Category «Gadgets»

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 27, 2020

Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: DOJ Accuses Zoom Exec of Acting on Behalf of Chinese Government; CISA Releases CISA Insights and Creates Webpage on Ongoing APT Cyber Activity; ACLU Sues For Info On FBI’s Encryption Breaking Capabilities; New tools to fight gift card scams; Officials shut down fake Moderna, Regeneron websites that allegedly stole users’ info for cyberattacks.

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Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Government Resources, Healthcare, KM, Privacy, Spyware

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 20, 2020

Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: News of SolarWinds breach impacting federal government agencies and the private sector; Facebook ‘Secretly’ Tracks Your iPhone Location – This Is How To Stop It; Microsoft: New malware can infect over 30K Windows PCs a day; U.S. Schools Are Buying Phone-Hacking Tech That the FBI Uses to Investigate Terrorists; and All the privacy apps you should have downloaded in 2020.

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Subjects: Communications, Computer Security, Cybercrime, Cyberlaw, Cybersecurity, Email Security, Government Resources, Military, Privacy, Social Media, Spyware, Technology Trends

How the well-connected Panorama Project could help give us a national library endowment

David H. Rothman advocates on behalf of the Panorama Project which he says is not just an effort of librarians even though it’s benefiting from the input of Alan S. Inouye, the ALA’s director of public policy. Among the others involved have been people from the Book Industry Study Group, independent booksellers, Penguin Random House, and OverDrive, the largest supplier of books for libraries and schools. One of the recurring themes in the project’s research is that synergies can exist not only between books and other media, but also between the library and retails models. For example, among several thousand readers surveyed, “38.31% of respondents had bought a book online that they first found in a library (within the last 12 months.” Local bookstores also benefited, and the project intends to explore this further. The findings are just preliminary, but based on earlier work by researchers for OCLC and OverDrive, Rothman doubts there will be surprises in regard to synergies between libraries and retail.

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Subjects: E-Books, Economy, Education, KM, Libraries & Librarians

Blogger-gamer-techie Chris Meadows mixed brains and kindness: “How can I make your day better?”

David Rothman, TeleRead Founder and Editor-Publisher has written as about his friend and colleague, Chris Meadows, who passed away from injuries sustained in a hit and run accident on October 8, while riding his electric bike. Rothman writes that “several people died later in the hospital – The blogger. The gamer. The documentation writer. And the ultimate tech support guy. Chris won a National Merit Scholarship in high school and read two books a day when in the mood, and he typed more than 120 words per minute. On deadline for the TeleRead blog on ebooks and related topics, he might race along at that speed or close to it. As “Robotech_Master,” Chris was internationally known to thousands in the games world. He wrote The Geek’s Guide to Indianapolis: A Tour Guide for Con Gamers and Other Visitors and hosted strangers who found themselves without another place to stay in Indy. But ten words from his life stand out most of all: “This is Chris. How can I make your day better?”…”

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Subjects: Communication Skills, Digital Archives, E-Books, Gadgets/Gizmos, KM

Increased ebook lending popularity leaves publishers worried, librarians still dissatisfied

Chris Meadows was Editor and Senior Staff Writer at TeleRead, a site focusing on e-book and library news. It is with sadness that I share one of his last articles – he passed away last week after a hit and run accident. Chris was an expert on all facets of digital content issues, and the son of two librarians. I have included more information in my editor’s note at the end of the article. He will be missed. My deepest condolences to his family.

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Subjects: Copyright, E-Books, Education, Gadgets/Gizmos, Health, Healthcare, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Library Software & Technology, Publishing & Publishers (Legal), Technology Trends

Private browsing: What it does – and doesn’t do – to shield you from prying eyes on the web

Prof. Lorrie Cranor, Carnegie Mellon University and Hana Habib, Graduate Research Assistant at the Institute for Software Research, Carnegie Mellon University, highlight their research on how many people who use private browsing have misconceptions about what protection they’re gaining. A common misconception is that these browser modes allow you to browse the web anonymously, surfing the web without websites identifying you and without your internet service provider or your employer knowing what websites you visit. The tools actually provide much more limited protections.

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Subjects: Civil Liberties, Competitive Intelligence, Internet Trends, KM, Legal Research, Online Legal Research Services, Privacy, Search Engines, Search Strategies, Social Media, Spyware

Toxic for libraries? KKR investment firm to buy OverDrive, biggest library ebook company

The KKR investment firm is buying OverDrive, the biggest library ebook company, providing ebooks and audiobooks to 43,000+ libraries and schools in 75 countries – from Rakuten, also owner of the Kobo ereader, audiobook and ebook business. As the number of e-book publishers and ereaders continues to shrink, David H. Rothman asks, “do we really want to trust digital libraries to KKR on issues ranging from access to reliable digital preservation.”

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Subjects: E-Books, Education, KM, Libraries & Librarians, Library Software & Technology, Software

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues January 5, 2020

Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: The 5 Best Authenticator Apps for Protecting Your Accounts; Major US companies breached, robbed, and spied on by Chinese hackers; US Army bans soldiers from using TikTok over security worries; and 7 types of virus – a short glossary of contemporary cyberbadness.

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Subjects: Communications, Cybersecurity, Gadgets/Gizmos, Government Resources, KM, Legal Research, Privacy, RSS Newsfeeds, Search Engines, Social Media, Spyware, Technology Trends, Viruses & Hoaxes
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