Archive
Biometric Data-Gathering Sets Off a Privacy Debate – NYTimes.com
“PLEASE put your hand on the scanner,” a receptionist at a doctor’s office at New York University Langone Medical Center said to me recently, pointing to a small plastic device on the counter between us. “I need to take a palm scan for your file.”
I balked.
As a reporter who has been covering the growing business of data collection, I know the potential drawbacks — like customer profiling — of giving out my personal details. But the idea of submitting to an infrared scan at a medical center that would take a copy of the unique vein patterns in my palm seemed fraught.
The receptionist said it was for my own good. The medical center, she said, had recently instituted a biometric patient identification system to protect against identity theft.
I reluctantly stuck my hand on the machine. If I demurred, I thought, perhaps I’d be denied medical care.
Next, the receptionist said she needed to take my photo. After the palm scan, that seemed like data-collection overkill. Then an office manager appeared and explained that the scans and pictures were optional. Alas, my palm was already in the system.
No longer the province of security services and science-fiction films, biometric technology is on the march. Facebook uses facial-recognition software so its members can automatically put name tags on friends when they upload their photos. Apple uses voice recognition to power Siri. Some theme parks take digital fingerprints to help recognize season pass holders. Now some hospitals and school districts are using palm vein pattern recognition to identify and efficiently manage their patients or students — in effect, turning your palm into an E-ZPass.
via Biometric Data-Gathering Sets Off a Privacy Debate – NYTimes.com.
Related articles
Typewriters are making a comeback among collectors and users – USATODAY.com
Typewriters are back and taking the country by storm.
Siri, the personal assistant on the iPhone, offers directions, dispenses advice on where to eat, and even takes dictation. Just speak to her and she’ll tap out your texts. Still, some say, technology hasn’t killed some earlier forms of communication, namely, the typewriter.
“You’d be surprised at the number of people using typewriters,” says Scott Paness, who owns a company in Nanuet, N.Y., that repairs and refurbishes the machines.
Type-Ins are being held at coffee houses, bars and bookstores from coast to coast. Early manual typewriters are being snapped up by a new generation of fans who are rediscovering the joys of vintage Smith Coronas, Underwoods and Royals, even IBM Selectrics.
“Typewriters are a wonderful marriage of machine-era technology and cutting period aesthetics,” says Chase Gilbert, who owns and runs Kasbah Mod, which sells vintage typewriters.
Vintage typewriters are not just sought after by older folks nostalgic for a blast from the past. People in their 20s and early 30s, says Gilbert, love the old machines for a number of reasons. “Younger collectors buy the vintage typewriter both for its functionality and its looks. They love to see the typewriter sitting right next to their iPad and iPod.”
Apparently, people still type, too. “They find that on a typewriter you really have to think. Then, too, there are no distractions with a typewriter. You sit down to type and that’s it,” Gilbert says. “You can’t get distracted with Twitter, Facebook or email. The simplicity of the machine is appealing.”
via Typewriters are making a comeback among collectors and users – USATODAY.com.
Strange Random Typewriter Quote:
“Sometimes I think [my writing] sounds like I walked out of the room and left the typewriter running.” – Gene Fowler (American journalist and biographer, 1890-1960)
Related articles
- Manual typewriter to world: ‘I am not dead yet!’ (news.cnet.com)
- Typewriter of the moment: Tom Hanks’s 1969 Royal Apollo 10 Electric (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
- Trending: Typewriters (coutureeventsbylottie.com)
- Ornate Victorian typewriter (boingboing.net)
- Keaton Music Typewriter (flipflipmeheidi.com)
- Typewriters experience a comeback (upi.com)
- Ultra rare typewriter types musical notes (dvice.com)
Move Over Siri, Alohar Wants To Learn Everything About You – Forbes
Imagine you wake up one morning before work with a head cold. You decide to take the day off and stay in bed past the time when you usually pull into your office parking space and settle down in your cubicle. Now imagine that your phone, sensing your exact location and understanding your daily schedule, predicts that you’ve come down with something and makes an appointment–without asking you–at your doctor’s office.
For the developers at Alohar Mobile, this hypothetical situation, where your phone can predict and make decisions for you, isn’t too far away. It’s the “Siri after Siri,” says Sam Liang, co-founder and CEO of Alohar, whose next-level mobile platform plans to make smart phones smarter with the ability to learn about their users.
Imagine another situation: You’re driving to your doctor’s appointment. You get the green to pull through an intersection, but another driver–late to his lunch meeting–runs a red light and smashes into your driver-side door. Now imagine that your phone, registering that you were driving and that you were hit through its motion sensors, predicts you were possibly injured and signals an ambulance through a 911 dispatcher.
You don’t have to dream. Alohar already created it.
via Move Over Siri, Alohar Wants To Learn Everything About You – Forbes.
Strange Random Intelligence Quote:
“Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used” – Dr. Carl Sagan (American Astronomer, Writer and Scientist, 1934-1996)
Related articles
- Text Heizy: How Siri, SMS And Scots Form A Dangerous Combination (gizmodo.com.au)
- Siri Can’t Find It’s Way Outside Of The U.S. (seroundtable.com)
- Toolmaker Talk: Sam Liang (Placeme) (quantifiedself.com)
- Is Apple’s Siri a failure? (chron.com)
- How To Make Siri Give Info About Your iPhone’s Battery Life [Jailbreak] (cultofmac.com)
- Siri gets expanded Yelp functionality (slashgear.com)
- New Yorker sues Apple: ‘Misleading and deceptive’ Siri ads (go.theregister.com)
- Apple Left Siri Off the New iPad Because Siri’s Not Ready for It (techland.time.com)
- Apple’s iPhone Siri Can’t Help the Scottish [Video] (ibragging.wordpress.com)
When Your Phone Humors You – Noticed – NYTimes.com
ALEX JOHNSON, a freelance video producer in Indianapolis, has a self-esteem problem. Well, not really, but his new iPhone thinks he does.
“Why do I cry so much?” he asked it recently in jest.
“I don’t know,” it responded. “Frankly, I’ve wondered that myself.”
The funny (if slightly unsettling) reply was courtesy of Siri, the new virtual personal-assistant application for the recently released Apple iPhone 4S. Siri recognizes conversational speech and responds, helping with everything from scheduling a meeting to finding a therapist.
Siri also talks back. Owners of the new iPhone have been quick to ask it all kinds of odd questions, from the inane to the illicit. Looking for a place to hide a body? Siri provided Mr. Johnson with a list of metal foundries, dumps and swamps.
via When Your Phone Humors You – Noticed – NYTimes.com.
Strange Random Conversation Quote:
“Conversation may be compared to a lyre with seven chords – philosophy, art, poetry, love, scandal, and the weather” – Anna Jameson (Irish Essayist, 1794-1860)
Related articles
- IPhone 4S Gets More Power, a Better Camera and Siri – NYTimes.com (policyabcs.wordpress.com)
- Siri has a sense of humor (holykaw.alltop.com)
- Siri Experiencing Its First Extended Outage (techcrunch.com)
- The meaning of life according to Siri (westernthm.wordpress.com)
- Siri’s First Post (news.dice.com)
- Siri Becomes A Meme (nerdist.com)
- Siri Has a Sense of Humor (momof7.com)
- Iris -> Siri! (savvytrails.wordpress.com)
Find similar interesting blogs!
 |
 |
Blogroll Center
Mind Your Language 
