Government

Is there more to Windows Vista being big brother than was originally thought? There appear to be features and services bundled into Windows Vista that stay in touch with the government and their associates, too. If this is true, Microsoft has gone ... too far. This post was in an abandonia.com forum, and appeared to get overloaded from all the attention it was getting. Whitedust.net had a copy of it on their site. A forum user switched to Windows Vista a month ago and actually had some good luck with it. He began noticing latency on his home network connection. He used port sniffing software and ... (view more)

The BlackBerry has been praised by some, rejected by others, and now banned by the Government of France, with the country's Minister of Defense calling the handheld device a "threat to French state secrets". What is most bizarre about the situation ... is that France has lashed out against the United States, claiming that American intelligence agencies are manipulating French BlackBerry devices to spy on government secrets. Emails that are sent from a French BlackBerry device must pass through servers in the United States and Britain. France fears that this process will make their systems prone ... (view more)

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British Homeland Security has put a new spin on video surveillance. By introducing CCTV cameras equipped with loudspeakers, security staff may now verbally berate those seen committing crimes. The cameras will have a two-way speaker system that ... allows staff to talk and respond directly to the perpetrator. The British government has high expectations for the talking cameras, because many believe that their presence will deter those considering breaking the law at the risk of public embarrassment. British Homeland Security forces have already reported a significant decline in crime rates in the ... (view more)

Last week we reported how the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a moratorium on users migrating to Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007 citing no compelling reasons to upgrade at this time. ... Federal Computer Week is reporting that more Federal Agencies are delaying the migration to Windows Vista. The Interior Department, including the Army and the Transportation Department are developing implementation policies and say they need to complete their testing of Vista before switching over from older working systems already in place. A draft ... (view more)

Recently, Information week obtained a memo citing concerns over cost and compatibility issues by the federal U.S. Department Of Transportation (DOT) in January 2007, prohibiting thousands of federal workers from upgrading to Windows Vista, Internet ... Explorer 7 (IE7) and Office 2007. The DOT's Chief Information Officer (CIO) placed an "indefinite moratorium" on the upgrades since "there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade." "Microsoft Vista, Office 2007, and ... (view more)

Attention, Canadian Residents: Those Loonies and Toonies ($1 and $2 coins) jingling around in your pocket may include more than just bronze and metal. Tiny radio frequency transmitters have been found inside Canadian coins, according to a recent ... U.S. intelligence report. This all sounds like something out of a spy movie -- and like any good espionage thriller, the facts of this case are a mystery wrapped in a riddle. This is what the report *didn't* say: The coins are from Canada, but the U.S. government isn't saying (or doesn't know) who's doing the tracking -- or why. How the Pentagon ... (view more)

Students attending institutions in Canada may no longer have to fear that their personal information is easily accessible to potentially harmful individuals. As part of the new Public School Network Access and Use Policy, school and school board ... websites in Canada are to refrain from including the names and images of all students. The policy also regulates how Internetand email are used by schools and school boards and have unanimously agreed that most websites leave their students prone to corruption by unwanted users. (Source: herald.ns.ca ) Representatives of the policy have admitted that ... (view more)

Imagine a world where minors can have their online game sessions legally ended after a fixed amount of playtime. Envision a place where psychiatric clinics are available to wean children away from compulsive Internet use. Picture a country that bans ... its youth from Internet cafes. Welcome to China. The psych wards are already open, Internet cafes may soon be closed to children in China if legislation passes, and Chinese Parliament is currently considering technology to shut down a minor's online game access after the designated quantity of time has passed. (Source: physorg.com ) The Reason ... (view more)

The United States Marine Corps is using MySpace.com, the web's most popular social network, to recruit new prospects. Since the launch of the Marine Corps profile in January, over 12,000 MySpace users have added the Marine Corps to their list of ... online friends, and as many as 430 people have completed online applications on the Marine Corps website. (Source: news.com ) Changing the Way Youth Communicate MySpace has changed the face of socialization for many teens and twenty-something's. The Web-based community has over 94 million registered users that post personal profiles and communicate ... (view more)