“Did you know ?” 2008 version.
A 5 minutes movie about pace of innovation, information technologies and globalization.
A broad idea of what is coming next and impressive figures.

Did you know ?

PingER project made this “Internet Weather” map of Africa and shows the network performance measured from Trieste Italy to African Universities, from April 2007 to March 2008.

Darker red dots indicate higher speeds such as enabled by ADSL or better . Clearer, lighter red dots indicate lower speeds, in some cases as poor as 56kbps modems. If a site is unreach able its dot disappears, so flickering dots indicate fragility. If all dots disappear the measurement host expe rienced an outage. Africa’s network performance is over 10 years behind that of Europe and the US and falling further behind. These measurements are made by the international PingER project and provide hard evidence of the extent of the Digital Divide for planners and policy makers.

In Africa, only 4, 99% of the population have access to the Internet. An average small compared to 41.18% of Europeans and Americans who are familiar with the Internet says another report published yesterday.

About PingER
PingER (Ping End-to-end Reporting) is the name given to the Internet End-to-end Performance Measurement (IEPM) project to monitor end-to-end performance of Internet links, developed by the IEPM group at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The network performance of more than 300 hosts are monitored worldwide.

Found two interesting posts about how Twitter becomes a real-time news media and how it contributes to spread news all over the World despite telecommunication networks breakdown and/or government censorship.

Smart Mobs author Mark A.M Kramer asks if Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) could make humanity morally accountable ? Today, even with a very limited presence of the International community (politics, journalists as well as Aid workers) we continue to receive near real-time information from Myanmar through various multi-plateforms communication media such Twitter, SMS, RSS etc.

Ten days later, in China, an powerful earthquake shook the Sichuan province, information that Technology blogger Robert Scoble claimed that Twitter had the breaking news even before the United States Geological Survey, which provides early warnings of seismic events.

Is Twitter's slogan "What are you doing" should be now replaced by "What's going on" ?

Sources: SmartMobs, BBC

The Register published the result of a survey, among office worker in London, which reveals that women are 4 (four) times more likely than men to give out "passwords" in exchange for chocolate bars.

The survey by of 576 office workers in London found that women are by far more likely to give  their computer login credentials to total strangers than their male colleagues in a ratio above 4/1 (45% vs. 10%).

The bogus researchers also asked for workers' names and telephone numbers, ostensibly so they could be entered into a draw to go to Paris.

The complete article is on Register website 

I found very interesting post on Tom Barrett's "ICT in my Classroom" blog about how Twitter is used as an educational tool.

Tom's post also describes where Twitter is positioned among other communications tools. Twitter is not a synchronous or an asynchronous communication system. It is rather both at once depending how channel's followers use it.

He makes a nice metaphoric comparison between Twitter and a flowing torrent where people can just stand by it and observes the flow. Some prefers to jump into while others simply do not pay much attention to the  stream.

Personally I am amazed to see how many different ways Twitter is used today. There are, indeed, lots of individuals (you and me) but also some politicians (Clinton, Obama, UK Prime Minister), Public Services (LA fire department, AmCross), Airlines, News agencies, etc.. which are increasingly using it, but not necessarily to interact with others but to broadcast content or information.

Is any company using Twitter for internal use only ? 

InfoWorld published the 10 most common security land mines that experts say you need to avoid.

Many companies spend a small fortune and deploy a small army to secure themselves from the many security threats lurking these days. But all those efforts can come to naught when making any of these common mistakes. The results can range from embarrassing to devastating, but security experts say that all are easily avoidable.

And almost all can be done without spending one more dime.

1. A slip of the finger reveals the company secret

2. People give away passwords and other secrets without thinking

3. A trusted partner ends up not being so trustworthy with your data

4. Web-based apps can be portals to leaks and thieves

5. Hoping the worse doesn’t happen only makes it worse

6. Avoiding or diluting response leadership makes breaches worse

7. Handling breach details sloppily tips off the perp

8. Trusting "silver bullet" technology hides real threats

9. Spending unthinkingly wastes resources you might need for important threats

10. Don't save the wrong data

In short, weakest point in ICT technologies is always the same one… guess who ?

The full article is available here on InfoWorld

London police launched on 25th of February a new advertising campaign. Posters and TV ads are urging Londoners to turn in people who might be taking pictures of CCTV cameras.

"Thousands of people take photos every day.

What if one of them seems odd ?

Terrorists use surveillance to help plan attacks, taking photos and making notes about security measures like the location of CCTV cameras.If you see someone doing that, we need to know.

Let experienced officers decide what action to take." 

Other posters target households:

"you see hundreds of houses every day. What if one has unusual activities and seems suspicious"

as well as mobile phone users :

"Thousands of people have mobiles. What if someone with several seems suspicious?"

What's going on in London ? Is the Metropolitan police not busy enough ? did they become completely paranoiac ? or do they need some budget increase ?

Where is this so famous British phlegm ?

As a response, many people have already redesigned the posters to point out the absurdity of them. Some samples are available on BoingBoing.

Just after posting the article about new safety measures on US aircraft I found an interesting post on New York Times "Jet Lagged" blog titled "Airport Security Folies"

Here after a short excerpt of Patrick Smith article

" Six years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, airport security remains a theater of the absurd. The changes put in place following the September 11th catastrophe have been drastic, and largely of two kinds: those practical and effective, and those irrational, wasteful and pointless.

The first variety have taken place almost entirely behind the scenes. Explosives scanning for checked luggage, for instance, was long overdue and is perhaps the most welcome addition. Unfortunately, at concourse checkpoints all across America, the madness of passenger screening continues in plain view. It began with pat-downs and the senseless confiscation of pointy objects. Then came the mandatory shoe removal, followed in the summer of 2006 by the prohibition of liquids and gels. We can only imagine what is next…."

Continue reading it on NYT website 

On my own opinion, Airport security today is a mix between relevant and must have security measures on a side but also theatrical, annoying and ridiculous measures. Some of these measures are time consuming, put passengers and crew on their nerves for no safety added value. What does really justify them?

• Government "zero  political risk" (if something happens they will be able to tell that all possible protection measures were already taken) ?
• Fear factor = better military/law enforcement budget ?
• Security private experts / companies have highly increase their financial income since September 2001. They certainly not ready to give this golden egg away.
• Did I speak about million dollars detectors and scanners manipulated by low trained personnel ?    

but do you think air travels are safer to face well prepared, organized and motivated enemies ?

Passengers will no longer be able to pack loose lithium batteries in checked luggage beginning January 1, 2008 as new federal safety rules take effect. The new regulation, designed to reduce the risk of lithium battery fires, will continue to allow lithium batteries in checked baggage if they are installed in electronic devices, or in carry-on baggage if stored in plastic bags.

Common consumer electronics such as travel cameras, cell phones, and most laptop computers are still allowed in carry-on and checked luggage.  However, the rule limits individuals to bringing only two extended-life spare rechargeable lithium batteries, such as laptop and professional audio/video/camera equipment lithium batteries in carry-on baggage

The following quantity limits apply to both your spare and installed batteries. The limits are expressed in grams of “equivalent lithium content.” 8 grams of equivalent lithium content is approximately 100 watt-hours. 25 grams is approximately 300 watt-hours:

• Under the new rules, you can bring batteries with up to 8-gram equivalent lithium content. All lithium ion batteries in cell phones are below 8 gram equivalent lithium content. Nearly all laptop computers also are below this quantity threshold.

• You can also bring up to two spare batteries with an aggregate equivalent lithium content of up to 25 grams, in addition to any batteries that fall below the 8-gram threshold. Examples of two types of lithium ion batteries with equivalent lithium content over 8 grams but below 25 are shown below.
• For a lithium metal battery, whether installed in a device or carried as a spare, the limit on lithium content is 2 grams of lithium metal per battery.
• Almost all consumer-type lithium metal batteries are below 2 grams of lithium metal. But if you are unsure, contact the manufacturer!

Indeed this regulation will first be applicable on US registered aircrafts but as usual we may see this new regulation applicable on all International flights. 

Usually all electrical devices, including batteries, are subject to safety certification so either their are considered to be safe or manufacturer has to review quality and safety of its products. 

I really wonder on which basis these new rules are made from. Did anyone saw any incident statistics, reports etc.. (apart Sony made laptop batteries) or is it just one additional constraints air travel passengers will have to deal with.

After lighters and matches in 06, liquids in 07, 08 will add batteries to the restriction list.

All details are here as well as the complete list of items with air travel restrictions

As part of the various and numerous initiatives taking place in Thailand this year, a multimedia event names "Thailand: 9 Days in the Kingdom" marking the 80th birthday of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej on 5 December has now been revealed to public.

‘Thailand: 9 Days in the Kingdom’ project invited in January 2007, 55 of the world’s leading photographers for a photo shoot throughout Thailand over a nine-day period. Result of captured images shows different facets of Thailand: its peoples, traditions, landscapes and cityscapes, commerce and industry.

‘Thailand: 9 Days in the Kingdom’ is now completed and released to public in three parts:

• A wonderful 304 pages large-format pictorial book which portrays Thailand today (50 USD).
• A multimedia exhibition of photographs taken during the shoot held at CentralWorld Event Gallery.
• Two documentary films on the project.

‘Thailand: 9 Days in the Kingdom’ includes seven photos-essays made by some of world famous photographers on various themes:

• reverence for the King (Anuchai Secharunputong, Thailand)
• the ongoing events in the south (Abbas, France; Charoon Thongnual, Thailand)
• Thai boxing (Greg Gorman, USA)
• the harvesting of birds’ nests (Éric Valli, France)
• the care and treatment of AIDS patients by a Catholic priest (James Nachtwey, USA)
• and the country’s colourful cabaret scene (Greg Gorman, USA)
• aerial views of Thailand (Yann Arthus-Bertrand).

In short, if pass by Bangkok before the 5th of December, don't miss the exhibition. For the others, if you like Thailand, the book and its DVD is a must have (available in English and French).

More : 9 days in the Kingdom, A glimpse of the exhibition