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CASCADES project: Cost-effective Outbreak Detection in Networks ( a study by School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University): "Rankings are based on the following question: Which blogs should one read to be most up to date, i.e., to quickly know about important stories that propagate over the blogosphere?
Budget=100 blogs: If I can read 100 blogs, which should I read to be most up to date? Unit cost (each blog costs 1 unit), optimizing the information captured -- population affected (we want to be the first to know about something with many people blogging about the story after us) read more »
This doesn't have anything to do with privacy, but since I just finished the upgrade to my server I wanted to test one of the new function that I can now do. The software that I use to support Sunflower Children (the non-profit I work with) has a few new capabilities now that we are on a current version o PHP.
Instead of just running a banner on a remote site, we can now display a widget that will be dynamically updated as the donation campaign receives money. I am testing it here before inserting it in my sidebar and on the sites of others that support us. If you like the organiztion and would like to donate, please do. The widget is Live and all donations go directly to Sunflower Children. They of course do NOT keep your credit card number on file. It is just used to process the transaction and then forgotten. read more »
Hello Readers,
Well despite all the fun I had with upgrading my iBook(not my best day), I am upgrading the server that the Privacy Digest site runs on. I am increasing the RAM & Hard-drive. Getting a faster CPU and upgrading lots of the system software. In the near future I also have some site upgrades planned that required the new software that this upgrade is giving me. read more »
First the good news. I got it back and it now has a nice big new hard-drive installed. So now I can use my normal setup to make my posting more streamlined. And since it has no camera, I have a laptop I can take with me to the client who does not allow any type of camera onsite.
Now the bad news. Unfortunately somewhere during the process my motherboard's RAM connections got hosed(a technical term). It seems that if I have anything other than the minimum 256meg installed I lose all access to the video. So instead of upgrading from 768meg to 1.2 gig, I have been dropped down to only 256meg ... ARGH!!! read more »
Hello readers,
I just wanted to let you know that there will probably be limited updates for the next few days till I get my laptop back from the shop. Remember my hard drive died a horrible death a while ago? Well I've been operating off an external drive, which while it works is definitely not convenient(no quick sessions due to setup time). Well I finally thought I had enough time to pull out my instructions and tackle the replacement of the dead internal drive. Well while it wasn't going fast(I am more software than hardware, though I can handle desktops and basic laptop repairs), I finally got to a point where my laptop was in approx 7 pieces and I had taken out almost 50 screws of various sizes and I was almost at the hard-drive. The final hurdle that made me stop was two tiny connectors to the motherboard that I just couldn't disconnect without risking damage :-( So I admitted that I had found my limit and decided to bring my disassembled laptop in to my local Mac hardware gurus and have them finish the job. While they of course gave me a curious look due to its condition, they said, "sure - no problem we'll finish the install for you". Hmm, I wonder what the Apple Store would have said? read more »
Happy Fourth of July everyone !! and Happy Birthday Privacy Digest !!
Besides being a popular Holiday, tomorrow(Friday) is also the 9th Anniversary of Privacy Digest. Nine years ago I split this content off from its original location as part of a blog I had on MacRonin.com and I gave it it's own domain. It had been becoming obvious that the issue was becoming more important and deserved a platform of it's own.
So in honor of the ideals that got the United States of America started, I choose the Fourth of July as the birthday for Privacy Digest. read more »
It's official my hard drive is completely hosed, and I need to obtain a new internal hard-drive for my iBook. Not sure exactly how it happened, but my recovery tools were only able to read approximately half of the drive(24 out of 51 Gigs). And tools that had performed wonders on other drives in the past, churned for untold hours (actually days in one case - 56+ hours) and gave me next to nothing usable in return. Luckily I have more than one trick in my toolbox, and I think I was able to recover the majority of the critical data. Worst case, I have a backup from a few months ago, but that would not have had all my recent account details/updates
I lost a bunch of time where I could use my laptop during this recovery process, and so have a pile of work I have to catch-up on. While not exactly convenient, I do have things running off an external drive at the moment. Since I am more of software person than a hardware techie, I am not going to try and push/rush things doing my internal hard-drive upgrade. Before I take my iBook apart(and hopefully back together again), I am going to try and catch-up on the delayed work, and finish next week's project. This way I hopefully won't be in a rush and screw things up. Plus it will give me a bit of time to convince myself that since I need a laptop without a camera, that holding off on that nice shinny new MacBook Pro(15 inch) is the right thing to do at the moment. So I'll probably hold off on getting the new internal hard-drive and RAM till after Apple's WWDC (which ends on Friday the 13th)
So everybody,learn from my aggravation, and run your backup Today !! read more »
Update May30,2008 10 PM - It's official my hard drive is hosed, and I need to get a new hard-drive for my iBook. I'll probably order it Monday or Tuesday, so if you want to help out you have some time to order this from my wish list. :-) So it will be a few days before I can make any serious updates to the site. I'll know when my new drive is in place, but I think I recovered most of the critical data.
You may have noticed a lack of updates recently. I have not decided to stop blogging, but my laptop has had a meltdown making it impossible for me to use my normal tools to kep the site up to date.
Unfortunately my hard-drive has had a massive failure and I am currently trying to recover my data, but just to make it more challenging than it should be, Its been a while since my last backup.
My first three rounds of working on this all failed due to the problem being to much for the recovery software to handle, and this included two tools which had never failed me before. The current round is running (but extremely slowly) since 2PM yesterday and is only half way thru the drive. I won't know how successful it has been till its complete.
After I have recovered all the data I can, I have to run some destructive hardware tests to see if the hard-drive itself is bad or if it was just a corrupted directory that brought me down. If it turns out to actually be a hardware failure, this might be a good time to upgrade the capacity of the internal drive since prices have come down. I had seriously thought of upgrading the entire iBook to a current MacBookPro(15 inch), but one of my clients won't allow any type of camera(regular, phone or laptop) onsite, which kills my ability to use it on-site. Oh well, maybe later.
I'll be back as soon as I can.
It has nothing to do with privacy, but I wanted to let my readers know about a fundraising event from an organization I work with. If you are in NYC on Wednesday May 21, 2008 why not pay us a visit. Tickets available online.
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS ( www.SunflowerChildren.org & www.Maybach.org )
Sunflower Children Funds, JPMorgan and the Maybach Family Foundation host an evening of fashion, fun and philanthropy for JPMorgan Investment Banking, Private Banking employees and Sunflower-Maybach key supporters amongst the NY philanthropic and fashion communities.
Proceeds will primarily benefit Casita de Belen, a Sunflower-sponsored home for street children in Colombia, as well as Sunflower Children projects in Brazil, Cuba, Nicaragua & Peru. read more »
I just entered the promotion code h24870p43h8037 for the Cheerios Helping Hearts promotion that was inside the box of Cheerios that I had just finished. Then I figured that while I was at it I'd enter the promotion that was in the box I hadn't opened yet. Imagine my surprise when I opened the box flap and found the same promotion code h24870p43h8037.
At first I thought it was a printing mistake, but when I entered the code again. The site said that it was accepted and that a dollar was being donated. Hopefully that is what actually happened.
I wonder if its true for all the codes?
I was also happily surprised that no name and address information was required to activate the code.
I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year ! Here's hoping that next year is even better than this one. read more »
NORAD tracks Santa with Google - Via Official Google Blog :
Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen!We're counting down the hours until Santa's flight around the world. On Monday, December 24th, starting at 1 am PST, visit noradsanta.org to track Santa with NORAD on his annual trip.NORAD will use Google Maps to track several hundred of Santa's stops in over 200 countries and territories, and will embed videos of Santa's stops captured on their Santa Cams on the Google Map and post the videos on the NORAD Tracks Santa YouTube channel.Want to see more of Santa? NORAD will also provide a downloadable Santa Tracker file to track several thousand of Santa's stops in Google Earth. Santa's visits are only a few seconds long, and then -- poof, he's off to the next location. Click on the gift icons in Google Maps or Google Earth to learn more about the cities that Santa visits.Happy holidays from all of us at Google!
(Read Original Article - Via Official Google Blog .)
I just wanted to wish my readers who celebrate the holiday a Happy Thanksgiving !!
Remember, even with all the screwed stuff going on, we still have a lot to be thankful for.
This entry has nothing to do with Privacy, but relates to one of the non-profits I work with. For people who have an association with CIBC World Markets it's a way to benefit a non-profit that won't incur any out of pocket expense. So if you have any affiliation with CIBC World Markets and approve of the goals of Sunflower Children's Fund, please consider actively participating in their Miracle Day 2007 program and please designate Sunflower Children Funds as the beneficiary of your net commissions.
Mark Your Calendars for Wednesday, December 5th! Sunflower Children Funds to participate in CIBC World Markets Miracle Day 2007 read more »
For those of you in the U.S.A. don't forget to reset your clocks for Daylight Savings Time. It was relocated this year, so be sure and check all your electronics (especially any older ones) they may be following the older rules and be confused.
Spring ahead and Fall back !
It seems that Leopard is officially coming out on October 26,2007 and it has a few features that people concerned with privacy and security might find of interest. Some are listed below in no particular order. read more »
Editor: OK this has nothing to do with privacy, but I wanted to let those of you located in the New York City area know that a charity I work with is having a benefit on Thursday September 27,2007. It is being held at The Capitale (in Manhattan) Come join us and help some children.
Save the Date: Thursday, September 27,2007
Sunflower's Global Fund - Sunflower Children Heroes Benefit
Presenting Sponsor: Paul Touradji, Touradji Capital Managementc read more »
I was a bit curious where my last 100 readers were coming from, so I plotted their IP addresses out on a map. They can easily be off by miles(I am listed as being two counties away). But it does give a bit of visual clue of my readers diveristy.
It looks like my readershipt in Europe is larger than I thought. Looks like I'll have to setup a link to the Google translate function so they can have the option of reading the site in their local language. read more »
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