Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

Yikes. Did you know that photocopiers store images of every single document copied on the machine, on a huge hard drive? Did you know that this data is filled with medical records, sensitive information, Social Security numbers, bank information, and more? And did you know that these copiers are often resold to buyers, both foreign [...]

These people are drunk– literally drunk– with power. This is shocking news, yet it’s being hailed as the next best thing to the atom bomb. It’s “smart dust”: teeny-tiny wireless sensors as small or smaller than a grain of rice, sent out across the planet with the intention on monitoring EVERYTHING. ‘Smart dust’ aims to [...]

Wow. Unbelievable. Unbelievable that Google would do this, and even more unbelievable that so little is done to stop them. Google Street View logs WiFi networks, Mac addresses Google’s roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it’s got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN [...]

This is eyebrow-raising. Microsoft denies it built ‘backdoor’ in Windows 7 Don’t worry, company tells users; NSA involved only in security compliance standards November 19, 2009 (Computerworld) Microsoft today denied that it has built a backdoor into Windows 7, a concern that surfaced yesterday after a senior National Security Agency (NSA) official testified before Congress [...]

I happened across this news alert at the Volokh Conspiracy website. Yikes!! Federal Felony To Use Blogs, the Web, Etc. To Cause Substantial Emotional Distress Through “Severe, Repeated, and Hostile” Speech? That’s what a House of Representatives bill, proposed by Rep. Linda T. Sanchez and 14 others, would do. Here’s the relevant text: Whoever transmits [...]

*groan* I know there will be knuckleheads and Google cheerleaders who will rabidly support anything the New Big Brother (aka Google) will do, but Google’s new Latitude REALLY is taking things way, way too far. This is just BAD. The company plans to launch software called Latitude on Wednesday that lets mobile phone users share [...]