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Zebra 3 Report by Joe Anybody
Thursday, 18 August 2011
How much did it cost for all the police lawsuits in Portland Oregon
Mood:
 incredulous
Now Playing: Police Mistakes in Portland Total $6,867,525.32
Topic: POLICE
Top 25 Settlements: Portland Police Incidents settled 1993-2011 totalling rougly $6.9 million***
Note: Some amounts are settlements, other are jury awards or judgmentsName Amount Date settled Incident date Brief notes - Family of James Chasse, Jr.* $1,600,000.00 7/28/10 9/17/06 Use of force (leading to death)
- Protestors August 2002&May 2003 $845,000.00 12/1/04 8/22/02 Use of force (pepper spray)
- Family of Damon Lowery $600,000.00 6/25/05 12/5/99 Use of force (leading to death)
- Family of Raymond Gwerder $500,000.00 11/14/07 11/4/05 Shooting (died)
- Barbara& Ted Vickers, Estate of Dickie Dow $380,000.00 3/27/02 10/19/98 Wrongful death/Dickie Dow
- Family of James Jahar Perez* $350,359.00 9/3/08 3/28/04 Shooting (died)
- Daniel Thomas** $311,000.00 3/14/08&9/28/04 7/11/03 Use of force
- Bruce Browne $200,895.00 4/1/03 7/11/01 Shooting (lived)
- Family of Dennis Young* $200,000.00 10/8/08 1/4/06 Shooting (died)
- Maria-Janeth Rodriguez-Sanchez $177,161.41 12/2/05&8/3/05 4/8/03 Use of force
- Harold Hammick, Ri'Chard Booth & Alex Clay* $175,000.00 (jury) 9/23/09 3/17/07 Mistreatment (pointing guns and more)
- Family of Peter Gilbaugh* $150,000.00 10/1/02 12/31/98 Shooting (died)
- Barbara Weich $150,000.00 1/2/08 5/29/05 Use of force (broken arm)
- Eunice Crowder $145,000.00 4/23/04 6/9/03 Use of force (including Taser)
- Chaz Miller $133,926.06 6/21/06 4/21/03 Use of Force/wrong person arrested
- Gerald Gratton $118,000.00 4/4/94 7/19/93 Shooting (lived)
- Two women victims of Ofcr John Wood* $105,000.00 2/25/09 7/21/06 Use of force (broken arm)
- Ivory Spann $100,056.79 4/7/97 6/6/93 Force/Baton hits
- Family of Duane Anthony Shaw $100,000.00 10/25/95 9/14/93 Shooting (died)
- Johnny Senteno $96,975.23 12/30/94 8/21/93 Use of force/Arm broken by projectile
- Janice M Aichele (deceased) $90,000.00 11/7/96 10/6/94 Off-duty shooting (murder/suicide)
- Heather Bissell $88,385.83 9/23/05&8/17/05 4/30/03 Use of force/arrest
- Dalebert V Acelar and 3 others $87,000.00 6/16/99 10/17/97 Unlawful search/detention
- Shei'Meka Newmann* $82,000.00 4/14/11 (jury) 2/13/09 Use of force, false arrest, malicious prosecution
- Hung Mingh Tran* $81,766.00 1/30/11 11/24/07 Use of force (Taser)
Total $6,867,525.32 Sources: Portland Office of Risk Management, Portland Office of Management and Finance, Portland City Auditor's Office and various news agencies This chart should be published regularly by the City to let people know what police misconduct is costing the people of Portland. Sure, they can argue that in cases that were settled out of court they never admitted wrongdoing, but if they felt they had a sure chance to win, they'd defend their officers. The $6.8 million total for just these 25 cases does not include another $2.7 million paid out to over 200 other people from 1993-2011. With an average of at least $500,000 per year, the City could be paying for several civilian investigators to staff an independent police review board. Perhaps with ongoing external monitoring, the frequency of such cases would decline. As many cases after 2007 have not gone through the courts yet, we can compare the average annual totals for incidents between 1993 and 2001 ($382,000) and from 2002-June 2011 ($636,000)***** and see that the advent or Portland's "Independent" Police Review Division in 2002 has done little to slow the lawsuits or the misconduct that generates them, and in fact it may be that more people are turning to the courts rather than using the civilian complaint system (see PPR #44, May 2008). --16 of the top 25 are incidents that occurred since 2002, when the IPR began operating; 8 of the top 25 are payments made since January 2008. --Some of the amounts shown include the City's legal expenses, making them appear higher than the settlements alone. But since this expense comes back to you, the taxpayer, we feel all expenses should be included when known. For example, Heather Bissell's case settled for $50,000 but the figure above includes $38,000+ in city expenses.
Notes:
*-new info or new settlement/judgment since April, 2008
**-Daniel Thomas' case ended with a judgment in March, 2008 of $100,000, but the city closed out his original claim with $91,746.53 in city legal expenses. The total reported payout including attorney's fees was $311,000 (Oregonian, 12/10/09)
***The total of the top 25 up to 2005 was $3.6 million; in April 2008 it was $4.5 million
****Ladd was beaten by off-duty officers, but on-duty cops acted to cover up the beating
We use the term "settlement" loosely to cover settlements, judgments, and other payouts by the city to cover the costs of police misconduct.
*****Portland Copwatch has incomplete data for 2008-2011 but hopes to update this information soon.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 8:46 PM PDT
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
VETERANS FOR PEACE NATIONIAL CONVENTION
Mood:
 chatty
Now Playing: Thurs - Fri - Sat - Sun - Come One Come All
Topic: WAR
PORTLAND OREGON VETERANS FOR PEACE NATIONIAL CONVENTION ALL MY VIDEOS ARE BEING POSTED ON INDYMEDIA FROM THIS EVENT http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2011/08/409645.shtml Veterans For Peace annual convention - 2011 - at Portland State Univ, Portland, OR. Opening Reception tonight, 5 pm - 7 pm (Wednesday, Aug 3) at Poolside, University Place Hotel, 310 SW Lincoln St. Opening Plenary Thursday, 10:30 am -12:30 pm, Lincoln Hall Auditorium, 1620 SW Park Ave betw Market & Mill & hear radical prof Robt Jensen, "Notes on revolution, revelation and redemption." Come one, Come all. Help support VFP http://www.vfpnationalconvention.org/ ============================================ JOE ANYBODY VETERAN RELATED VIDEO ARCHIVE
============================================== http://www.joe-anybody.com/id123.html Veterans For Peace ======================================= http://www.joe-anybody.com/id117.html IVAW Seattle ======================================= http://www.joe-anybody.com/id122.html IVAW Portland ======================================= http://www.joe-anybody.com/id79.html War resisting page ========================================
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 2:42 PM PDT
Updated: Thursday, 18 August 2011 8:48 PM PDT
Thursday, 21 July 2011
CNET web tool suggestions for social media users
Mood:
 special
Now Playing: web tools - worth knowing about sooner or latter
Topic: MEDIA
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/07/20/useful.apps.sites.tools/index.html 50 new tech tools you may have missed| | By Victor Hernandez, CNN July 20, 2011 |
50 new tech tools you may have missed(CNN) -- Technology can make your life easier, but figuring out which tech tools to trust can be tiresome at the least and eye-poppingly stressful at worst. To help, here's a list of 50 recently released or updated websites and apps that will make your mobile photos look better, improve your online social life and boost your productivity. This list is by no means all-inclusive, so feel free to tell us about your favorite tech tools in the comments section or on Twitter. We're @cnntech. Google Plus (free): It's too soon to tell whether Google's latest social network is social media's new king of the hill. However, one thing's for sure: The initial user reviews are very positive, and the strong bundling of social innovations make Google Plus -- often described as "Google's Facebook" -- worth the test drive. Google Plus Nickname (free): Now that you've jumped in the Plus-pool, time to head over to Gplus.to for your own personalized URL. Facebook-Skype (free): Made official last week at Mark Zuckerberg's recent announcement at Facebook headquarters, the service isn't yet available for all users. Users take advantage of the video-calling feature via Facebook without having to install any software. Some are criticizing the service for falling short of the Google+ hangout feature, where users can join group video calls up to 10 people. Facebook's video chat is only one-on-one. Tout (free): Virtually no one had heard of this micro-video service until Shaquille O'Neal used it to recently announce his retirement from pro basketball. After garnering more half a million views in three hours, Tout had arrived with a splash, thanks to the larger-than-life hoops superstar. Capture 15-second videos and instantly share with family and friends. Downside: A Flash player is required to watch videos (sorry, iPad users). Capture (99 cents): If you have kids and love recording those "first-moments," this app is probably worth considering. Once you install Capture, tap the app, and it starts recording video immediately. Once you're done, the video goes straight to your camera roll. No more missing moments by a split second. Broadcastr (free): You bring the audio and plot the journey. Broadcastr weaves the story. This new social media platform enables the recording, organizing, listening and sharing of audio content on a map-based interface. Also works as great discovery tool for exploring personal and historical stories in new places. Available for iPhone and Android. Turntable.fm (free): The service combines music-streaming, chat rooms and voting, all through a Facebook portal. Friends either vote up (awesome) your tunes or they go the other direction (lame). Whether or not you're a big music fan, this product is very hip and very addictive. Spotify (free/paid): After years of drooling with envy, music fans on the U.S. side of the pond now get a chance to stream with Spotify. The extremely popular music service in Europe finally soft-launched last week in the U.S. For the first time, major record companies in the U.S. have embraced an online music service that lets people play the songs of their choice for free. Instagr.am (free): The good times just keep on rolling for the social photo sharing service -- after all, how many Web companies can boast more millions of users than individual employees? Five-plus million users and growing for the service, which remains available only for Apple iPhone. Instagram has done for bad cell phone pics what GPS navigation did for confused motorists. If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, the spinoffs and third-party apps are lining up. Followgram.me (free): This Web app helps offset one of Instagram's primary limitations: no official website for users to log in, view and readily share photos. Followgram creates an Instagram follow button to be embedded on websites and blogs. Followgram also provides its users with a vanity URL, his/her photo gallery, friends, followers and following lists. Moreover, a Followgram user's page is fully customizable. Webstagram (free): Another simple, aesthetically pleasing Web interface for viewing your Instagram photos as well as your Instagram peeps. Postagram (99 cents): Makes it easy to send Instagram, Facebook and mobile phone photos as real postcards from your iPhone, iPod touch or Android phone. Imagine that: Photos that you can actually hold in your hands! Keepsy ($29.99): Not able to view, print and share your Instagram portfolio? Not a problem with Keepsy: customize and order photo albums. Tumblr iPhone 2.0 (free): The upgrade offers valuable upgrades: There's a new interface, it's easier than ever to create posts, it's much easier to reply to messages, there's address book integration, and now new users can begin building inside the mobile app. Tumblr has begun distancing itself from other micro-blogging publishing sites and now has a mobile experience that matches its Web version. Klout (free): The days of measuring one's social media reach simply by number of followers, friends or connections is ancient history. Web tools like Klout are starting to measure the influence you have over your digital minions. Empire Ave (free): It bills itself as the Social Stock Market, where you can grow your social capital online. Here's how it works: You discover people online and then based on scores or share price invest virtual currency in their profiles by buying shares in the Social Stock Market. After a bit, you'll get used to the weirdness of having strangers bid "social shares" on your "social wares." Sounds kooky, but all the cool kids are doing it. Sonar (free): This app is kind of like a good party host: It introduces you to whoever else is in the room by leveraging what you have in common. Ease of use for navigating who's nearby and how to virtually connect with them makes this location-based app a must-have. Available for the iPhone. Bizzy (free): A Web and mobile service for personalized local business recommendations. Bizzy recently updated its iPhone and Android apps to introduce a "Check Out" feature. Users can now check out to leave short, emoticon-style reviews of venues on their way out the door. The Bizzy venue checkout is meant to be the opposite of the check-in, which we've seen in a slew of applications, from Foursquare to Facebook Places. Crowdbeacon (free): Craving the best sushi joint around, and prefer human interaction over indexed user reviews? Crowdbeacon can help. Crowdsourcing your social life, this is a location-based service focused on providing relevant, localized communication and information to users based on what they need and where they are. Apptitude (free): This is a bit stalkerish, but for those curious about the Facebook apps your friends are using (and when they're using them), check out this iPhone app. Then feel free to razz your friends over how much time they're really spending on Farmville! Shortmail (free): The Twitter effect. This app doesn't limit your emails to famous 140 characters. Instead, it forces brevity and concise thoughts via 500 characters. Let's face it, who isn't drowning in e-mail overload these days? It's unclear whether Shortmail will catch on ... but we can all dream, right? Visualize.me (free): Standard formatted resumes just aren't cool anymore. You know what's cool? Infographic resumes. This site provides a creative way of getting your foot in the door at the workplace you so covet. Visualize.me is set to launch later this month to beta invitees, then the public in August. Gabacus (paid): Navigating the massive Twitter firehouse is nearly impossible without a little help. Gabacus makes sense of the millions of tweets per day by summarizing and curating the topics you're interested in. Regator (free/paid): Another tool that helps you easily find, read and share high-quality blog posts about things that interest you. It is available on the Web and iPhone. Rather than automatically fetching every blog under the sun, Regator uses qualified human editors to carefully select the most relevant, useful, well-written blogs across 500-plus topics. Getaround (fees): Isn't it time you took advantage of your ride as it sits in the driveway or parking lot? This mobile app (currently only available in select cities) turns you into Enterprise Rental or Hertz by letting you loan out your car when it's not in use. Renters access your vehicle via an iPhone app after terms are agreed upon. Do@ (free): Do@ doesn't index pages. Instead, it shows live sites or apps that have been optimized for mobile presentation. It's similar to Google's preview functionality for mobile, but all the pages on do@ are live and not cached. NASA (free): The NASA app for iPhone and iPad has been around for a couple years, but the Android version just hit the Marketplace. It offers a huge collection of NASA content, including images, videos on demand, NASA TV, mission info and social media extensions. Definitely worth a look for all space nuts! Twylah (free): Showcase your tweets in a more complete narrative story. Super-easy to use and a much better storefront for your Twitter brand than the somewhat wonky Twitter stream. SkinScan ($4.99): This app helps you analyze and keep an archive of moles on you or members of your family, for later review and comparison of the results. SkinScan displays several disclaimers that the app is to be used for strictly informational purposes, but it's nonetheless pretty interesting to see how personal tech is impacting everyday health concerns. Formulists (free): By far the easiest way to create and manage Twitter Lists. This application lets you organize Twitter into smart, auto-updating Twitter lists: filter based on location/bio keywords, Twitter activity and more. FreeTime (free): Wondering where your day went? FreeTime can help. Using nothing more than the calendar on your smartphone, this productivity app finds time between your events. Powerful filtering allows you to locate your free time in any setting. Redbox (free): More and more movie watchers are turning to services like Redbox. This simple mobile app helps narrow down where the nearest rental kiosk is located via GPS, find out whether they have your desired flick in stock and if you chose to register, can even reserve the DVD. Don't forget the buttered popcorn. Appstart (free): Seconds after you've removed your shiny new iPad from the box, this is without a doubt the first app you should download. It's a great starter assistant for finding relevant applications based on your tastes. Evernote (free/paid): One of the most acclaimed productivity apps around. Evernote boasts a suite of software and services designed for note taking and archiving. A "note" can be a piece of formattable text, a full Web page or an excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo or a handwritten "ink" note. Notes can also have file attachments. Evernote Peek (free): Flash cards for the digital generation! Peek is the first Smart Cover learning app. Connect Peek to your Evernote account and brush up on a language, make flashcards for a quiz or test yourself based on your Evernote contents. Photos 3D for FB (free): It's a 3-D photo viewer for Facebook. In this app you can easily browse, comment, share photos and so on. You've never viewed photos like this. FavFriends (free): Who doesn't need help breaking through the Facebook friend clutter? This service provides real-time notifications when a favorite Facebook friend posts a new status. Also you can sleep better knowing you'll never miss a friend who checked in somewhere when you were nearby at the same time. Katango (free): Personal crowd control! This messaging app for the iPhone automatically groups together your contacts by life stage or activity. So groupings will include family members, high school friends, college buddies, co-workers and so forth. The application plucks out your address book contacts and Facebook friends and organizes these folks into groups based on patterns of previous social interactions. You can then tweak the groups to your liking and start sending photos or messages to particular groups. Peel (free): This app is a handy little guide to point TV fanatics in the right direction for what's on the air. New hardware upgrades offer universal remote control option for all of your television/audio home equipment ($99). Twicsy (free): View top Twitter picture trends and popular pictures. This app is functional and easy to use. It's beginning to stand out in the Twitter photo space. Pixable (free/paid): It's no secret that photos are by far the most-shared pieces of content of Facebook. To that end, it ain't easy keeping up with the piles of pics. This app for iPhone, iPad and Web pushes the most commented, tagged and shared pics to the top of your radar. True HDR ($1.99): Create full-resolution HDR (high dynamic range) pictures on your iPhone (4, 3GS), iPod Touch (4G) or iPad (2). iMotion HD (free/paid): An intuitive and easy to use time-lapse and stop-motion app for iOS devices. Take pictures, edit your movie and export HD 720p videos to your device or directly to YouTube. iPhone SLR Mount ($249): Size matters! This case-adapter combo lets you mount your Canon EOS or Nikon SLR lenses to your iPhone 4, giving your phone powerful depth of field and manual focus. Telephoto, wide angle, macro or your fixed-50 lenses all attach to this mount, giving you a full range of lenses at your iPhone-lovin' fingertips. (Note: also available for iPhone 3GS for $190) Piictu (free): Think of this app as a scavenger hunt with cell phone pics. A simple way to talk and play with your friends from your mobile phone using pictures. You simply snap a pic and post it to Piictu and your social networks, and watch it get live picture responses from your friends and community at large. Flixlab (free): Create professional style movies in seconds with Flixlab, a mobile application available for iPhone, coming soon to Android and Windows Phone 7. Also allow friends to keep the creative fun going with the option to "remix" your movies. |
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 5:16 AM PDT
Updated: Thursday, 21 July 2011 12:47 PM PDT
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Liberating America From Wall Street and Big Banks
Mood:
 energetic
Now Playing: This sound worthwhile & possible - "Dump Wall Street"
Topic: FAILURE by the GOVERNMENT
Six Ways to Liberate America From Wall Street RuleWednesday 20 July 2011  New York Stock Exchange, Wall Street. (Photo: kainet) How is it that our nation is awash in money, but too broke to provide jobs and services? David Korten introduces a landmark new report, "How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule." The dominant story of the current political debate is that the government is broke. We can’t afford to pay for public services, put people to work, or service the public debt. Yet as a nation, we are awash in money. A defective system of money, banking, and finance just puts it in the wrong places. Raising taxes on the rich and implementing financial reforms are essential elements of the solution to our seemingly intractable fiscal and economic crisis. Yet proposals currently on the table fall far short of the need. A newly released report of the New Economy Working Group, coordinated by the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, goes beyond the current debate to call for a deep restructuring of the institutions to which we as a society give the power to create and allocate money. How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule spells out the steps required to rebuild a system of community-based and accountable institutions devoted to financing productive activities that create good jobs for Americans and generate real community wealth. Despite the financial crash of 2008, the financial assets of America’s billionaires and the idle cash of the most profitable corporations are now at historic highs. Their biggest challenge is figuring out where to park all their cash.Over the past 30 years, virtually all the benefit of U.S. economic growth has gone to the richest 1 percent of Americans. Effective tax rates for the very rich are at historic lows and many of the most profitable corporations pay no taxes at all. Corporations are using their stores of cash primarily to buy back their own stock, acquire control of other companies, invest in off-shoring yet more American jobs, and pay generous dividends to shareholders and outsized bonuses to management.Unfortunately, most of those who hold the cash and the corporations they control have lost interest in long-term investments that build and expand strong enterprises. The substantial majority of trades in financial markets are made by high-speed computers in securities held for fractions of a second. Business pundits still refer to this trading as investment. It bears no resemblance, however, to the investment required to put people to work rebuilding a strong America. Help fight ignorance. Click here for daily Truthout email updates. It was not always so. In response to the Great Depression, our country enacted financial reforms that put in place a system of money, banking, and investment based on community banks, mutual savings and loans, and credit unions. These institutions provided financial services to local Main Street economies that employed Americans to produce and trade real goods and services in response to community needs and opportunities. This system, which Wall Street interests dismiss as quaint and antiquated, financed the U.S. victory in World War II, the creation of a strong American middle class, an unprecedented period of economic stability and prosperity, and the investments that made America the world’s undisputed industrial and technological leader. The consequences include the erosion of the middle class, an extreme concentration of wealth and power, a costly financial collapse, persistent high unemployment, housing foreclosures, collapsing environmental systems, the hollowing out of U.S. industrial, technological, and research capacity, huge public and international trade deficits, and the corruption of our political institutions.In the 1970’s Wall Street interests began pushing a deregulation agenda that led to a transfer of financial power from Main Street to Wall Street. Wall Street’s mega-banks lost interest in real investment and developed a new business model. They now specialize in charging excessive fees and usurious interest rates, providing leverage to speculators, speculating for their own accounts, luring the unwary into mortgages they cannot afford, bundling junk mortgages to sell them as triple-A securities, betting against the clients to whom they sell the overrated securities, extracting subsidies and bailouts from government, laundering money from drug and arms traders, and offshoring their profits to avoid taxes. Wall Street profited at every step and declared its experiment with deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy a great success. It now argues for extending the same measures even further. How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule spells out details of a six-part policy agenda to rebuild a sensible system of community-based and accountable financial services institutions. - Break up the mega-banks and implement tax and regulatory policies that favor community financial institutions, with a preference for those organized as cooperatives or as for-profits owned by nonprofit foundations.
- Establish state-owned partnership banks in each of the 50 states, patterned after the Bank of North Dakota. These would serve as depositories for state financial assets to use in partnership with community financial institutions to fund local farms and businesses.
- Restructure the Federal Reserve to function under strict standards of transparency and public scrutiny, with General Accounting Office audits and Congressional oversight.
- Direct all new money created by the Federal Reserve to a Federal Recovery and Reconstruction Bank rather than the current practice of directing it as a subsidy to Wall Street banks. The FRRB would have a mandate to fund essential green infrastructure projects as designated by Congress.
- Rewrite international trade and investment rules to support national ownership, economic self-reliance, and economic self-determination.
- Implement appropriate regulatory and fiscal measures to secure the integrity of financial markets and the money/banking system.
How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule is the product of extended discussions among representatives of a diverse group of organizations committed to deepening and reframing the conversation on financial reform to focus attention on the serious financial system restructuring required to build a strong new American economy adequate to the social and environmental challenges of the 21st century. It may be freely shared, reproduced and distributed with appropriate citations. Click here to read the report.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 5:37 PM PDT
Updated: Thursday, 21 July 2011 12:50 PM PDT
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
In These Times of Me First and Going Underground
Mood:
chatty
Now Playing: The Media Underground Idea
Topic: ANYBODY * ANYDAY
Friday, April 22. 2011 If you visit here often you've probably noticed it's been real quiet for a while.
I mean, it's not like there's nothing going on in the world that can't be commented on, it's just that I've stopped caring and have come to the conclusion that it's impossible to determine exactly what's really taking place since all media is propaganda in one form or another.
That's what the internet has become. That's what people have created. It's gotten old and dull to me.
Basically, the web is saturated in so much shit, and bombards you with so much unverifiable information, that I no longer care or take any interest.
The world is going to hell in a hand basket, and quite frankly, it's pointless highlighting the obvious when nothing I say or do here will change anything anyway. So my advice is to look after No.1, detach yourself from all of it, and go spend some time with the people you love and care about.
These days it's all Facebook and Twitter and everyone has something to say but little of it worth taking an interest in. In other words, it's all about ego and displaying how popular you are and who you're connected to.
I tire of people's self-centredness real quick!
If you want to network socially with people then have a barbeque, or go to the pub and interact with people in person. Maybe grow some vegetables, enjoy a nice meal together, or embark on a project with like-minded individuals. In other words, quit wasting your time online, that's what everyone is doing and it's unimaginative to be like everyone else.
If you're unhappy about the political environment, or pissed at the current financial meltdown, then take to the streets.
Join a protest group, throw a brick through a window, or take a dump on the floor of your local financial institution. Blogging about it will achieve nothing but taking action will send a clear message.
The era of the browser is over for me. The Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that we've all come to accept as "the internet" is dead. The future of the internet lies perhaps in the old protocols and most definitely in more modern ones such as BitTorrent.
Perhaps the rediscovery and use of protocols like Telnet or FTP is where Media Underground will go in the future, reopening long forgotten communication portals and doing so with the latest technology.
This site has never been about popularity, or advertising, or making money. Media Underground was setup primarily for the exchange of information and at its peak a few years ago, it achieved that and more. But times change and methods need to be readjusted.
It's time the underground went underground.
If you have any ideas about how we go about this then email me before I quit using IMAP, POP3 and SMTP as well (due to the constant influx of spam-saturated bullshit).
Humanity ruins everything that becomes popular. Email and browser-based interactions are now highly inefficient, clogged up, and deeply uninspiring.
The modern internet is about selling you products, and I don't like products.
The modern internet is about selling you as a product, and I don't want to be prostituted.
The modern internet is about popularity, and I despise popularity.
So, let's move forward. If we're going to continue we need to distance ourselves from the methods that everyone else is using.
Let's become unpopular. Let's go underground. media-underground.net
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 12:01 AM PDT
Updated: Thursday, 21 July 2011 12:51 PM PDT
Sunday, 26 June 2011
F the Wars protest - video set from 6.24.11 in Portland Oregon
Mood:
chatty
Now Playing: F Wars - Stop the f -ing Wars protest - every Friday at 4PM
Topic: PROTEST!
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 11:21 AM PDT
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Capitalist Corporate Big Brother Censorship - Apple's Video Kill Switch
Mood:
 don't ask
Now Playing: Apple's Strike Against Free Speech - Kill Switch for Camera Phones
Topic: MEDIA
So you think you control your smartphone? Think again. Late last week reports uncovered a plan by Apple, manufacturer of the iPhone, to patent technology that can detect when people are using their phone cameras and shut them down. Apple says this technology was intended to stop people from recording video at live concerts, which should worry the creative commons crowd. But a remote "kill switch" has far more sinister applications in the hands of repressive governments. And it further raises concerns about the power new media companies hold over our right to connect and communicate. Imagine if Apple's device had been available to the Mubarak regime earlier this year, and Egyptian security forces had deployed it around Tahrir Square to disable cameras just before they sent in their thugs to disperse the crowd. Would the global outcry that helped drive Mubarak from office have occurred if a blackout of protest videos had prevented us from viewing the crackdown? What would we know of Neda had it not been for one witness holding up a cellphone? This is more than speculation. Thousands of people across the Middle East and North Africa have used cellphone cameras to document human rights abuses and share them with millions via social media. In a February speech, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton credited the viral spread of a cellphone video depicting the shooting death of a young Iranian woman named Neda for bringing world attention to the human rights abuses of the regime. What would we know of Neda's shocking death had Iranian security forces disabled that camera? Social Media's Wild West But here's the rub. The First Amendment and Article 19 of the U.N.'s Declaration on Human Rights don't really apply to the corporations that build these cellphones and run these social networks. Free speech rules don't apply to Silicon Valley. And while platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr might enable individual expression more than governments do, many governments are at least accountable by law for protecting your right to speech and assembly. The social networks are only beholden to their terms of service, which in most cases extend them the power to take down your communications "for any or no reason." That's why Flickr got away with taking down the photographs and files of Egyptian security officers, which were posted by a local activist wanting to draw attention to their crimes. That's why Amazon.com could kick Wikileaks off its hosting platform after it released a series of diplomatic cables that exposed abuses of power by American agents. And that's why Facebook could shut down the pages of any anonymous political protester who decides to use the network to build a community of like-minded activists. Rochester: Where using a cellphone camera will get you arrested "Hosting your political movement on YouTube is a little like trying to hold a rally in a shopping mall. It looks like a public space, but it's not," writes Ethan Zuckerman of Harvard's Berkman Center. "Even if YouTube's rulers take their function as a free speech platform seriously and work to ensure you've got rights to post content, they're a benevolent despot, not a representative government." A Pre-emptive Strike What Apple is proposing to develop is worse in many ways. Its cellphone camera kill switch can be used as a pre-emptive strike against free speech. In its patent application, Apple describes the technology as making it impossible to capture video or pictures at events where cameras and video recorders are prohibited. Your phone determines whether an image includes an infrared beam with encoded data. This data is sent from an emitter that directs the cellphone or a similar device to shut down image capture. Disabling emitters could be mounted on stages, throughout public squares or, conceivably, on police helmets. While the technology might not be available now, the grave consequences of its use far outweigh any worry Apple and its entertainment industry allies have about video piracy. More than ten thousand people have already signed a letter imploring Apple CEO Steve Jobs to pull the plug on this technology. Smartphones like the iPhone and Droid are becoming extensions of ourselves. They are not simply tools to connect with friends and family, but a means to document the world around us, engage in political issues and organize with others. They literally put the power of the media in our own hands. Apple's proposed technology would take that power away. As the Campaign Director for Free Press and SavetheInternet.com, Karr oversees campaigns on public broadcasting and noncommercial media, fake news and propaganda, journalism in crisis, and the future of the Internet. Before joining Free Press, Tim served as executive director of MediaChannel.org and vice president of Globalvision New Media and the Globalvision News Network.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 5:38 AM PDT
Monday, 13 June 2011
Intel Foxconn and workers lives are on the line 2011
Mood:
 accident prone
Now Playing: Foxconn - working conditions in China
Topic: CORPORATE CRAP
12 June 2011 | Angeline Albert http://www.supplymanagement.com/news/2011/foxconn-comes-under-the-scrutiny-of-intel/
Intel’s supply chain executives are working with supplier Foxconn to help improve working conditions at a factory in China.In 2010, 10 employees committed suicide at the Shenzhen facility. News of the deaths prompted Intel to conduct an analysis of what had happened and an on-site audit. Foxconn, which is part of Taiwanese-owned Hon Hai Industries, makes motherboards for Intel. Intel’s 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report said: “Like many other companies in our industry that work with this supplier, Intel was deeply concerned about this tragic situation. Executives from our supply chain organisation have been in continuing discussions with Foxconn’s senior management, and we have offered them our assistance in the form of human resources staff expertise and other general support.” Intel joined the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition’s (EICC) employee health and welfare taskforce to conduct an audit on-site to identify both major and minor areas of non-compliance to the EICC code of conduct which the company has signed up to. This code covers labour, health and safety, environment, management systems and ethics. More than 40 global IT companies and their suppliers are part of the EICC. Intel’s audits revealed that the most common breaches of compliance in 2010 were in the areas of health and safety (including emergency preparedness), labour and working hours. The report said: “In 2011, we will further monitor the issues identified in the audit to ensure that progress continues to be made.” Overall, the group completed 172 in-depth risk assessments of supplier facilities in 2010 (up from 74 in 2009). Areas identified as potentially high risk included employee issues, such as child labour and excessive working hours.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 12:01 PM PDT
Whistle Blowers, Bradley Manning and Government Coverups
Mood:
 irritated
Now Playing: Governement protects its own - mo accountability
Topic: FAILURE by the GOVERNMENT
People who leak state crimes are always insiders who have no other way to find justice for the crimes the state is committing. The state is not going to prosecute itself, the state is going to try to protect itself and insulate itself from liability and seek immunity for war crimes. The same is true for corporations and any powerful entity. It is near impossible to correct corruption from the inside if the entire branch or department or entire entity is operating from the grounds of corruption, often corrupt leaders at the tops. These people can only take the case to the public through journalists and publishers because complaints to superiors can lead to a dangerous dead end. This kind of leak is what we refer to as whistle blowing. Just like it sounds, the person is blowing the whistle and asking for intervention by the public, the media, and any interested parties or organizations. http://www.presstorm.com/2011/06/fair-trial-for-bradley-manning-not-likely/
Published By Venus On Saturday, June 4th 2011 Written by: Venus on June 4, 2011.
There is a big difference between leaking state secrets and leaking state crimes. Those who leak state secrets are usually going after monetary gain, character assassination, or any number of self serving interests. These are people like Scooter Libby and Karl Rove who leaked the identity of a US spy, Valerie Plame, because her husband made a comment against the war in Iraq (although Libby nor Rove were never charged with this crime). In this case, those who leaked her identity were not fully prosecuted because US officials don’t prosecute themselves. The journalist apparently did not know she was a spy and faced no charges, but did cooperate in the so called investigation. See original article Novak wrote here. When criminal justice failed, the Plame’s filed civil suit against Libby, Rove, Cheney, and Armitage (who took public credit for her ousting) but that case was dismissed. Bradley Manning is accused of transferring classified material to Wikileaks for publishing. What may have been what we know as the Collateral Murder video in which 2 Reuters journalists were gunned down and killed by helicopter fire in Iraq, among others. This was the first initial accusation that was believed to have been leaked by Manning. The material here is not at all sensitive in the sense that military operations are time sensitive. Therefore, this video really never belonged in classified status anyway. (military secrets are kept before and during an operation- not after it is over) Furthermore, it illustrates quite clearly state crimes. If you are not familiar with the rules of engagement in battle for US soldiers see it here. This means Bradley Manning leaked state crimes, not state secrets. People who leak state crimes are always insiders who have no other way to find justice for the crimes the state is committing. The state is not going to prosecute itself, the state is going to try to protect itself and insulate itself from liability and seek immunity for war crimes. The same is true for corporations and any powerful entity. It is near impossible to correct corruption from the inside if the entire branch or department or entire entity is operating from the grounds of corruption, often corrupt leaders at the tops. These people can only take the case to the public through journalists and publishers because complaints to superiors can lead to a dangerous dead end. This kind of leak is what we refer to as whistle blowing. Just like it sounds, the person is blowing the whistle and asking for intervention by the public, the media, and any interested parties or organizations. This case became entangled in public prosecution and pre-trial media guilty verdicts when alleged chats between Bradley Manning and Adrian Lamo were made public. We cannot authenticate these chats, but they do something very dangerous in this case. These alleged chats would attach Manning to the leaking of the State Dept. Cables. The problem is people are treating the chat logs as if they are legitimate when we don’t know anything about them, other than they were produced by former hacker Adrian Lamo. Wired, the Washington Post, and Adrian Lamo refuse to release the chat logs in full to the public, leading some to question journalistic integrity. See more about the chats here. See more about Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com criticism of those who possess the chat logs in full here. As if this were not bad enough, prominent public figures actually called for Manning to be executed long before the accused faced a court room. (House Intelligence Committee Mike Rogers, former Gov. of Arkansas Mike Huckabee) The leaking of the State Department Diplomatic Cables is another matter entirely, which legally could fall under state secrets. Like it or not, these people schmooze with officials in other nations in an effort to collect information and form some kind of relationship. Even if those leaders are horrible dictators. As a journalist, these are an excellent source for the whole world to benefit from, and it is in the public interest to publish these and bring understanding to them. We appreciate the valuable work of diplomats. There are a few that border upon state crimes. If any diplomat was committing crimes then we go back to Manning as a whistle blower. This makes the task of delving into the cables and identifying state crimes extremely important, at least for the defense. With President Barack Obama along with everyone else in official capacity beating the drum of his guilt, there will be no fair trial. Julian Assange said fairly accurately: “we cannot stop publishing because someone takes a hostage,”
in his PBS interview. I agree. Bradley Manning is a whistle blower, and should be treated as such. Instead of impeaching fraudulent officials and charging them with war crimes, the state has decided to make an example out of a single soldier of conscience.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 11:31 AM PDT
Updated: Monday, 13 June 2011 12:05 PM PDT
Video Conferencing - Is your Network Ready
Mood:
 suave
Now Playing: 7 Ways to Preparing Your Network
Topic: MEDIA
Seven Ways to Prepare Your Network for Videoconferencing http://www.shoretel.com/about/newsroom/newsletter/Seven_Ways_to_Prepare_Your_Network_for_Videoconferencing_.html?utm_source=eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_id=&utm_campaign= Seven Ways to Prepare Your Network for Videoconferencing More workers are embracing desktop video and videoconferencing as they become accustomed to visual communications. Video and collaboration tools can lift the burden of distance, allowing people in different offices to collaborate as if they were in the same room. Workers can manage their real-time communications and move seamlessly between voice, video and instant messaging as needed. With easy-to-use integrated collaboration tools, organizations can cut travel costs and improve productivity. Accustomed to high-definition television and streaming media, workers have high expectations for quality video experiences in the office. Proper planning and preparation can help organizations avoid surprises when deploying IP voice and video and ensure a quality user experience. Workers want high-quality video, and without the proper preparation, organizations can slow the adoption of an important productivity tool for today’s distributed workforce. Here are seven considerations to prepare your organization’s network for IP video and voice.
- Real-time communications are not forgiving. First and foremost, unified communications and collaboration (UCC) applications take place in real time. Unlike an email exchange or downloading a file from a server, where the time between sending and receiving the message is of little consequence, a phone or video call is highly sensitive to network latency, packet loss and jitter. Distance on the WAN circuit can also cause delays, which can ultimately interrupt the conversation flow. Make sure the delay, packet loss and jitter are below the acceptable thresholds for voice and video. Otherwise, users can experience interruptions or dropped connections.
- Does your network infrastructure have the design and capacity to support real-time communications? Most organizations have designed their networks to support data communications between users and centralized servers. But with voice and video, the communications patterns become a mesh, rather than a hub-and-spoke, as people in different offices communicate directly with each other. Video is bandwidth-hungry and can consume 10 times more bandwidth than a typical data transmission. That may mean upgrading the campus network to use modern, high-performance switches. And it will likely mean using high-performance Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) connections for the WAN.
- Quality of service is important. Many organizations use virtual LANs (VLANs) to segment voice traffic in their campus networks. But for a multi-site deployment with voice and video, using quality of service (QoS) across the entire LAN/WAN can make a big difference in the user experience. With QoS, voice and video traffic can be given priority access to the network bandwidth over less sensitive traffic, such as email, backup or Web surfing. It’s also helpful to allocate a specified amount of bandwidth per link to support the anticipated number of simultaneous voice or video calls. Using QoS can also help prevent packet loss and jitter for real-time applications, which will deliver a better user experience.
- Is the WAN connection to branch offices sufficient? Many organizations use Internet VPNs as an affordable connection for small branch offices. However, the performance can be unpredictable, which makes it unsuitable for supporting voice and video. Consider deploying MPLS to branch offices.
- What’s your plan for network resiliency? With essential voice and video communications on the network, a best practice is to install redundant WAN connections between critical sites to ensure that an unplanned network outage doesn’t disrupt communication.
- What’s your security plan? Strong security supports high availability of the overall system. And while cybercriminals have shown little interest in attacking UCC, it’s important to have protection. Using internal firewalls or session border controllers will give you protection.
- Consider adding WAN optimization controllers. WAN optimization appliances can also improve overall application performance for a medium or large multi-site organization. These appliances use a variety of compression and caching techniques that can effectively increase the capacity of the WAN links—and make room for real-time communications.
Resources Download the whitepaper, “Is Your Network Ready for IP Telephony?” Learn more about ShoreTel Implementation Services.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 5:40 AM PDT
Updated: Thursday, 21 July 2011 12:52 PM PDT
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30 Comments so far
Show AllAnother reason not to buy Apple. I have been peripherally involved with Apple on and off for years and I can tell you that there exists no company on the planet, Microsoft included, that wants to control your experience and YOU more than Apple. Their vision of the electronic world will have you making micro-payments to them in one form or another for every video, every song, every transaction. All they want is a penny a transaction.... from everyone on the planet... every day.
Apple stuff is cool and it is good, but you end up a Lotus Eater in the end if you go down their path.
Apple is proving to be quite a fascist operation.
Operating under the guise of "coolness" (er, like Obama the Murderer) both are proving to be more dubious by the day. Get the kids and you've got the future.
"Get the kids and you've got the future."
Hitler couldn't have said it better. Come to think of it, he did!
So did Loyola. Oops, Stalin, too.
"Get the kids and you've got the future."
Hitler couldn't have said it better. Come to think of it, he did!
So did Loyola. Oops, Stalin, too.
But this article uses Apple as a starting point. The whole elctronic internet is basically the private property of the web hosting and server owners - and the US First Amandment or the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not apply for practical purposes on private property. To see the significance - try exercising you first amendment rights by holding a demonstration or passing out leaflets in a shopping mall.
Excesive reliance on the internet is potentially very dangerous for organized activism. It needs to be backed-up by traditional organizing methods - posters, flyers, portable electronic media and phone-trees using ordinary copper-wire land lines - which are still covered by common-carrier and state public utility comission laws, and therefore to some degree, public space. Also, mass organizing will continue to remain far more effectvie in urban spaces - where public spaces exist. Mobilizing suburban spaces - especially the outer sprawling sun-belt style suburbs, will always be very difficult.
Good points pjd. All of them.
One electronic "alternative", still in its infancy, is Wire. Link at: ( http://wire.0xf.nl ) Right now its merely a shell. I log on here and there to see what updates have been added and whatnot. I think it will be interesting to watch grow at the very least and could be very useful to activists in the near future.
It offers service based on the originator's servers or the source code is open source and available for download to be tweaked as you wish and hosted on your own servers. It won't get the publicity face book does. But, with everything you mentioned why would anyone really want that anyway?
Very well said. Apple is to Microsoft as Democrats are to Republicans.
We see it again and again. Capitalism starts out with new ideas and technologies spread between innovative companies. Then, over time, thanks to mergers and acquisitions, we end up with a few 'too big to fail' companies and very few choices. Next, Big Companies and Big Government become interchangeable.
In addition to this, the amount of meaningful innovation that Apple is responsible for is basically zero. They make good (often excellent) products that people buy, and sometimes popularize some marginally interesting technology, but they've invented nothing.
I am not aware that Apple makes anything. Most of their garbage comes from Foxconn, who makes much better and cheaper things without the Apple label on them.
They make the software and the "design", the "intellectual property". A typical "hollow corporation", you're right about that.
Well, as long as you feel safe, that's all that matters. Will you ever feel safe enough?
well, the camera is good for documenting abuse, but doesn't really do much regarding stopping the abuse...
our technological window is closing, as the natural world is losing the ability to support...
soon, we will be back to watching cops beat us, rather than capturing a digital data stream of them doing so...
what's the difference, really?
one of the founding features of Heaven must be Internal Censure...
I don't like and will never use anything made by apple. I didn't like their OS back in the system7 days, and see no reason to think it's any better now. They have exhibited as closed minded a philosophy as possible for a tech company, and haven't been a friend to even their own users. If it's MY machine, and I PAID for it, making it MY machine, then you have no business telling me what I can and can't do with it. This is the same reason why Sony is on my never buy list as well. Why tech companies think that the rules of ownership should be different for them, I will never understand. Just like the whole idea of "leasing" MS software. You don't actually OWN that, you know. Next to NO rights to speak of, just the right to PAY for it.
No thanks. I don't need, want, or trust companies like Apple. And the friendlier they try to make themselves look, the LESS I trust them.
Think this WON'T be abused by every cop station in the country that wants to screw you one way or another? COUNT ON IT.
Activists please note...
Film cameras work just fine
And...you can develop film yourself
Apple- bringin' back the super 8.
It's an interesting turnaround since cell phones are regularly used to spy on us, can be activated remotely as a eye or ear with no trouble at all, but now they'll kill them if endangering the entrenched system. The lady being arrested is pretty disturbing since police have guns and the right to kill citizens while this poor woman, on her own property, had a camera. There is no justice, no freedom of speech, no bill of rights in America any longer in spite of the cardboard cutout parade. Apple is only one of the tools of the current regime.
So, Apple is now "Junior Neighborhood Patrol".
"Pant, pant...Sir, can I have a *badge*, please Sir?"
Technology always has the potential to be abused, and this is just one example. The way to stop this one: simple. Stop buying Apple cellphones. That's one message Jobs will hear. And do Canadians a favour: buy a Blackberry instead, and help out Research In Motion (RIM). As for the comment that capturing images doesn't stop abuse: that's not true. At the Toronto G20 debacle last summer, the major media were all ready to demonize peaceful protesters and cheer the police for arresting ordinary citizens, but attitudes began to change when photos and video footage from citizen witnesses showed clearly that police were allowed to suspend the law. This has raised all sorts of unnerving questions about the degree to which we have given up our liberties -- questions we need to ask.
Missing from this dialogue is the absurd idea that anyone taking a picture or video at some venue, like a concert, is going to deprive anyone of their desperate income. I originally had this discussion with a lawyer friend revolving around the copying of software. The idea that "X" number of dollars are lost to pirates is a stretch because you'd have to prove that anyone who had received a copy of some software was going to buy it for full value to start with. Most people forget that full retail costs for something like Microsoft Office Pro is $500. As for shutting off cameras during a concert, I don't get it. I guess the logic is that someone will watch a crappy, shaky, video with shitty sound over actually going to a concert? I've been to a few and you go because it's a live performance. If I want to see Katy Perry or Rod Stewart live I go to the concert, if not, I can watch the over 200,000 videos of Katy Perry on YouTube.
At last an undeniable and memorably vivid demonstration of the Big Lies of Internet "freedom" and its potential for "revolution."
As I have been saying for years, any medium that can be suppressed merely by the flick of a switch offers neither freedom nor revolutionary potential.
Indeed the primary function of the computer and its associated technologies is to further enslave us: tens of millions of jobs abolished forever, the advent of surveillance technologies of which the Nazis could only dream. Why else would the Ruling Class have so enthusiastically embraced it?
As I myself can attest, in the fields of journalism, publishing and graphic arts alone, the advent of the computer reduced employment by as much as 75 percent: a single newspaper reporter now, thanks to computers, does all the work formerly done by at least five people: copy editor, linotype operator, engraver, stereotyper, proof reader: all these jobs gone forever, the workers typically flung into permanent under-employment or unemployment, their skills and careers sacrificed on the altar of capitalist greed.
Meanwhile by our consumeroid acceptance of not just computers but every other associated gew-gaw we have imposed on ourselves a surveillance network that enables the government and/or the Ruling Class to not only monitor us 24/7 but -- literally by the aforementioned flick -- render us deaf, mute, blind and therefore utterly powerless.
Somewhere in Hell, Heinrich Himmler is surely cackling with glee.
You want maybe someone else should hold the patent?
You think M$, Sony, who exactly, is going to listen to your complaints? http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/customer_service_2010.html Apple's A+ at #3, no other computer companies in the top 25.
I love Apple, and the twenty years of help and support their products have given me. (disclaimer: I am not a cell/i-phone user.)
Hate/Love aside, what alternative is there to the Apple patent?
You want to make the technology illegal? Good luck (honest!)
It can't be uninvented.
I don't want it in the phone. I don't want it in the world;
but the genie is released.
1) lobby Apple not to use it.
2) don't buy the iPhone.
or
3) fume.
I have not and will not purchase any of Apple's WAY OVERPRICED crap.
What the hell are you talking about? Just like there are regulations for cars, there are regulations for cell phones, and the use of this quite trivial "technology" could simply be disallowed or mandated. Nothing to invent or uninvent, it's a question of social decision, not technology.
I think I'll keep my old SLR (film) camera awhile longer...
I think that everyone living in urban merka should continue to buy their apple iphones and lexus suvs, continue to vote demoks into power, and continue to pretend that everything's kosher in urban merka.
This is story about Apple, but I would like to say something about the XBOX 360 Kinect.
In George Orwell's book "1984", you got to watch the TV, but the TV had a camera that watches you. The book did not mention what would happen to you if you covered the camera lens with duct tape. The fiction seemed implausible, because I could not imagine why people would put up with Big Brother watching inside their own home.
But wait, the XBOX 360 is as good as that, and more. The Kinect has a camera (or two) and a microphone. Although it is to be used for games, there is absolutely nothing to stop Microsoft from straming information back to wherever, should the government request that of Microsoft.
Microsoft have insisted that they wont peek through the camera. That sounds a bit re-assuring, you may think, until you read the End User License, that you have agreed to by using the XBOX 360, and realise that you have agreed that Microsoft is permitted to catch any photos and video that they please, and furthermore, you have agreed that they have the right to pass those photos or videos on to commercial partners.
Once the XBOX is connected to the internet (via ethernet cable or wireless), it automatically connects to Microsoft. Once connected, Microsoft will update your XBOX 360 software with anything that Microsoft chooses to put on it. That software can (and most likely does) include backdoors for spying for use by the CIA, Homeland security, etc. Microsoft have been caught before with some of their backdoors, that permit Big Brother to have secret internet access to Microsoft Windows. There is also nothing to stop special software being targeted to a particular IP address (your home).
The XBOX 360 has a hypervisor, which means that it simply will not run any software that has not been approved and digitally signed by Microsoft. For example, if you attempt to run Linux on your XBOX 360, you will find that you cannot. There has been a game between pro-Linux hackers and Microsoft, and Microsoft has basically won. Any useful wires have been hidden where a hardware hacker cannot connect to it, and nobody has been able to crack the hypervisor. This means that Microsoft have complete control over what software can run on the machine and you, on the other hand, have no control.
In summary, the XBOX 360 with Kinect is a games machine that doubles as a spy camera for your living room, and comes with its own license which makes it legal for them to do the spying. And yet the general public have payed money to put this machine in their living room. Given what it can do, it seems that Homeland Security should have purchased this and given one to every household for free.
I would recommend disconnecting the XBOX 360 from the internet except where needed. I would recommend disconnecting the Kinect, except where you actually were going to use it.
Well, you know, since SCOTUS has declared that corporations are people now, it seems to me that these "people" ought to also do what most of the rest of us do: OBEY THE LAW! (no duh)
This so called "kill switch" is about protecting Apple users from mal-ware, not about Big Brother deciding when we can use our phones and when we can't. If you you feel paranoid, and don't want it built into your phone, it'll take about 5 secs to google hack sites that will tell you how to disable it. Personally I prefer to know my software will work properly. Haven't we got enough real civil liberty issues to worry about, without re-inventing the somewhat liberal Steve Jobs and his seemingly very benign company, as a monster of depravity? Come on folks - keep it real
Re: "...Your phone determines whether an image includes an infrared beam with encoded data..."
Solution: YOU determine whether an infrared beam enters YOUR lens... by attaching a little optical filter...
From: http://www.optics-online.com/irc.asp :
"... An IR cut-off filter blocks the transmission of the infrared while passing the visible. This can be done with two optical techniques: absorption or reflection. Absorptive filters are made with special optical glass that absorbs near infrared radiation. Reflection type filters are short-pass interference filters that reflect infrared light with high efficiency..."
I expect to see a snap-on filter in their inventory the week of Apple's rollout.
Boo-ya!