs' bio page.

And, for the record, the Lemming figures that #2A is what's really going on. Seriously: Elvis?

Sort-of-related posts:

• "Steve Jobs, iPad 2, Marketing, and 'Just Spell My Name Right?' "
  (March 5, 2011)
• "Top Tech Nifties, 2010"
  (January 1, 2011)
• " 'iTunes account hacked' - Widespread and Under-Reported?"
  (April 29, 2010)
• "Extinction of the Desktop Mouse? No, It's About Apple's Magic Mouse"
  (February 11, 2010)
• "iPhone 3G - Incredible! Amazing! Stupendous! (WHY?)"
  (July 10, 2008)