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.

Tags: 2008, advertising, ATT, attack, blog, camera, civil liberties, counterterrorism, CTU, design, february, fon, ia, ict, im, King, lan, launch, location, london, mobile, mobile phone, nomadcom.net, officer, paranoia, PDF, phone, photo, photographers, Photography, picture, police, post, posters, public, security, snitch, suspect, terror, terrorism, uk, USA, user, wp, www, XP

Cory Doctorow wrote this Creative Commons-licensed fiction story for Radar Online magazine.

  Une version française est disponible ici

“Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in them to hang him.” –Cardinal Richelieu

“We don’t know enough about you.” –Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Greg landed at San Francisco International Airport at 8 p.m., but by the time he’d made it to the front of the customs line, it was after midnight. He’d emerged from first class, brown as a nut, unshaven, and loose-limbed after a month on the beach in Cabo (scuba diving three days a week, seducing French college girls the rest of the time). When he’d left the city a month before, he’d been a stoop-shouldered, potbellied wreck. Now he was a bronze god, drawing admiring glances from the stews at the front of the cabin.

Four hours later in the customs line, he’d slid from god back to man. His slight buzz had worn off, sweat ran down the crack of his ass, and his shoulders and neck were so tense his upper back felt like a tennis racket. The batteries on his iPod had long since died, leaving him with nothing to do except eavesdrop on the middle-age couple ahead of him.

“The marvels of modern technology,” said the woman, shrugging at a nearby sign: Immigration–Powered by Google.

“I thought that didn’t start until next month?” The man was alternately wearing and holding a large sombrero.

Googling at the border. Christ. Greg had vested out of Google six months before, cashing in his options and “taking some me time"–which turned out to be less rewarding than he’d expected. What he mostly did over the five months that followed was fix his friends’ PCs, watch daytime TV, and gain 10 pounds, which he blamed on being at home instead of in the Googleplex, with its well-appointed 24-hour gym.

He should have seen it coming, of course. The U.S. government had lavished $15 billion on a program to fingerprint and photograph visitors at the border, and hadn’t caught a single terrorist. Clearly, the public sector was not equipped to Do Search Right.

The DHS officer had bags under his eyes and squinted at his screen, prodding at his keyboard with sausage fingers. No wonder it was taking four hours to get out of the god damned airport.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2007, 24, access, account, air, airport, analysis, arc, arms, art, ATT, batteries, blog, book, brown, bt, camera, card, cars, ces, columbia, communication, computer, CTU, design, digital, dress, engine, explain, Festival, fiction, find, flash, free, Fun, google, google maps, History, HP, ia, ict, identify, im, International, internet, ipod, ITU, keyboard, King, lan, laptop, launch, law, LED, LG, light, live, map, MIT, money, network, nomadcom.net, nyt, officer, online, organize, pair, personal data, pet, photo, picture, police, politics, post, power, press, privacy, project, public, raw, release, science, sco, screen, scroogled, search, security, simple, social, soviet, storm, story, suspect, technology, term, terror, theme, touch, upgrade, USA, usage, user, violation, web, webcam, wifi, wonders, world, wp, www, XP, yahoo

Bangkok is already known for its pink taxi, it may soon also be known for its "Hello Kitty" cops.

Yesterday Chief Officer of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok as announced that police officers arriving late, parking in a prohibited area, littering among other petty crimes will be forced to stay in the division office and wear a pinky flashy "Hello Kitty" (the Japanese icon of cute) armband all day as a mark of shame.

Police Colonel Pongpat Chayapan said the idea is part of zero tolerance anti-crime initiatives theory which argues that getting tough on petty crime leads to a reduction in more serious offences.

However, "Hello Kitty officers" will not wear the armband in public. Should the public visit police offices instead to make sure this new guidelines is enforced ? 

photo: AP 

Tags: 2007, 24, anti crime, armband, art, Bangkok, blog, ces, crime, flash, Flickr, hello kitty, ia, im, japan, King, lan, nomadcom.net, officer, pet, photo, pink, police, press, public, shame, space, suppression, tax, Thailand, uk, vision, wp, www

Well known for its analysis, the Gartner Group predicts, in its last week press release, that Instant Messaging systems will be the "de facto" tool for voice, video and text chat with 95% of workers in leading global organizations. It may even become the primary interface for real-time communications by 2013. The Gartner Group forecasts the IM market to grow from 267 mio/USD in 2005 to 688 mio/USD in 2010.

As part of the corporate IT infrastructure, they recommend use of corporate IM solutions such IBM "Lotus Sametime" or Microsoft's "Office Live Communication Server" as they can be protected by the corporate firewall. One key part of IM corporate setup will be the "Presence Technology" which allows people to establish the availability of others for real-time communications regardless of their location.  It also enables users to cut through desktop clutter, resulting in immediate responses.

As a result, Gartner predicts that by 2012, presence technology will be offered independently of IM and email products.  Mr David Mario Smith, research analyst at Gartner, urged vendors and enterprises alike to recognize this and develop a real-time architecture with presence as the key ingredient. “The IM client is becoming the launch pad for many types of communications channels and services,” he concluded.  “Presence will extend its influence beyond IM to become an essential source of innovation for enterprise applications of the future.” 

This release collides with a discussion I had last week with some colleagues about which IM tool we were using and which one is our preferred. Personally, a tool like Skype makes my day as I get to use it to transmit and receive messages from many networks and not exclusively from the Web. However, it is well known that Skype is a real nightmare for corporate ICT Security officer and this piece of software always tries its best to find a way to connect the net, bypassing any corporate security (firewall & NAT) using peer-to-peer technology.

Full Press release is available on Gartner site

Tags: 2007, analysis, arc, art, availability, blog, ces, communication, CTU, find, forecast, gartner group, global, ia, ibm, ict, ICT Security, im, instant messenger, Internet News, lan, launch, live, location, messenger, microsoft, MIT, mobile, Mobile Communications, msn, network, Nomad Tools, nomadcom.net, officer, presence, press, real time, release, sametime, search, security, services, skype, space, technology, user, video, web, wp, www

After having eared good and bad news about the new Bangkok International Airport, now it's my turn to tell about my own experience using for the first time the brand new airport facilities.

Going there : I left Sukhumvit area around 16h00 today and arrived 25 minutes and 65 baths (toll way) later in front of the entrance 4 at the airport In short, "piece of cake". No traffic jam, lot less confusion in front of the terminal.

Check-In : less than 5 minutes chrono, but ok using counter for Star Alliance Gold member (got the Gold card yesterday…just in time). Anyway for other passengers check-in seemed to be as smooth as mine.

Immigration : all counters opened, 60 immigration officiers on duty at this section, 15 pax ahead of me. Bad luck we fell on the slowest guy in town, who needs an average of 3-4 minutes per passenger to give the exit stamp…. 17h00 sharp, still 7 pax ahead but for immgration officers a new shift starts. The "turtoise" is off and replaced my someone fresh… Good news ! average time per pax falls down to 30-40 seconds ! 

International Boarding : This area looks like a shopping mall with a luxury and internation brands. Few places to have a drink or some food and as mentionned on many websites, only few places where to seat and rest as well as restrooms.

Business Lounge
Very crowded as only one is available for the time being. Certainly the longest lounge I ever seen (I guess about 50 meters long)
 
Changes with Don Muang

• No more luggage security scan before check-in
• No more camera at the immigration counters
• Laptop computers to be removed from their bag for x-ray screening

Otherwise, an international airport often looks like another International Airport and Suvarnabhumi is no more than one among others. 

More about arrival area next week

 

 

Tags: air, airport, art, Bangkok, blog, camera, card, ces, computer, computers, ia, im, International, laptop, minutes, nomadcom.net, officer, passengers, screen, security, shift, space, take off, term, traffic, Travel, uk, web, website, wp, XP

Sept 19
8.00 am Thaksin Shinawatra calls an urgent teleconference with all armed forces' commanders at Government House, but none attends. Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkarin, the army chief, later says the meeting is hastily called. Rumor then spread around the capital and the stock market that a coup de tat is under way.

12.00 am After finishing the webcamera teleconference with Thaksin, who is New York, several Cabinet members check with reporters if there would really be a coup.

6.30 pm The Army's special forces from Lopburi move into Bangkok. Gen Prem Tinnasulalonda, president of Privy Council, has an audience with HM the King, reportedly on a meritmaking ceremony for ML Bau Kittiyakala.

6.55 pm Thai News Agency reports that Thaksin will return to Bangkok on Thursday, instead of Friday.

8.00 pm 191 police receive M16 rifles to prepare for an antiriot assignment.

9.00 pm The Army'[s special forces from Lopburi arrive at the Army's Bangkok headquarters. Web surfers post messages on Pantip.com asking if there is a coup de tat.

9.10 pm The armyowned TV Channel 5's mobile TV broadcast unit arrives at the Army's Bangkok headquarters.

9.30 pm TV channel 5 cancels regular programming and puts on air royallyauthored songs. Reporters at Government House say situation is normal, but rumour was rife that deputy premier Pol Gen Chidchai Vanasatit and defence minister Gen Thammarak Isarangkun have been under custody. Panthongthae, Thaksin's son, reportedly has left Thailand for the UK.

9.40 pm Police commandos arrive Baan Chansongra, Thaksin's residence

10.00 pm Army tanks take position at Bangkok Makkawan Rangsan Bridge and Rajdamnern Avenue.

10.10 pm CNN reports Bangkok situation

10.20pm Thaksin declares a state of emergency via the phone from New York. He also issues two orders, transferring en Sondhi from the post of army chief to the PM's Office, and naming Gen Rungroj Mahasaranond as the officer in charge of the crisis.

11pm "The Administrative Reform Council" (ARC) issues a first statement on TV network, saying the armed forces and national police have peacefully seized control of Bangkok and surrounding areas. Soldier seize the Shinawatra Building, iTV television stationand Thaksin's residence.

11.15pm Soldiers put steel barricades at Sri Ayudha and Rajdamnoen Roads
11.50pm ARC issues the second statement explaining the reasons for the coup d'etat, citing national disunity and rampant corruption. ARC says it plans to return power quickly to the people

12.39am ARC issues third statement, nullifying the constitution, the caretaker Cabinet and the Constitutional Court.

Chronology continues on Nation Website 

 

Tags: air, api, arc, art, ATT, Bangkok, blog, bridge, camera, capital, ces, emergency, explain, HP, ia, im, ITU, King, lan, LED, mobile, nasa, network, nomadcom.net, officer, Our World, phone, police, post, power, quickly, space, sun, Thailand, uk, vision, web, webcam, website, wp, www, XP

Thais celebrate the Sixtieth Anniversary Celebrations of His Majesty the King’s Accession to the Throne in 2006. The Royal Thai Navy conducted tonight a full dress rehearsal of the royal barge procession.

The grand procession involved 52 traditional-style barges, four of which are major royal barges — Suphannahongse, Anantanagaraj, Narai Songsuban H.M. King Rama IX, and Anekchatbhuchongse, 12 barges with animal figureheads and 36 smaller ceremonial barges. A total of 2,082 Navy officers from various units within the Royal Thai Navy will serve as oarsmen. (source TAT)

The grand procession actual performance will take place on monday 12th before monarchs and head of states from 29 nations from around the world will be joining Their Majesties the King and Queen as royal guests.  Most of pictures taken tonight are already on Nomadcom’s gallery. Enjoy !

 

 

Tags: access, animal, arc, asia, ces, CTU, dress, event, HP, ia, ict, im, King, lan, New pictures, officer, Our World, picture, space, Thailand, Travel, world, www