Blog Post: The internet is affecting our memory

Interesting article which I think has some profound statements on..... ooh look, a squirrel.

Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova Lindsay Price Zoe Saldana Rachel Perry

Court: Naked Scanners Are Constitutional; But TSA Should Have Asked For Public Comment

This isn't a huge surprise, as we said when the lawsuit was first filed, but EPIC has failed in its attempt to have the TSA's naked scanners declared unconstitutional. The court seems to think the scans are just dandy, though it had some trouble with how they were implemented. There were two key legal points raised by EPIC. The first was that implementing the naked scanners without a public review violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The court seems sympathetic to this argument:

The TSA seems to think it significant that there are no AIT scanners at some airports and the agency retains the discretion to stop using the scanners where they are in place. More clearly significant is that a passenger is bound to comply with whatever screening procedure the TSA is using on the date he is to fly at the airport from which his flight departs. 49 C.F.R. § 1540.105(a)(2) (no passenger may enter the “sterile area” of an airport “without complying with the systems, measures, or procedures being applied to control access to” that area). To be sure, he can opt for a patdown but, as the TSA conceded at oral argument, the agency has not argued that option makes its screening procedures nonbinding and we therefore do not consider the possibility. We are left, then, with the argument that a passenger is not bound to comply with the set of choices presented by the TSA when he arrives at the security checkpoint, which is absurd.

In sum, the TSA has advanced no justification for having failed to conduct a notice-and-comment rulemaking. We therefore remand this matter to the agency for further proceedings.

Still... even then, it says that ordering the TSA to stop using the machines would "severely disrupt an essential security operation," so it will not halt the use of the machines, even if it expects the TSA to begin holding public review of them.

The second key argument (there are a few other lesser arguments) is the Fourth Amendment claim. And here, the court just doesn't see it.

As other circuits have held, and as the Supreme Court has strongly suggested, screening passengers at an airport is an “administrative search” because the primary goal is not to determine whether any passenger has committed a crime but rather to protect the public from a terrorist attack.... An administrative search does not require individualized suspicion.... (individualized suspicion required when police checkpoint is “primarily [for] general crime control,” that is, “to detect evidence of ordinary criminal wrongdoing” unlike “searches at places like airports ... where the need for such measures to ensure public safety can be particularly acute”). Instead, whether an administrative search is “unreasonable” within the condemnation of the Fourth Amendment “is determined by assessing, on the one hand, the degree to which it intrudes upon an individual's privacy and, on the other, the degree to which it is needed for the promotion of legitimate governmental interests.”

That balance clearly favors the Government here. The need to search airline passengers “to ensure public safety can be particularly acute,” ... and, crucially, an AIT scanner, unlike a magnetometer, is capable of detecting, and therefore of deterring, attempts to carry aboard airplanes explosives in liquid or powder form. On the other side of the balance, we must acknowledge the steps the TSA has already taken to protect passenger privacy, in particular distorting the image created using AIT and deleting it as soon as the passenger has been cleared. More telling, any passenger may opt-out of AIT screening in favor of a patdown, which allows him to decide which of the two options for detecting a concealed, nonmetallic weapon or explosive is least invasive.

This is, again, not surprising, but disappointing. It's rulings like this that allow for the gradual disposal of the 4th Amendment, by simply stretching the interpretation further and further each time, until there's just nothing left at all.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Georgianna Robertson Reese Witherspoon Jordana Brewster Laetitia Casta Claudette Ortiz

France Three Strikes Law Suggests A Huge Percentage Of French Citizens At Risk Of Losing Internet Access

When you have a law that a huge percentage of the population violates, you have to wonder if the law is just. The first data is out about the French 3-strikes HADOPI program, and apparently copyright holders have sent in notices claiming 18 million incidents of unauthorized file sharing. The Torrentfreak article suggests that it's 18 million individuals, but I think that they really mean 18 million incidents, which could include some repeat offenders. Still, it suggests a large number of people in France have engaged in file sharing... Of course, HADOPI, much to the chagrin of the entertainment industry, only sent out 470,000 "first strike" notices, 20,000 second strike notices, and just ten third strike notices (which are being reviewed by judges, but no one has been disconnected yet). It'll be interesting to see if there's any noticeable impact on purchases in France. Other reports have already suggested that a mere 4% of unauthorized file sharers in France said they were changing their behavior because of this. Many others were simply shifting to encryption to keep their activities away from prying eyes. Still, the bigger point is that when you have so many people violating the law, perhaps the problem is with the law, and not the people violating it...

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Lucy Liu LeAnn Rimes Adrianne Curry Jennifer Gimenez Katie Cassidy

Blog Post: Enterprise Architecture: arquitetura corporativa como instrumento de governan�a

Olá pessoal, tudo certo?

Vamos retomar o assunto de Enterprise Architecture, que já apareceu por aqui no blog diversas vezes. Veja alguns posts e artigos:

Enterprise Architecture: A arquitetura corporativa e o papel do arquiteto de TI
http://msdn.microsoft.com/pt-br/library/gg490650.aspx

Enterprise Architecture: uma visão sobre frameworks de arquitetura
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/wcamb/archive/2010/07/27/enterprise-architecture-uma-vis-227-o-sobre-frameworks-de-arquitetura.aspx

Enterprise Architecture: conhecendo as capacidades de sua plataforma de aplicações
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/wcamb/archive/2010/09/08/enterprise-architecture-conhecendo-as-capacidades-de-sua-plataforma-de-aplica-231-245-es.aspx

Um livro de leitura obrigatória sobre o assunto é o “Enterprise Architecture at Work” de Marc Lnakhorst et al., que recomendo abaixo:

Enterprise Architecture at Work: Modelling, Communication and Analysis
(The Enterprise Engineering Series)
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Springer; 2nd ed. edition (September 18, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3642013090

Em certo momento, o autor posiciona a Arquitetura Corporativa como um instrumento de gerenciamento na corporação, atuando como elemento importante de coordenação e governança na empresa.

 

Veja o desenho da figura 14, abaixo:

Nos primeiros níveis, vemos a definição da MISSÃO da empresa. Por que a empresa existe? Qual é seu papel no mercado ou na sociedade? O que justifica a realização de seus negócios?

Na sequência, a VISÃO é colocada, permitindo uma primeira impressão sobre os objetivos gerais dentro da empresa e sua direção.

Com essas definições iniciais, montamos a ESTRATÉGIA da empresa, que deve indicar de forma clara o foco da corporação, mapeando o estado atual para o estado futuro, suas aspirações de negócio e OBJETIVOS que farão a empresa dar um novo salto dentro de sua estratégia. Como exemplo temos as definições estratégicas para os próximos 2 ou 3 anos, setando a evolução esperada para certos indicadores de negócio.

Esse conjunto de definições irá apoiar o MODELO OPERACIONAL da empresa. As empresas possuem diferentes modelos operacionais, que variam de acordo com sua indústria e ramos de atividades. De fato, o modelo operacional de uma empresa tem impacto direto sobre como a TI é implementada e conduzida, aumentando ou diminuindo sua importância estratégica para a realização dos objetivos de negócio dentro da estratégia global da empresa.

No desenho acima, vemos que na camada de AÇÕES ou implementações de TI, os vários domínios de arquitetura estão contemplados na ARQUITETURA CORPORATIVA, atuando diretamente sobre a cultura da empresa e seus integrantes (pessoas e processos).

Descendo mais um nível na pirâmide, vemos finalmente a camada de OPERAÇÕES da empresa, envolvendo Produtos, Processos, Pessoas e os Recursos de TI (infraestrutura e desenvolvimento).

Com esse mapa em mente, faça uma avaliação do impacto de seu projeto de TI para a organização. Ele irá ajudá-lo a entender quais são os objetivos de negócio que devem ser atentidos e como sua TI ou arquitetura está suportando a visão e a estratégia da empresa para os próximos anos.

Para saber mais, esse livro é Leitura Obrigatória!

Por enquanto é só! Até o próximo post :)

Waldemir.

Taryn Manning Nikki Cox Carla Gugino Ana Hickmann Mischa Barton

Blog Post: 100 BarrelFish O/S on the Wall, take one down, 99 BarrelFish O/S on the Wall!

Just makes you hum that famous old song doesn?t it?  But what is odd, is that to read the interesting non-Microsoft papers requires that you join ACM and then you can read them, as far as I can tell.  Which seems to me to be insane as an author, those kinds of research papers should just be free, who wants to pay to read them?  Well if you want to read one of these non-Microsoft papers, for instance the:

?Efficiently correlating complex events over live and archived data streams?

Would cost $15.00 for you to buy the article from ACM.  Might be worth it.

Well I would, and one of the perks for working at Microsoft (and many other companies) is that they pay for the access to the digital subscriptions.  If you work at one of those companies and you don?t use this benefit then you should consider it.

If you want to join the fish in the barrel, or read what folks are saying you could sign up and go to:

You should consider signing up for the mailing list.  Keep in mind that this is a research project so the code inside of the O/S might not meet your quality standards. 

Minki van der Westhuizen Katharine Towne Malia Jones Jennifer ODell Jenny McCarthy

These Street Fighter figures will pummel your heart

Street fighting is serious business, but even the single-minded Ryu can't be serious all the time. This is especially true when he's made out of vinyl and absolutely adorable. Just look at Dhalsim and his cute little Yoga Fire!

Standing at 3 inches tall, all twelve of the original Street Fighter 2 characters are represented in the Kidrobot collection, including some alternate costume colors. You can check out more images at the Kidrobot website. While you're there, see if you can avoid hitting that big, friendly "buy" button.

These Street Fighter figures will pummel your heart originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Uma Thurman Alice Dodd Kate Walsh Autumn Reeser Camilla Belle

Report: Verizon iPhone, iPad 2 luring developers away from Android

The popularity of Android devices has grown exponentially over the last year or so among both users and developers, but the Verizon iPhone and iPad 2 may be bringing iOS back to the forefront of their attention, according to a new report from Flurry Analytics. The mobile analytics firm looked at the 90,000 applications that make use of Flurry's SDK to see where the new projects are taking place, and found that developer attention to Android has waned significantly over first and second quarters of 2011, despite it growing steadily in 2010.

According to Flurry, developers created Android apps in increasing numbers all throughout 2010, with Android peaking at 39 percent of new projects in the fourth quarter of the year. That number went down slightly in the first quarter of 2011 to 36 percent, while 10 percent of developers started new projects specifically for iPad and 54 percent focused on the iPhone/iPod touch combo. And now that the second quarter numbers are in, things have slid in iOS's direction even more: 28 percent of new developer projects were targeted at Android, while 15 percent were targeted at iPad and 57 percent at iPhone/iPod touch.

Read the comments on this post

Eva Green Lauren Conrad Arielle Kebbel Jessica Paré Leelee Sobieski