Security and Privacy

Diamond Multimedia PlugnView Home Monitoring System Review

A few weeks ago, I wrote an initial post entitled The Aftermarket Smart Home – a Gear Diary Journey. The thought for the series came to me after friends told me about the various smart home considerations that were playing into their choices as they do a complete home renovation. I loved some of the things they were planning on bringing into their home, but Elana and I were not about to start opening walls to add video surveillance, remote HVAC and lighting control or all-house audio. Thankfully there are enough items already on the market that make it possible…

Reviews

iSafe Urban Crew Backpack Review – Wired with Protective Lights and a Loud Alarm

In the last few years we have seen reports of violence on college, high school and even grade school campuses. The Virginia Tech and Newtown shootings aren’t necessarily a confirmation of increasing crime on school campuses, but they certainly serve as reminders that we can’t always be with our kids to protect them. While the iSafe Urban Crew backpack will not protect your loved one in overtly violent incidents such as a shooting, it might be helpful in other threatening situations by creating a significant amount of commotion, calling others to you or your child’s aid. How? Simple, the iSafe Urban…

Events

Lessons on Privacy from the Adult Entertainment Industry at SXSWi

Yes, I know it’s been over for a few weeks now, but I still have some South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) notes about some interesting stuff that I encountered there that I would like to share with you all, so I hope you don’t mind. Note to Readers: This post discusses topics related to adult industries, and specifically the sex worker sector. If this type subject matter offends you, please skip this post. Thanks! One of the simultaneous joys and frustrations of SXSWi — which I discussed a little bit elsewhere — is that there are so many more talks…

Gear Bits

NBC Promotes Smarter Passwords in “The More You Know” Spot

A few weeks ago, there was a lot of buzz about vulnerabilities in Apple’s security — and as a result, they rolled out two-step password verification — I tried to encourage my dad to enroll his Apple ID in it as well as my mom’s. I might as well have been speaking a foreign language, because he stared vacantly at me, shrugged, and said: “I’m sure it will be fine.” If he won’t listen to me about using smarter passwords for better password safety, then hopefully he was watching NBC, because tonight I saw a “The More You Know” PSA…

Events, News

iSmartAlarm Puts Your iPhone in Charge of Security

One of the really cool parts of being at CES was the chance to check out accessories and products that are up and coming. Of those, there were more than a few that hooked into the ubiquitous iOS ecosystem. We carry our iPhones and iPads everywhere, and companies are taking them beyond just email and Angry Birds machines to a whole new level. In the case of iSmartAlarm, they’re looking to turn your iPhone or iPad into part of a home security system! We stopped by their booth at CES and they were kind enough to give us a quick…

Editorials, Gear Bits

The Outcome of My ‘Unsubscribe’ Adventure

Back in mid-November, I wrote a post asking if those ‘unsubscribe’ links in emails of reputable companies actually meant anything. Carly wrote a follow-up post about how companies used junk mail blasts as targeted marketing, because it was surprisingly effective. So now it is about six weeks since I wrote my original post, making it nearly two months since I started trying to dump unwanted emails. How did it go? Amazingly well! Through Cyber-Monday I saw only a slight decrease in unwanted email, but immediately after that I noted a sharp decline, followed by slower drop-offs, and then a couple of reappearances between…

Editorials

Randi Zuckerberg Learns the Hard Lesson of Facebook Privacy First-Hand

Over the Christmas holiday, Randi Zuckerberg (Mark Zuckerberg’s sister and former director of Marketing at Facebook) posted a picture of her family around the kitchen island having fun, and someone else shared the image on Twitter. This was picked up on Buzzfeed and more thoroughly explained on GigaOm amongst other places. Zuckerberg called the person out, saying that she had no idea how they got it, but that sharing the image to Twitter was ‘way uncool’. The thing that some pointed out was that Zuckerberg had very publicly taken the stance that “Anonymity Online ‘Has To Go Away’”. Personally I…

Editorials, Gear Bits

Parents, Check Out These 12 Myths of Protecting Your Kids Online

This holiday season millions of kids will be getting an iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet, Kindle Fire, Nook and so on … and maybe a few will get a traditional PC or Mac. One of the first things they will do with it is get online. Maybe just for email, but if they are under 30 probably not. For most kids getting online involves Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr and so on … but also web chat areas, Homestuck and other fandoms, and so on. Bottom line – kids are used to an always-online world … and predators are adapting…

News

SwannSmart Remote Camera Gives You Piece of Mind

We spend summers and many vacation breaks up in Pennsylvania. Much of the year, however, the house is unoccupied. And while we have neighbors who keep an eye on it for us, there’s nothing like seeing for ourselves that everything is okay. The SwannSmart camera should let us do that and a whole lot more. Best of all, set up is simple and quick. As the company explains, the SwannSmart harnesses the power of the cloud to free you from the constraints of a traditional IP camera. There’s no complicated network set up required and your video feeds can be…

Reviews

Flipside STRATA Wallet Review

I’ve been a fan of Flipside Wallet’s products since I first saw, and later reviewed, the Flipside 2X Wallet. (Read the post.) Sure, the Flipside Wallet 2X looks a bit unusual, but I really like it. I like the fact that it keeps my wallet organized; I like the fact that my credit cards are shielded from crooks who might use RFID-readers to steal my information; and I like the fact that the rigid design means I can’t keep adding more and more stuff to my wallet. Yes, until I got the Flipside Wallet 2X, I suffered from “wallet-overstuff”, but…

News

AhnLab Introduces the V3 Click, the First-to-Market Personal Security Device for PCs

Viruses, trojans and spyware. These are the perennial pests of modern computing and the bane of system administrators and IT personnel everywhere, not to mention the end users themselves! When I first heard about USB flash drives being used to infect PCs a few years back, I wondered: if a USB device can infect a system, can a USB device protect a system? Apparently some engineers at AhnLab wondered the same thing too, because AhnLab has released the industry’s first Personal Security Device for PCs, the V3 Click Home Desktop Edition unit than runs from a PC’s USB port. This…

Editorials

A Sad Milestone as Report Shows Post 9/11 Torture by Americans Much Worse Than Reported or Admitted

On September 11th, we remember all of the tragic loss of life from the 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Flight 93. We also celebrate and mourn all of those who responded to the tragedy and many who lost their lives trying to save others and still more who have lingering health issues due to their bravery. They are heroes and lost innocents, and our country has done very well by serving their memory each year. In the aftermath of the attacks, President Bush detailed that if we changed our way of life, if we altered…

Editorials

Watch for Kids in School Zones, Even in Summer Months

My son was hit by a pickup truck a couple of weeks ago, crossing the street when coming home from a school ‘enrichment’ program. He is doing fine – thanks for asking – but it has raised many questions in our area, and it has prompted a look at how we deal with school zones year-round. More on his specifics later. Right now we are at the start of August, which in the Northeast at least is the middle of summer school vacations (I know in some areas it is more like 75% done … sorry), with kids getting out…

Editorials

Washington DC Police Chief Issues Reasonable Citizen Cell-Camera Guidelines

If you keep an eye on the news, you probably have heard that the ubiquity of smartphones with capable video cameras in recent years has drastically changed how we view many things. Go to a concert and you will see hundreds (if not thousands) of people videotaping the proceedings; no longer are the aisles at school functions filled with bulky tripods for large camcorders; and if there is an arrest or other criminal activity in progress in a public location you can be sure there is video rolling. Technology has advanced a great deal from 20 years ago and the…

Editorials, News, Travel

Full Body Scans, the TSA and the Law: The Legal Maneuvers Continue

I used to travel a lot — basically once a week. I had a job in California, but my family lives in Austin. (it was 2008–I took whatever I could find.) So I spent a lot of time in airports, eating, pulling luggage, searching for power outlets, unlacing and relacing my shoes, and getting scanned. Over that period, airports were transitioning from X-Ray-only to those “strip you naked” full-body scanners. To say that I am dubious about these devices, their use, the lack of privacy, and so on would be a massive understatement. The makers of the most popular machines…

eBooks

Should eBooks and Privacy Be a Concern for Us?

Here’s another reason for eBook haters to complain about the digitization of the written word — your reading habits are no longer secret. While it is not surprising to assume Amazon, B&N and Kobo are watching what you read, the Wall Street Journal has a very detailed account of just how much is being watched. From the Journal: Publishing has lagged far behind the rest of the entertainment industry when it comes to measuring consumers’ tastes and habits. TV producers relentlessly test new shows through focus groups; movie studios run films through a battery of tests and retool them based…

Gear Bits

The FBI Serves Warrants Through Email Now?

Well, of course not. So if you get an email with the return address of FBI OFFICE, and the ALL CAPS subject line reading “WE THE FBI HAVE WARRANT TO ARREST YOU GET BACK TO US FOR YOUR OWN GOOD”, please hit delete. Don’t forward it to a relative or friend asking if they think it is legit; don’t think twice about it, don’t open it … just don’t bother. And whatever you do, don’t click the attached .txt message “final warning”, or else! Thank you. That is all. =P

Gear Bits, News

Protect Your Gear with iSafeBags Urban Crew Backpacks

Have you ever had something valuable stolen out of a laptop case or backpack? Most people have. Whether it was an ipod, cell phone, or wallet, this type of thing tends to happen to everyone – especially in urban environments and public areas. Fewer people, I’d imagine, would consider arming their backpack with a full-fledged alarm system. That’s exactly the motivation for tech retailer iSafeBags.com, which specializes in protecting your stuff through specialized bags and packs. The company’s newly launched Urban Crew Campus Laptop Backpack features two 125 decibel sirens and a high-intensity strobe light. An allegedly undetectable activation switch…

Reviews

Stem Innovation iZON Remote Room Monitor Review

Two years ago we installed a wireless security system in our home as part of a review. (Read it here.) One element of the system is a remote camera that lets you keep an eye on one part of your home when you are away. But what if you want to have a remote camera but don’t want to install an entire system? And what if you don’t want to pay a monthly fee? That’s where Stem Innovation’s iZON Remote Room Monitor comes in. It is small, relatively inexpensive and there is no monthly fee! The company describes it this…

Editorials

Unintended Consequences of ‘Play’-ing Around!

Early this week I saw link to a couple of new music making apps for Android and wanted to check them out, so I clicked and … BLOCKED! That is right – suddenly I couldn’t access Google Play. I went ahead and asked one of our local IT folks and he said that in general their filters will block download sites, game and music digital download sites and so on, but similar to Amazon’s MP3 and video sites the Google site managed to make it through the filters due to the way the site evolved. But once the name changed…

News

Is This the End of Privacy?

Privacy on the Internet is a very slippery idea. We share information voluntarily, through Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other social media. Information gets shared involuntarily through hacking, or by companies tracking our purchases and browsing habits to glean clues about how to make us their ideal customer. But Slate has an article today on a new way to learn about people online that is passive, technologically advanced, and nearly impossible to avoid: eye tracking using front-facing cameras. It sounds like the stuff out of paranoid science fiction, and right now it is. However, as Slate astutely points out, more and…