HARDWARE: Medicaid rules can’t keep up with technology

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/10/16/1621227/Tablets-Are-Game-Changers-For-Special-Needs-Kids

Tablets Are Game-Changers For Special Needs Kids
by Soulskill

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theodp writes “The rise of mainstream tablets is proving to have unforeseen benefits for children with speech and communication problems and may disrupt a business where specialized devices can cost thousands of dollars. iPad apps like Proloquo2Go ($189) aim to help individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), cerebral palsy, down syndrome, developmental disabilities, ALS, traumatic brain injury, aphasia, apraxia, and more. Even Steve Jobs didn’t see this one coming: ‘We take no credit for this, and that’s not our intention,’ said Jobs, who’s been touched by email he gets from parents of special needs kids for whom the iPad is proving to be a life-changer. ‘Our intention is to say something is going on here,’ Jobs added, suggesting that researchers should ‘take a look at this.’ Even though they might cost significantly less than dedicated devices, SUNY speech pathologist Andrea Abramovich explained Medicare doesn’t cover consumer tablets because they could be used for non-medical purposes.”

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How long before the politicians and bureaucrats wake up and update the Medicaid rules. Hmm, save money and preforms better. Seems like “obvious” to me. Argh! No wonder the Gooferment is held in such low regard. Might be useful for all sorts of unexpected things. That’s the beauty of the free market.

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TECHNOLOGY: 69 mph scooter

Thursday, October 14, 2010

http://www.impactlab.net/2010/10/13/worlds-fastest-mobility-scooter-can-reach-speeds-of-69mph/

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It might look like your standard mobility scooter, designed to help the elderly and the infirm do their shopping. But this particular version has had rather a substantial upgrade.

Plumber Colin Furze, 31, spent nearly three months converting the machine so that it now whizzes along at an incredible 69mph – making it the world’s fastest mobility scooter.

It has a powerful 125cc motorbike engine hidden under the seat, five gears and twin exhausts.

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Might be good for getting to work?

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HARDWARE: Resume from hibernate didn’t resume

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Mac Book Air closed lid and, when I opened it, I didn’t get anything. Argh! Lost my daily run file of hospital notes. Have paper backup. But the McBa ain’t infallible.

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SERVICE: Google is closing 1-800-GOOG-411

Sunday, October 10, 2010

http://lifehacker.com/5659358/google-shuts-down-goog+411

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Google is closing 1-800-GOOG-411, their first speech recognition service that acted as a free “voice-powered directory assistance”, on November 12.

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BING 1-800-246-4411

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Why do I suspect the phone companies are protecting a very lucrative income stream?

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TECHNOLOGY: Cloud control?

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

You can’t count on software you don’t control!

http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2010/09/turning-off-track-changes-feature.html

Turning off the track changes feature
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 by Brian Shih

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As of September 30th, we’ll be turning off track changes in Reader. While this isn’t a widely used feature, we wanted to let you know in advance so you can set up a suitable alternative (such as http://page2rss.com). Your previous updates will not go away, but you will stop receiving new updates from any custom feeds you have set up.

We apologize for any inconvenience this causes — and as always, please feel free to visit ourhelp forum if you have any questions.

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TECHNOLOGY: New form of spam begins. It looks like a standard LinkedIn invite.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

New form of spam begins. It looks like a standard LinkedIn invite.

201009290912.jpg

But the URLs point to strange sites. Don’t worry I’m an Open DNS User (free) and they don’t resolve.

“Default” Users, who don’t take any precautions, should NEVER click on any link in ANY email.

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LinkedIn Users Targeted with Fake “Contack Requests” to Spread Malwa
Posted by: “Joseph”
Tue Sep 28, 2010 7:38 am (PDT)

LinkedIn Users Targeted with Fake “Contact Requests” to Spread Malware
By Mike Lennon on Sep 27, 2010

On Monday morning, cybercriminals began sending massive volumes of spam email messages targeting LinkedIn users.

Starting at approximately 10am GMT, users of the popular business-focused social networking site began receiving emails with a fake contact request containing a malicious link.

According to Cisco Security Intelligence, these messages accounted for as much as 24% of all spam sent within a 15-minute interval today. If users click, they are taken to a web page that says “PLEASE WAITING…. 4 SECONDS..” and then redirects them to Google, appearing as if nothing has happened. During those four seconds, the victim’s PC was attempted to be infected with the ZeuS Malware via a “drive-by download” – something that requires little or no user interaction to infect a system.

When Zeus infects PCs, users rarely notice any harm, and those who click on a link will may even have a chance manually download the executable file, as the malware first runs a series of browser exploits. ZeuS, also known as Zbot, WSNPOEM, NTOS and PRG, is the most prevalent banking malware platform for online fraud, and has been licensed by numerous criminal organizations. The program then waits for the user to log onto a list of targeted banks and financial institutions, and then steals login credentials and other data which are immediately sent to a remote server hosted by cybercriminals. It can also modify, in a user’s browser, the genuine web pages from a bank’s web servers to ask for personal information such as payment card number and PIN, one time passwords, etc. A new variant recently emerged that targets mobile devices – ZeuS in the Mobile or “Ztimo”- used to overcome two-factor authentication.

“Criminals are misusing brands familiar to business users to trick them into becoming infected by data stealing malware,” said Cisco Security Researcher Henry Stern. “They want to infect those users with access to large-dollar online commercial bank accounts. This attack is most interesting because of its scale. While there have been many previous attacks that impersonate social media sites, the scale of this attack, tens of billions of messages, makes it notable. The criminals behind this attack are among those who stole over US$100m from commercial bank accounts in 2009,” Stern added.

Back to top Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post

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TECHNOLOGY: Why not have an unattended dvd rental kiosk in the hospital lobby?

Friday, September 24, 2010

Why not put a redbox in Robert Wood Johnson Hospital lobby? Most patient rooms have a dvd player. And, the tv program provider has a very limited number of channels.

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Hello,

Thank you for your e-mail. We appreciate your interest in redbox. We will look into opportunities in your area, and if one exists we will reach out as we continually try to expand into different areas. We receive a lot of requests and we make sure all inquiries receive attention.

If you have any additional questions, comments regarding this issue please contact us at 866-redbox3 (866-733-2693) to avoid any further delay in resolving your matter.

Thank you for your valued business,

Mari
redbox Customer Care
1.866.REDBOX3

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I translate this: “go away and don’t bother us”!

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SERVICE: FOURSQUARE or please rob me?

Friday, September 10, 2010

http://foursquare.com/

201009091353.jpg

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TECHNOLOGY: Online storage; free, of course

Thursday, September 9, 2010

http://askbobrankin.com/online_free_storage.html?tbart

Online Free Storage

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Why do they give away free online storage space? To get you hooked on it, of course. Drug dealers give away free samples too, and start charging when a user’s habit is big enough and strong enough. Microsoft Azure offers a measly 500 MB of free online storage

as an introductory offer, while their SkyDrive gives you 25GB of space. Google Storage is offering “up to 100 GB per object (file stored) and up to 1000 buckets (places to store objects) per account” during its beta/preview period.

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You really want what I call a “shadowing” type (i.e., alternatives like Dropbox | Carbonite | Mozy), where you just do your think normally and all the backing up and / or syncing is done under the covers. If you have to think about it, that’s bad. You’ll forget. Everyone does.

From an information security perspective, I’d like it to be encrypted by my platform BEFORE it is place in the directory and synced out to the cloud. Maybe in Release 2 of these services?

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TECHNOLOGY: SPAM kills; even good messages

Monday, August 23, 2010

http://www.barracudacentral.org/

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Welcome to BarracudaCentral.org, devoted to sharing information with Barracuda Networks customers and the Internet security community. Here you will find a wide range of statistics, threat information, and a number of useful services to help manage and secure your network.

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http://www.emailreg.org/index.cgi?p=about

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About EmailReg.org

EmailReg.org creates responsibility for email sent from an IP address. EmailReg.org associates specific domains with a sending IP address. By creating a responsible party and identifying IP addresses, we greatly enhance our ability to fight spam and to eliminate false positives.

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I emailed an acquaintance. And that one email, didn’t get thru, and I was accused of spamming based on IP address. My IP address comes form my ISP. I have no control over it. Further, I have no control over the mail server run by the ISP.

So telling me:

— to fix it is a waste of your time and mine.

— “suggesting” that registering and pay you 20$ a year is toll boothing!

— I’ll recommend to everyone that this is not the solution.

Argh!

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