NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Disney World To Track Your Fantasy

Looks like the "Happiest Place On Earth" is about to become the "Most Connected Place On Earth."

According to the New York Times, this spring Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. will roll out MyMagic+, a new vacation management system that will include radio-frequency identification bracelets called "MagicBands." The rubber RFID bracelets will be encoded with credit card information, allowing visitors to buy ride tickets, pass through turnstiles and purchase food with a flick of the wrist.

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The MagicBands will also include user information such as the wearer's name and birthday, so that costumed Disney characters may offer a more personalized interaction. Imagine Mickey approaching someone and saying, "Hello Billy, I understand it's your birthday." This seemingly clairvoyant feature just adds to the fantasy says Disney officials.

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“If we can enhance the experience, more people will spend more of their leisure time with us,” Thomas O. Staggs, chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts, told the New York Times.

The bands are part of a new website and app called My Disney Experience that will enable users of MyMagic+ to select three FastPasses for rides or VIP seating for special events. Visitors can register here for the MagicBands, which will also serve as room keys for on-site resorts and parking tickets.

The bands will remain optional, however Disney does plan to mine the wealth of consumer data it will collect from those who decide to participate. What rides did you visit? Did you purchase Mickey Mouse Ears or a balloon? Did you stop and say hi to Goofy or make a beeline to Donald Duck? These are all questions Disney believes MyMagic+ will answer.

Disney says they're aware of potential privacy concerns, especially with children, but explains that integrating the technology of MyMagic+ to the theme park is essential to staying relevant in the digital age. MagicBands will not be mandatory and guests will decide how much information to provide.

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Analysts expect the initiative will cost $800 million to $1 billion and affect the roughly 30 million people who visit Disney World every year.

Yes, the MagicBands are optional, but news like may make some people feel like a duck being gavaged for foie gras. So if you're not into being force fed monoculture, how about Black Flag's "Rise Above" for a little dessert. If that's a little too heavy for your palate, might I recommend the Dirty Projectors' more delicate version, one of my personal faves.

via NPR, the New York Times

Credit: Kent Phillips/Disney

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Double Revolving Doors Block Armed Intruders

The holidays may have provided a temporary distraction from the Newtown, Conn., massacre, but now that the new year's here, it's time to pick up where we left off. Here's one security company that thinks they have a way to prevent a dangerous intruder from entering a school or any other building.

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It called the Linear Revolving Door (LRD), and it was recently patented by Barbecan Security Systems. The door consists of series of parallel hallways that can be built at the entrance of buildings. Each hallway has two doors that revolve in front of and behind a person as they enter.

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The system is equipped with sensors that keeps pace with one's stride to cut down on the bottlenecking of most security checks. Once both doors close, sensors also check for bombs or firearms. If a threat is detected, the doors move in reverse and push out the potential offender.

Check out this animation to see the LRD in action. Though beware, it's quite hypnotic.

With statements like "Newtown could have been prevented," Barbecan's press release is confident, if not cavalier.

"A guard at a building entrance won't stop a determined and well armed attacker -- especially if they have suicidal motivations," it states. "The LRD portal WILL NOT let an armed gunman enter a building. Period. When a threat is detected, the portal reverses and the potential assailant is backed out of the portal. Gun control is not the answer."

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While some parents of Sandy Hook Elementary school children might beg to differ about that last statement, Barbecan contends the LRD is the new solution that's needed.

"Operation is completely safe," states the press release, "and by adapting to the pace of pedestrian traffic, LRD Portals can be used in high traffic entrances like schools, malls, theatres, stadiums and factories."

via Mashable

Credit: Barbecan Security Systems

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Control This Roach Via Twitter

We've told you before about remote-controlled cockroaches being strapped with steering wheels so that the insects could help rescue earthquake victims. Now roaches are skittering into a more aesthetic venue -- the art gallery. As part of the "Life, in some form" exhibit by the Chicago Artists Coalition (CAC), Dallas-based artist Brittany Ransom debuted her Twitter-Remote-Controlled Cockroach.

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Similar to the RoboRoach, Ransom's device used a small electronic backpack that attached to the cockroach's antenna, enabling the insect to respond to stimulated left or right commands. Using Arduino hardware and custom-programmed software, Ransom was able to link the roach to Twitter. Visitors to the exhibit could send commands to the @TweetRoach account such as #TweetRoachLeft and #TweetRoachRight.

As her artist bio explains, Ransom likes to explore the "paradoxical bond between human, nature, its inhabitants and the co-evolution between the living and budding technological innovation while questioning these technologies."

Ransom told CNET that her project mirrors the digital overstimulation that many of us experience everyday. She also said she wanted to see if the cockroaches could eventually learn to adapt and ignore her system's signals.

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"At what point does its intelligence and ability take over? How much does it take before we are all desensitized to overstimulation?" Ransom wrote in an email to CNET. "As we, as human beings, grow more cyborgian and interconnected through social media, this project helps us participate in discovering the answer."

via CNET Crave

Credit: Brittany Ransom

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NRA Vanishes From Facebook, Silent on Twitter

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook tragedy, the national outcry and debate over gun control continues to grow louder with each passing day. Yet on social media, one voice remains uncharacteristically silent. The Facebook page of the National Rifle Association (NRA) vanished over the weekend. Users are now  redirected to Facebook's homepage after clicking on the association's former location.

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The staunch anti-gun-control organization's Twitter account has also fallen silent. Its last tweet was an ad for "10 Days of NRA Giveaways -- Enter today for a chance to win an auto emergency tool!" and appeared on the morning of December 14, the day of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

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The NRA's social-media blackout is not uncommon. In July, after the fatal shooting of 12 people in an Aurora, Colo. movie theater, the NRA did not tweet for 10 days.

The NRA's Google+ and YouTube pages remain up, however the the NRA's most recent Google+ post on December 13th is locked. The NRA's last YouTube upload was on December 14th. Comments for this video have been disabled.

In a tweet last Thursday, the NRA celebrated it's 1.7 millionth Facebook "like," encouraging users to "KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING! ASK YOUR FRIENDS TO 'LIKE' THE NRA!"

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A Facebook spokesman told CNET the social network had nothing to do with the disappearance of NRA's page, leading many to assume the NRA took down their page rather than face the ire of anti-gun advocates. When contacted by Wired, a public affairs spokesperson for the NRA declined comment about the organization's Facebook page.

This has been a popular discussion on Discovery News, so we encourage the debate to continue. Is the NRA burying its head in the sand? Or is the NRA giving victims the space they need while the organization continues to strategize?

via Wired

Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS

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These Cuffs Will Shock The Hell Out Of You

These handcuffs are truly shocking. And that's only a fraction of what they're capable of.

According to U.S. Patent Application 20120298119, Scottsdale Inventions, LLC of Paradise Valley, Arizona has invented a pair of high-tech handcuffs that appear to be a Swiss Army knife of torture restraint.

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For starters, the cuffs are capable of administering high-voltage, low amperage shocks that will immobilize uncooperative detainees. Inspired by invisible fence technology that not-so-subtly reminds dogs where their boundaries are, these cuffs are a part of a programmable system that uses radio transmitters to corral prisoners. Step beyond the designated perimeter and the cuffs could issue various warnings, such as audible signals, vibrations, a flashing light or a mild electric shock, before a more severe zap would restore order.

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As well, the cuffs could include an accelerometer, inclinometer, potentiometer, location sensing device, microphone, camera, a biometric sensor or a combination of devices that would allow guards to more closely monitor their prisoners.

If there's any mercy to be found, the cuffs do include safety cutouts to prevent fatal jolts. However, developers also envision the cuffs being able to release gases, liquids, dyes and even sedatives that could be injected into the prisoners. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, syringe-equipped handcuffs.

But wait there's more. If you're still not convinced that these cuffs are the most fully loaded, less-lethal weapon this side of Joel Braun's little ray of sunshine, Scottsdale Inventions wants to remind you that this system could also be incorporated into ankle cuffs, restraining belts, straitjackets, harnesses, facial restraints, helmets or neck collars.

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I don't know about you, but if the image of an inmate writhing in agony, compliments of his or her shock collar and/or facial restraints, is enough to send you to the dark and troubled side of life, feel free to join me. I'll be hanging out with the Carters on the bright and sunny side. As our current news cycle continues to seethe, I think we could all use a little Vitamin D.

via Gizmag

Credit: USPTO

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Gun-Control Petition Demands Congress to Act

In the wake of the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a somber nation came to a conclusion over the mournful weekend: Something needs to change.

How and where that change will take place was the hot topic on everyone's lips, from the pundits and politicians on the Sunday talk show circuit, to strangers sharing public transportation. Calls for stricter gun control laws and better treatment for the mentally ill ignited a new round of debate that isn't likely to extinguish anytime soon.

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Many citizens took to the Internet to spur direct action. A petition asking President Obama to immediately address the issue of gun control with congressional legislation became the most popular petition ever posted to the White House's "We the People" website in less than 48 hours.

Filed hours after the shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 27 people dead, including 20 children, the petition collected more than 120,000 signatures as of 1 p.m. Sunday. The petition currently has over 141,000 signatures and rising.

"Powerful lobbying groups allow the ownership of guns to reach beyond the Constitution's intended purpose of the right to bear arms," the petition states. "Therefore, Congress must act on what is stated law, and face the reality that access to firearms reaches beyond what the Second Amendment intends to achieve."

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Any petition posted to We the People that obtains more than 25,000 signatures is guaranteed a response from the Obama administration. Prior to Sunday, the site's most popular petition was one seeking permission for Texas to succeed from the union. That petition has just over 120,000 signatures.

The merit of some petitions that pass We the People's 25,000-signature threshold is questionable, at best. Most recently, one petition demands construction of a Death Star by 2016.

However, nearly two dozen petitions seeking tighter gun control laws have been filed since the Sandy Hook massacre. It's pretty safe to say those where filed without any tongue-in-cheek overtones. 

 via Mashable, Nextgov

Credit: Tim Clayton/TIM CLAYTON/Corbis

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Verizon Filed Big Brother Patent, For Ads

If you think that companies such as Google and Facebook have a Big Brother feel because of the data they collect, get ready to raise the paranoia levels: Verizon wants to bug your conversations while you sit in front of the TV.

In a patent application, titled “Methods and Systems for Presenting an Advertisement Associated with an Ambient Action of a User” the company has a diagram of a typical living room, with the TV in front. The patent application says, essentially, that by using a variety of methods – infrared sensors, cameras, and microphones – it’s possible to track consumers’ moods and actions and tailor advertisements to that.

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The application isn’t specific about the technology. But it does note the possibility of linking smartphones and other devices to a “detection facility.” The point made in the patent application is that traditional targeted ads don’t account for what people actually do when watching television. That is, are you watching the program or did you fall asleep? And are you talking about the cool gadget James Bond just used or did you just say that you dig his fashion choices?

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Phones are already equipped with cameras, as are tablets, and a Kinect or Wii already has motion detectors and if you are a Comcast Xfinity customer there’s a web cam (for Skype calls) on top of your TV already. Computers can be pretty good at picking out certain words and do so every time a customer calls a bank.

Microsoft, in fact, said in 2010 that it wanted to target ads to people using the Kinect system in a way that isn’t very different from what Verizon is proposing. The company eventually said it would not use the Kinect’s camera for monitoring -- but only after media outlets asked.  

Verizon’s patent may also be a pre-emptive strike of sorts, to block Apple or Google from trying the same thing. The phone giant hasn’t made any announcements about this technology.

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The idea that Verizon – or any other company – could just turn on the web cam in your living room without the user’s knowledge is sure to give many people pause. Even if the data is anonymized it’s been demonstrated that the process is far from perfect.

It’s just a patent application, and many ideas that reach the USPTO never see the light of day. Or maybe the ghosts of George Orwell and Jeremy Bentham are sharing a laugh. 

via Dvice, Fierce Cable

Credit: Szeling/Floresco/Corbis

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A World Government For The Internet? Not So Fast

On Monday, representatives from 193 governments kicked off an 11-day meeting in Dubai to discuss, among other things, possibly moving oversight of the Internet's basic mechanisms to the International Telecommunications Union. Many people are not happy about that.

Google has taken the exceptional step of using its home page to invite people to sign a petition against the ITU's move. The Obama administration opposes it and so does the Republican Party. And just about every U.S. observer of tech policy also wants the ITU to pull back (as I heard quite a few opine at a gabfest in Washington last week).

What's the deal?

Part of the problem is what might come out of the ITU's World Conference on International Telecommunications, and part of the problem is how the ITU has conducted this exercise.

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The idea behind WCIT (pronounced "wicket") is to modernize a 1988 treaty governing how telecommunications networks cross national boundaries. The ITU has tackled that kind of standards-setting work since 1865 largely because somebody needs to: Wireless spectrum and wired lines are finite goods in need of some coordination.

But with WCIT, the ITU's menu reaches beyond the physical infrastructure of telecom.

Some countries have submitted far-reaching proposals to shift control of the Internet's domain-name addressing system from its current owner, a non-profit called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Russia, for example, proposes that ITU members "shall have equal rights to manage the Internet."

Complaints over ICANN's U.S.-centric background have been a popular pastime for several years running, and ICANN hasn't done its image any favors by authoring such boondoggles as a needless expansion of top-level domains that would let companies register their own brand names as "TLDs."

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But ICANN looks good compared to the prospect of countries with Russia's history of media interference getting a say in Internet governance outside their borders. That may not rank as a U.N. takeover of the Net, but it's definitely not an upgrade.

A group of European network operators, meanwhile, would push websites to pay Internet providers for the cost of the bandwidth consumed by their users. You may have heard big-name U.S. telecom firms try to sell that idea during the height of the net-neutrality debate a few years ago; it remains a dangerous idea that would wreck the economics of popular sites like Netflix.

It also defies business logic. Companies like Netflix and their customers already pay separately for their bandwidth.

The ITU's leadership says not to worry and that it will adopt a "light touch" if it votes in any new rules. But the closed manner in which it's staged this round of negotiations does not invite confidence.

Many of the details noted here are only public because of the efforts of WCITLeaks, a clearinghouse set up by Internet scholars Jerry Brito and Eli Dourado to publish documents shared by participants. And the ITU's process reserves voting for governments, even though much of the Internet's architecture has involved leadership from universities and companies.

If the ITU could point to a pressing problem with the Internet that it could solve, it might have a case for taking a larger role. But a new multilateral treaty won't slow pervasive online ailments like spam and malware, nor will it help country-specific problems like a lack of choice for broadband access.

The ITU has, however, provided a good reminder to anybody who's forgotten last year's SOPA fight: The Internet is not so well established that we can count on it taking care of itself.

Credit: ITU's Flickr page

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How Syria Shut Down the Internet

By Ben Weitzenkorn, TechNewsDaily

The Syrian goverment has cut off the Internet in a novel way.

On Thursday, all Internet traffic in and out of Syria suddenly stopped.

Syria isn't the first country to have suddenly cut its population off from the Internet, but the manner in which it did so may be unprecedented.

"Since the beginning of today's outage, we have received no requests from Syrian IP space," network-reliability provider CloudFlare wrote on its blog last night. "That is a more complete blackout than we've seen when other countries have been cut from the Internet."

Video Service Streams Live Reports From Syria"

The Syrian Minister of Information blamed the outage on terrorists, the Jerusalem Post reported.

"It is not true that the state cut the Internet. The terrorists targeted the Internet lines, resulting in some regions being cut off," he reportedly said, citing a cut cable.

As far as CloudFlare could tell, that was not the case. Instead, evidence suggests it was a planned shutdown by the government.

CloudFlare said when the outage occurred, connections to Syrian IP space were all withdrawn at the same time, effectively blocking all Internet traffic to and from the country.

Internet access in Syria is provided solely by the government-run Syrian Telecommunications Establishment.

There are four telecommunication cables that connect Syria to the Internet. Three are underwater and the fourth runs overland through Turkey.

However, CloudFlare doubts that the disconnect was performed physically.

"The systematic way in which routes were withdrawn suggests that this was done through updates in router configurations, not through a physical failure or cable cut," the CloudFlare blog said.

CloudFlare provided a video of the shutoff occurring in real time, letting viewers watch an entire country lose Internet access.

Nationwide Internet cutoffs were among the last-ditch efforts by Libya's and Egypt's former dictators to save their regimes before both fell during the Arab Spring uprisings last year.

More from TechNewsDaily.com

• 10 Ways the Government Watches You
• Amnesty International Blog Hacked by Syrian Government Backers
• 10 Best Wireless Routers

 

Copyright 2012 TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Saudi Arabian Women Tracked With Text Alerts

When it comes to the repression of women, you'd be hard pressed to find a more misogynistic place than Saudi Arabia. Women there are, among other things, prohibited from voting (until 2015), driving a car and working in most places.

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To leave the country, Saudi women must present written permission from their male guardians, even if they're traveling together. Now, to add insult to injury, male guardians will also receive a text message whenever "their" women leave the country.

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The kingdom's interior ministry introduced the electronic tracking system back in April in an effort to create a modern e-government plan that would eliminate the infamous permission slip. Texts were originally sent to male guardians who opted into the system, but now are being sent to all and sundry.

"Apparently, as a Saudi woman, I don't even deserve the simplest of rights like the right to privacy," Safa Alahmad, a freelance journalist and filmmaker protested to the Guardian. "The core issue remains the same. Saudi women are viewed and treated as minors by the Saudi government."

Yet the new system doesn't only apply to women. Male guardians are also alerted when their "dependents," such as foreign workers and children of both sexes, leave the country.

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How long before the Saudi government implants microchips in women remains to be seen. But considering the government's penchant for treating women like dogs and that this most recent e-initiative was done in the name of streamlined modernity, a mircrochipped tracking system doesn't seem too far off.

via the Guardian

Credit: David Turnley/CORBIS

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