February | 2015 | WinComDynamic

Monthly Archives: February 2015

Never Mind “The Internet of Things” – Try “The Internet of Us”

A Man With An Internet Pacemaker Walks Into A Bar…

The device in that man’s chest, a life-giving second or third chance at life, might be connected as an Internet Protocol (IP) address to the Internet. Increasingly, pacemakers ARE connected to the web and enable doctors to monitor heart health and other physical attributes of patients. A positive thing? Many if not most patients would think so. But what if that IP address is hacked by someone living in Kiev, Tehran or maybe Peoria? That someone, that hacker, might be able to jolt that man’s heart, causing pain, suffering or even death.

This is NOT fiction, according to Mark Goodman, a longtime security and anti-terrorism advisor, and author of “Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It”.

Although Goodman breezily takes readers through numerous pitfalls of our increasingly connected age — terrorist war rooms, networks and entire cities — he proposes measures to protect ourselves against hacktivists (at least the bad ones), and challenges governments and companies to create another Manhattan Project, but this time for widespread cyber-security.

Goodman excoriates politicians and CEOs alike for not speaking about threats these people well know. According to Goodman, it takes the average company 211 days AFTER cyber-security threats have already occurred to be aware of any system hacking. Consider only recent major hacks of Sony, Target, AOL and JP Morgan Chase, and you get an idea of the scope — now and in the future — of the problem.

If our cyber-security problems are as small as a golf ball right now, Goodman says consider the Sun as our comparative obstacle in the future. Stay vigilant, take charge and, Goodman advises, “get intentional” about the security of the Internet of Things — and of People.

Greg Goaley, President of WinCommunications in Des Moines, Iowa, is a former copywriter and creative editor, and a 25-year digital content strategist and provider. Kathryn Towner is President of WinM@il USA, a former 15-year sales rep for Random House/McGraw-Hill, and a 20-year permission-based email publications consultant and provider.

On Singularity, “How To Live Forever” & Uploading Your Mind

The great Tim Wu, professor of law and journalism at Columbia University, has been perhaps chief among pioneers of the open Internet. He coined the phrase, “Net Neutrality,” which heads of state, governments, universities and the media now commonly refer to when talking about keeping the Internet open and for ISPs to provide generally equitable speeds and services to all its customers. Net Neutrality also covers the argument that large telecoms like Comcast, Verizon and At&T would like to create fast lanes on the Internet for those who can pay, and slow lanes for regular users, mom-and-pop shops, and even large companies who cannot or will not pay higher rates for faster digital content speeds than the average user.

Opponents say Net Neutrality will stifle innovation, for example, in the delivery of current and yet created applications that will require large bandwidth for delivery. They say the government should not get involved with cost-fixing and who pays what for digital delivery. Proponents of Net Neutrality (such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter) say publicly elected government officials appoint members of the FCC, which regulates the Internet — funded by public dollars for decades — with phone and cable laws passed in the 1990s and earlier; allowing different costs for Internet access, proponents say, is a form of permitting those with the biggest wallets disproportionately faster and better access to content on which informed democracy relies.

The FCC will announce new rules on the issue Thursday, February 26.

Wu sometimes departs from his adoptive role as Internet champion, and imparts his views on the extraordinary work and passions of those who see beyond digital networks, and look forward to the possibilities afforded by the Internet that might benefit humankind, perhaps even “living forever” — but in one form or another.

“It’s theoretically possible to copy the brain onto a computer, and so provide a form of life after death.” More Here
–Steven Hawking, 2014

Read Tim Wu’s Feb. 22, 2015, short piece in the New Yorker, “How To Live Forever”.

“To Kill A Mockingbird” and “Watchman” In The Internet Age

Whither Cyberspace Scout?
Back in July 1960 when Harper Lee published “To Kill A Mockingbird”, the Internet was a rough skeleton of university and government computer networks, more accustomed to crude bits of data transfer and big ideas yet realized, versus the flood of information and media that we enjoy (or despise), along with programming that some of us work with today. But what if Lee’s nearly universally acclaimed novel — “Mockingbird” was ranked the best novel of the century in 1999 — had been published now, in the Facebook and Twitter age?

“Go Set A Watchman”
Although it is difficult to compare a sequel, set more than one half century forward, we might soon find out. Lee and her representatives are expected in July 2015 to publish Lee’s late, late follow-up, “Go Set A Watchman”. Some question whether the reclusive Lee, at age 88, has a full grasp of these events, or whether she even wrote the new book at all. But her closest friends and advisers say she is “sharp as a tack,” and just doesn’t want to talk or deal with the media, which rings true; Lee has not granted one interview since 1964. And given the torrent of media coverage today, one wonders whether Lee would have tried doing ANY of this, had she started writing in the Internet Age. She might have been bemused and unmotivated trying to take on our current wired and un-wired world, as she showed such courage against mid-century racism and the beauty of co-existing as equal people in her original work.

Social Will Push “Watchman” Exponentially
“Go Set A Watchman” reportedly follows the memorable and charming adolescent character Scout of Mockingbird fame into adult life. This means that handles like “@ScoutWatchman”, or “@HarperLeeSequel”, or similar names will no doubt grace the Twitterverse. This will mean that the Harper Lee machine will push the book on Facebook, and that the immortal good lawyer Atticus Finch, “Mockingbird’s” chief protagonist whom Lee based on her father, will get his own likes, follows and comments on social media.

Debase Modern Culture Might Have Drowned Out Atticus
The great Atticus Finch, played by Gregory Peck, might also have demurred at what passes for acceptable language and grammar in today’s cell phone- and tablet-fueled world. In the Internet Age, one wonders whether both Atticus and Scout — not to mention Tom Robinson (the falsely and racially accused black farmer) and “Boo” Radley (played by a young Robert Duvall) — might have been drowned out by the likes of the Kardashians, Pit Bull or myriad talking head web flame-throwers.

Although Lee’s original “Mockingbird” automatically blows a great gust of marketing wind into the sequel, we might get a glimpse soon, when “Go Set A Watchman” comes out summer this year.

Internet As A Utility? FCC Tips Net Neutrality Hand Before Feb 27 Vote

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
NetNeutrailityFCCChairmanTomWheeler

Utility Talk Concerning – Critics Might Allege Government Takeover, Proponents Argue that Wheeler’s Proposal – As Announced – Prevents Corporate Internet Takeover – Broadband & Telecom Traffic Required To Provide Equal Access to All Content Requests – No Fast or Slow Lanes for All People and All Companies with Internet Access

Meet Bina48, The World’s Most Advanced Humanoid Robot

She’s Not Rutger Hauer – Otherwise, “Roy,” The Greatest Replicant in Ridley Scott’s Legendary “Blade Runner” – But Rutger is Human, Which Is Cheating

Bina48 Is Practicing The Lengths of Current Artificial Intelligence – But “We,” That Is, “We Human Replicants” – Have A Long Way To Go

Greg Goaley, President of WinCommunications in Des Moines, Iowa, is a digital content strategist and provider, and Kathryn Towner is President of WinM@il USA, a 20-year permission-based email publications consultant and provider.