Roberto Baldwin and Matt Buchanan from Gizmodo are declaring February 1st as Change Your Password Day. A look at ABC News blogger Ned Potter’s The 25 Worst Passwords on the Internet will be enough to convince many that Gizmodo is onto something. Thankfully, CNET’s Michelle Starr has a few ideas for generating better passwords.
Meet Patrick Dougherty. He’s an artist that takes his viewers to realms of whimsy and wonder.
Ever wonder how or why sarcasm and snarkiness get so much attention our culture? When was the last time someone was kind to you in a quiet but genuinely profound way? Even more important, when was the last time you willingly went out of your way to be kind to another?
What if most–not all, mind you, just most–of the basically good people walking on the surface of this planet decided to make kindness an accepted cultural norm.
What if most people tried, at least once a day, to do someone a kind turn.
What if most people did this consistently, making a chain of days linked by gracefully kind acts? What if that chain extended weeks, months, and years in time?
Do you think it can happen?
It can.
Random Acts of Kindness Week (February 13th – 19th) is quickly approaching. Now is a perfect time to exercise your compassion and proclivity toward doing good. It’s easy: be kind and be kind consistently.
Need some inspiration? Start by visiting Storytellers for Good. The site explores how people are making a difference in the world. These folks do it. So can you.
Maria Munuera and Mark MacKay (both well-known interaction design community with their) have created a full-spectrum chromatic calisthenics workout. If your color-recognition is out of shape, it will be well-toned after experiencing their wickedly addictive color-matching game.
After trying to convince cyber-citizens that they didn’t need nicknames or internet nom de plumes, Google seems to have applied the brakes on and shifted into reverse. Lance Ulanoff of Mashable reports that Google + users may now use pseudonyms. Well, I suppose that’s good to know.
Related resources:
The Alliance for Excellent Education is calling on educators, community leaders, parents, and students to participate in the first-ever national Digital Learning Day on February 1, 2012. Mark the date on your calendar.
Life is often about tradeoffs. We give up one thing to gain another. This is especially true of when we roam about on the web. We want to gain admittance to a site or its services so we divulge information–a username, a password, our birthday, gender, location–and all sorts of other demographic delights. In doing so, we get something we think we want (access to a forum, a place in a community, connections, expertise, images, audio, video, etc…) and the entity we barter with gets a little sliver of who we are. This routine plays itself out over and over but how often do we think about what we are doing and how it might affect us? What does the online entity do with all of that information. Details of how our personal information will be used sometimes resides in the depths of arcane legalese…if we even bother to look.
Maintaining our privacy involves knowing what happens we agree to share our personal details. Would there ever be a compelling reason to let an online entity know more about us, to not try to hide behind a cyber-pseudonym? Google believes that this is the case. Google’s Good to Know campaign extolls the benefits of telling Google who we are. Even if we disagree with Google’s philosophy, we can still learn a great deal about privacy and security by merely listening to the company’s position.
Related resources:
SOPA and PIPA were bad enough but now it seems as if government leaders are now hatching a new plot to undermine our civil liberties. How? At first glance, H.R. 1981: Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 seems like a well-intentioned piece of legislation; however, we need only look as far as the name of its sponsor, the infamous Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) of radioactive SOPA renown to feel a sense of skepticism kick into overdrive.
That skepticism is well-founded.
Why? Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic, reports that Smith’s newest outrage is a data retention mandate that plants the seeds for a police state that treats internet users like criminals. It’s dangerous legislation that threatens to destroy online privacy and free speech rights of every citizen. There is no language in the bill that limits its scope only to matters pertaining to investigations of child pornography. It’s an excuse to snoop. According to Declan McCullagh of CNET, if the bill becomes law, ISPs (internet service providers) would be required to keep logs of their customers’ activities for an entire year just in case police want to review the logs at a later date. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said H.R. 1981 ought to truthfully be referred to as the “Keep Every American’s Digital Data for Submission to the Federal Government Without a Warrant Act.”
Andrew Dallos captured this at a SOPA/PIPA Protest in NYC Yesterday
As I write this post, ProPublica’s timely Where Do Your Members of Congress Stand on SOPA and PIPA? reports that there are now 122 legislators opposing SOPA/PIPA. Ars Technica notes that both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are backing away from PIPA. Even so, Firedog Lake’s David Dayen explains why Democrats aren’t shying away from SOPA/PIPA as much as their colleagues across the aisle. Daily Kos is a bit more vehement in its assessment of a lesson that seems lost on the Democratic party.
Despite believing that SOPA and PIPA were untouchable, that citizens and other concerned individuals could do nothing to halt their passage into law, Rep. Lamar Smith (R) and other well-lobbied supporters of these odious bills are discovering that these pieces of legislative excrement are quickly becoming untouchable in an entirely new and unpleasant manner. SOPA and PIPA are certifiably radioactive. As I write this post, 35 Senators now publicly oppose PIPA. Last week there were only 5 dissenting Senators. What brought about this change? Internet Blackout Day certainly caught everyone’s attention; however, that’s only part of the story. The real impetus for what we are observing is the people across America who are calling their elected officials.
Guess what Congress? You’ve got our attention. Yes, we are watching you and what see disgusts us. Truth be told, we should have been watching and calling you a long, long time ago. All those voters who didn’t know who you are or how to contact you are getting informed and mobilized. Now that you’ve contemptuously slapped a hornet’s nest, get ready for the Swarm.
I’ve been calling my own legislators here in Georgia. For example, I phoned the office of Rep. John Barrow (D) yesterday. I asked to speak with someone–anyone, really–who works on copyright issues. The person answering the call told me that the person I wanted to speak with was in an important meeting. I thanked the staffer for taking my call in the midst of chaos. I explained that I wanted share my dismay that Rep. John Barrow supports legislation that I and many, many others find distressing. I also explained that I wanted list my reasons for being concerned. I noted:
While quickly and courteously sharing my concerns, the person taking my call began to try to convince me that there was nothing in either piece of legislation that was a cause for concern. I explained that I had not called to debate the merits of the bills, only to register my concerns. I added that I had a great many other legislators to contact and that I would like to finish leaving my message for Rep. Barrow.
I don’t know if my message will be relayed. It may get lost in the collection of other calls that were coming in at the time. Even so, I’ll be calling again…frequently.
Related Resources:
Finally watch Sal from Khan Academy explain, “What SOPA and PIPA are at face value and what they could end up enabling.”
0 | Unique Visitors |
Recent Comments