The Rise of the Wireless Internet

The introduction of the mobile phone revolutionised the way people traditionally communicated with one another. People suddenly became accessible independent of their location, at any time of the day or week. A salesperson in business for instance, who was always on the road could now be reached and could in turn make phone calls conveniently between customer meetings. Bundled with the basic mobile voice service was messaging in the form of voice or text. The latter has especially proven to be a useful and cost-effective method for conveying a short message. Collectively residential and business mobile subscribers use the short message service (SMS) to send millions of text messages per day (each not more than 160 characters in length). Information \u27push and pull\u27 services in the form of SMS, such as the latest sports results or betting odds, are now commonplace value-added features offered by second-generation (2G) mobile service providers

Self-guided bullets won\u27t stuff up, but what about the grunts and drones firing them?

At the beginning of this year Sandia Labs in the United States announced it had patented a design for a self-guided bullet that could help soldiers at war. The technology is expected to prevent the need for targeted air strikes that could kill innocent people while criminals take cover in their midst. This super self-guided bullet can hit laser-designated targets accurately to around 2,000 metres. An example of this capability can be found in the XM25 rifle. To rephrase the Cold War notion of limited nuclear warfare , we could now say with these latest developments to the war-fighting repertoire that we have the fundamental means for limited person warfare . Point at your target using the rifle\u27s laser rangefinder, pull the trigger and walk away assured that the kill has taken place, given the bullet detonates at the exact distance to the obstruction or strategically nearby. This technology can overcome trenches or urban theatre barricades such as walls

People plus: is transhuman the next stage in our evolution?

Inviting artificial intelligence into our bodies has appeal - but it also carries certain risks. I have often wondered what it would be like to rid myself of a keyboard for data entry, and a computer screen for display. Some of my greatest moments of reflection are when I am in the car driving long distances, cooking in my kitchen, watching the kids play at the park, waiting for a doctor\u27s appointment or on a plane thousands of metres above sea level. I have always been great at multitasking but at these times it is often not practical or convenient to be head down typing on a laptop, tablet or smartphone. It would be much easier if I could just make a mental note to record an idea and have it recorded, there and then. And who wouldn\u27t want the ability to jack into all the world\u27s knowledge sources in an instant via a network? Who wouldn\u27t want instant access to their life-pages filled with all those memorable occasions? Or even the ability to slow down the process of ageing, as long as living longer equated to living with mind and body fully intact, as outlined in the video below. Transhumanists would have us believe that these things are not only possible but inevitable. In short: we Homo sapiens may dictate the next stage of our evolution through our use of technology

The legal, social and ethical controversy of the collection and storage of fingerprint profiles and DNA samples in forensic science

The collection and storage of fingerprint profiles and DNA samples in the field of forensic science for nonviolent crimes is highly controversial. While biometric techniques such as fingerprinting have been used in law enforcement since the early 1900s, DNA presents a more invasive and contentious technique as most sampling is of an intimate nature (e.g. buccal swab). A fingerprint is a pattern residing on the surface of the skin while a DNA sample needs to be extracted in the vast majority of cases (e.g. at times extraction even implying the breaking of the skin). This paper aims to balance the need to collect DNA samples where direct evidence is lacking in violent crimes, versus the systematic collection of DNA from citizens who have committed acts such as petty crimes. The legal, ethical and social issues surrounding the proliferation of DNA collection and storage are explored, with a view to outlining the threats that such a regime may pose to citizens in the not-to-distant future, especially persons belonging to ethnic minority groups

Israel, Palestine and the benefits of waging war through Twitter

Warfare, as we know, has gone digital, its volleys and counterattacks rattled out 140 characters at a time. Historically, nation states with superior military prowess have been in a position of influence, and are often dubbed superpowers. But in the post Cold War era, such geopolitical giants have not had a monopoly in terms of technological interventionism. Terrorist regimes have lifted the veil on conventional warfare and sought non-traditional methods to attack their counterparts. So-called rogue states , such as Iran and North Korea, have been accused of hiding weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and developing nuclear programs. Today asymmetrical attacks can have the same psychological impact as a missile strike - we need only evoke the downing of the Twin Towers as a prime example. A state that has limited capital to fund its wars and limited resources to equip its armed forces does not necessarily need heavy artillery and sophisticated weaponry. Unconventional warfare can wreak havoc

The proliferation of identification techniques for citizens throughout the ages

Manual identification techniques date back to ancient times, however the need to identify individuals has heightened particularly since the Industrial Revolution. This paper traces the use of identification techniques throughout the ages and focuses on the growing importance of citizen identification (ID) by governments. The paper uses a historical approach beginning with manual techniques such as tattoos, through to more recent automatic identification (auto-ID) techniques such as smart cards and biometrics. Data was collected primarily through qualitative document analysis, and the paper contains thick description typical of a narrative. The findings indicate that identification techniques born for one purpose have gradually found their way into alternate applications, and in some instances have been misused altogether. There is also strong evidence to suggest that governments are moving away from localized identification schemes to more global systems based on universal lifetime identifiers (ULI)

The Rise and Fall of Digital Music Distribution Services: a Cross-Case Comparison of MP3.com, Napster and Kazaa

The aim of this research is to assess the role of digital music distribution services in the downturn and restructuring of the music industry. The research was bound by the systems of innovation conceptual framework and explores the dynamics between the technical, social, legal and economic dimensions with the purpose of understanding how the traditional supply chain has changed. The cases of MP3.com, Napster and Kazaa are studied for their historical significance and the sheer breadth of issues they bring to the fore. Data was collected using documentation review and interviews. The findings of the research show that the creation of digital music distribution services initially resulted in disintermediation. However, it was not long before record companies reintermediated into the supply chain with pay-per-download (PPD) and subscription payment schemes. Today, the law seems to be catching up with entities that illegally distribute music but it has not ceased the development of newer online establishments that are technically not in breach of legislation

Control, trust, privacy, and security: evaluating location-based services

Location-based services (LBS) are those applications that utilize the position of an end-user, animal, or thing based on a given device (handheld, wearable, or implanted), for a particular purpose. This article uses scenario planning to identify the possible risks related to location-based services in the context of security and privacy. The original contribution of this article is that the dilemma has been related specifically to LBS, under the privacy-security dichotomy. Here, each side of the dichotomy is divided into three key components that combine to greatly magnify risk. Removing one or more components for each set decreases the privacy or security risk. Where more elements are present in conjunction, the risk is increased

Introducing location-based services into information technology curriculum: reflections on practice

This paper describes how location-based services (LBS) was introduced into the information technology curriculum at the University of Wollongong in 2004. The inquiry is based on two academic reflections on practice. The results indicate that students found the course experience both intellectually challenging and rewarding. Academics linked to the project found the topic aligned well to their research interests and stimulated new ideas for grant applications. And industry representatives found the experience advantageous, a vehicle for collaboration, and subsequently a way to give something back to their local community. In summary the dynamic exchange of knowledge between staff, students, and industry was very successful

Smart Environments & The Convergence of the Veillances: Privacy Violations to Consider

As a vast array of embedded smart devices will connect to the IoT (Internet of Things), society is rapidly moving into the unchartered territory of Pervasive Technology. Networks of devices will be unobtrusive; thereby freeing humans from the effort of human-to-machine (H2M) interactions, as well as elements of everyday decision-making. Technology will be far more intelligent and ubiquitous, thinking and acting for us behind the lines of visibility. The purpose of this paper is to probe the attributes of pervasive technologies (e.g. smart environments) within the context of the rapidly converging four veillances (i.e. surveillance, dataveillance, sousveillance, and uberveillance), so as to critically identify potential risk events of these processes. The authors utilized a philosophical research approach with intellectual analysis taking into account a framework of privacy border crossings violations for humans so as to yield value judgments and thereby generate discussion in the technology community