Commercial v. noncommercial use of CC licenses. Where's the line of demarcation?
By all accounts, Great Minds is an educational stalwart that has developed K-12 curriculum used by schools across the US. The materials developed from the Washington, DC-based nonprofit hold US copyrights but are made publicly available under a Creative Commons (CC) license, which theoretically allows them to be freely shared and reproduced for noncommercial uses as long as the original source is credited. That CC license is known as BY-NC-SA 4.0.
But it seems that Great Minds can't make up its mind on whether it truly wants its materials to be a part of free culture. Or, in the alternative, it's reading the CC license a little too literally. That's because it's suing Federal Express, claiming the Texas-based delivery and copying company is reproducing its materials for teachers and schools without paying royalties to Great Minds. The educational company says that because FedEx is making a profit from reproducing the materials, it's violating the CC license. continued…
first published week of: 09/19/2016
DARPA
The U.S. defense research agency is funding development of sensors and intelligent systems that could help extract information, even from unconnected devices
DARPA wants to exploit the power of the internet of things to help the U.S. dominate battlefields.
The Defense Advance Research Projects Agency will fund the development of sensors and artificial intelligence systems that could help break into, extract and analyze information from enemy devices and communication systems.
The components and systems will arm the U.S. with more data to analyze enemy moves and strategy. Information is king in wars.
"They are talking about going into any situation and extracting information at any time, [with] artificial intelligence systems that can attack and hack any network," said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research.
Of course, not all DARPA research comes to fruition. Floating crazy concepts and promoting an exchange of ideas among researchers and companies are among the main goals of DARPA, which operates as the research arm of the U.S. Department of Defense. continued…
first published week of: 09/12/2016
Artist’s concept shows elements of a notional Aerial Dragnet system – several UAS carrying sensors form a network that provides wide-area surveillance of all low-flying UAS in an urban setting (Credit: DARPA)
With quadcopters and other commercial drones becoming cheaper, more sophisticated, and numerous, the US military recognizes the potential security threat these tiny aircraft pose. In order to stay abreast of what drones are where, particularly in urban environments, DARPA has begun the Aerial Dragnet project to develop a system for detecting and tracking small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) at low altitude.
Everyday, thousands of commercial and military aircraft fill the skies. Despite the occasional headline-grabbing accident, aviation's safety record is admirable. According to the US National Safety Council, the odds of dying in an air accident is 1 in 7,178 compared to a motor car's 1 in 98.
Part of the reason for this is that airplanes are not just individual flying machines, but units in a comprehensive air transportation system watched over by various national and international air traffic control systems. These control systems keep an eye on hundreds of thousands conventional aircraft on a daily basis with such precision that when one does literally vanish off the radar, it's big news.
Unfortunately, no such system exists for the growing number of increasingly sophisticated UAVs that are taking to the skies. These have already led to invasions of privacy, near tragedies and have been giving pilots increasing anxiety as many are sighted near airports. But the US military is especially worried that UAVs will soon become a security threat to armed forces in urban settings overseas and a way to comprehensively track large numbers of UAVs of similar size traveling at similar speeds needs to be found. continued…
first published week of: 09/19/2016
According to a new study published today from the American Civil Liberties Union, major social networks including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have recently provided user data access to Geofeedia, the location-based, social media surveillance system used by government offices, private security firms, marketers and others.
As TechCrunch previously reported, Geofeedia is one of a bevy of technologies used, secretly, by police to monitor activists and the contents of their discussions online.
The ACLU said in a blog post that both Twitter and Facebook (which owns Instagram) made some immediate changes in response to their study’s findings.
“Instagram cut off Geofeedia’s access to public user posts, and Facebook cut its access to a topic-based feed of public user posts,” the ACLU said.
The ACLU also noted in their post: continued…
first published week of: 10/17/2016
A.I., augmented reality and IoT could remake the way enterprises run and people consume
Analysts say a handful of technologies are poised to change our lives by 2021.
While Forrester Research sees 15 emerging technologies that are important right now (see the full list here), five of them could shake things up in a big way for businesses and the public in general, according to Brian Hopkins, an enterprise architecture analyst with Forrester.
Those five: The Internet of Things (IoT), Intelligent agents, artificial intelligence (A.I.), augmented reality (A.R.) and hybrid wireless technology.
“The technologies we selected will have the biggest impact on your ability to win, serve and retain customers whose expectations of service through technology are only going up,” Hopkins wrote in the report. “Our list focuses on those technologies that will have the biggest business impact in the next five years."
Of Forrester’s larger list, which includes the likes of edge computing, security automation and real-time interaction management, the five that Hopkins pulled out to highlight have the greatest potential for disruption.
Hopkins said intelligent agents coupled with A.I. are becoming smart enough to understand users’ behavior, interpret needs and make decisions.
“By 2021, we think that automation, supported by intelligent software agents driven by an evolution in A.I. and cognitive technology will have eliminated a net 6% of U.S. jobs,” wrote Hopkins. “But the loss won't be uniform. There will be an 11% loss of jobs that are vulnerable and a 5% creation of jobs in industries that stand to benefit.”
Another key emerging technology is hybrid wireless technology, like interfaces and software that enable devices to use and translate between different wireless providers, protocols and frequency bands. “By 2021, a virtual network infrastructure will emerge to weave together wireless technologies that globally connect IoT and customer engagement platforms,” Hopkins said. continued…
first published week of: 09/26/2016
Use these tips for finding inexpensive study resources and getting hands-on experience.
For as long as there have been technology certifications, IT pros have debated their value. Some believe they're the key to a fatter paycheck, while others contend that they're often not worth the paper they're printed on. Others take the middle road and say they can be valuable in the right circumstances, but experience is king.
The aim of this story is not to add to that debate. This story is for technology professionals who have already decided to pursue a certification, and who are looking for ways to do so without breaking the bank.
Because there's no denying it: Studying for and taking certification exams can be costly. Instructor-led classes often cost in "the thousands of dollars," notes Tim Warner, a 15-year IT veteran, author and tech evangelist at Pluralsight, which specializes in online professional technology training. Even computer-based classes, which generally don't offer direct contact with the instructor, typically cost "in the hundreds of dollars," he adds.
And once the studying is done you still have to pay for the exams. "On average, exam prices range between $150 and $350 per attempt," Warner says. "Some IT cert vendors, such as Microsoft, offer 2-for-1 promotions that effectively halve the registration cost. Either way, it's expensive." continued…
first published week of: 09/19/2016
Technical issues like network availability and stability usually pale in comparison, say IT execs from the likes of GE, UPS and Merck.
It's one of an IT leader's biggest nightmares: Imagine you've got a division in Russia, which has very strict privacy laws regarding employee information, and there are 12 employees who refuse to allow that information to leave company walls.
"Then the reality is you need to then manage the data around those 12 individuals and then it comes down to scope, scale and size," notes Clark Golestani, CIO of Merck. Sometimes, if there is a small amount of information company officials need to work with, "paper may be the most efficient method," he says. If it's a larger amount of data, "putting in a locally based system will be necessary."
And there are other global challenges, like how to handle systems that capture information about customers through all forms of communication -- especially in highly regulated industries like healthcare. continued…
first published week of: 08/15/2016
IEEE has approved the 802.3bz standard: 2.5Gbps over Cat 5e, 5Gbps over Cat 6.
A new Ethernet standard that allows for up to 2.5Gbps over normal Cat 5e cables (the ones you probably have in your house) has been approved by the IEEE.
The standard—formally known as IEEE 802.3bz-2016, 2.5G/5GBASE-T, or just 2.5 and 5 Gigabit Ethernet—also allows for up to 5Gbps over Cat 6 cabling.
The new standard was specifically designed to bridge the copper-twisted-pair gap between Gigabit Ethernet (1Gbps), which is currently the fastest standard for conventional Cat 5e and Cat 6 cabling, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet, which can do 10Gbps but requires special Cat 6a or 7 cabling. Rather impressively work only began on the new standard at the end of 2014, which gives you some idea of how quickly the powers that be wanted to push this through.
While Cat 6a and 7 are growing in popularity, the vast majority of homes, offices, and institutions use Cat 5e and Cat 6—and upgrading the cabling would be very expensive indeed. A wired 1Gbps connection is still fairly adequate for a single PC user, of course—but over the last few years, with the explosion of high-speed Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet is now one of the bottlenecks. continued…
first published week of: 10/03/2016
Your Google Account is used for your Gmail, but it could also be connected to your Android phone, your Google Play account, and your Google Wallet. Getting your password hacked could make for a rotten start to a day, but it could be even worse than getting locked out of your email. If you use your Gmail to authenticate other accounts, like Twitter, Facebook, or your utility services or bank, getting your Gmail hacked means all those reset password requests will go to a compromised account, and your hacker now has complete access to large chunks of your digital life.
How do you secure your password and your account? continued…
first published week of: 10/03/2016
Intel also wants to make drone development easy with the Project Arrow development kit
A compact computer called Euclid from Intel should make the development of robots much easier.
Euclid looks much like the Kinect camera for Xbox consoles, but it's a self-contained PC that can be the guts of a robot.
It's possible to install the Euclid computer where the "eyes" of a human-like robot would be typically placed. Intel demonstrated the Euclid computer in a robot moving on stage during CEO Brian Krzanich's keynote at the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday.
Euclid has a 3D RealSense camera that can serve as the eyes in a robot, capturing images in real time. It has motion and position sensors that can help the robot move around both indoors and outdoors.
An Atom processor provides the computing capabilities to analyze the images and data gathered by the robot. continued…
first published week of: 08/22/2016