Month: April 2011

Speed Demon – TomTom Has You Tagged

Apparently, some models TomTom GPS sends your GPS data back to the central office.  TomTom then feed this back to local government and law enforcement authorities.

Now they say they will stop doing that.  I think they should be sued.  They should have put some note in plain sight, saying that using this device may provide your speed to the police.  If you are thinking that speeding is against the law, it kills, etc.  You won’t get an argument from me, but I don’t think companies should be providing information about your behavior to law enforcement without you first knowing that could happen.

Saw this story over at Slashdot.

 

GPS Maker TomTom Submits Your Speed Data To Police

Posted by timothy on Thursday April 28, @01:58PM
from the put-your-speed-trap-riiiiight-here dept.
An anonymous reader writes “The GPS systems in TomTom’s Live range all feature built-in 3G data cards, which feed location and route information back to a central server. According to CNET, this data, along with users’ speed information, is being made available to local governments and the police.” From the article: “Knowing the cops can see where you’re driving and how fast you’re going is eye-opening stuff, but TomTom says the data is anonymous and can never be traced back to an individual user or device. Ordinarily, we’d be reassured by this, but we recall Apple saying something similar before the location-tracking excrement hit the phone-carrying fan.”

Sitting All Day : Bad For You

I was listening to this story about how sitting is bad for your health.  Actually, it worst than you may thing.  I too work at a desk, sitting all day and then sitting in a car on the way to and from work.

No wonder I am pining for my days on the farm.  Yes, the farm, my farm.  I can’t wait to get to living on my farm.  You don’t need to live/work on a farm to be more active.  But, for me, it is something I am have been dreaming of since I was a kid.

Robot Overlords – One Step Closer

This college student developed a piece of software he is calling Predator.  Yes, predator.  Predator is a video tracking software that leans about the subject it is tracking.  Even if the subject leaves the screen or the camera changes angle about the subject.

I say, Predator and software like is are just taking us ever so close to the day when we put all of this stuff into a fairly competent machine and we may not like the result.

Close Call – For Long Separated Bother and Sister

George and Sara Bentley almost got it ‘on’.   They meet though an online dating site and decided to go out.  Just before things heat up though, fortunately or at least that is what they are saying, they realized they are siblings.  The two were separated years ago.

That is why you need to know your family, extended family, and just to be safe–run a background check and DNA test.

US Army Soldiers to Program for Android

From this story over at Gizmodo, looks like the US Army will be releasing their Android SDK in soon and Soldiers will be taking Android devices to the field in 2013.

Nice, just what you want.  A dude who can write code to fight you.  I can see it now, some years into the future.  Two soldiers are out on the field trying to write code to out smart each other.

Apple Can Track Every iPhone User

If I had an iPhone, I would be mad as hell and would probably try to get rid of it soon.  I am an Android user and it is not as smooth now, as the iPhone.  But man do I love it openness.

Saw this on Slashdot:

Apple Logging Locations of All iPhone Users

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 20, @10:16AM
from the are-you-scared-yet dept.
An anonymous reader writes “The Guardian reports that researchers have found a hidden file on all iPhones, iPads and any computers to which they synchronize, logging timestamped latitude and longitude coordinates of the user since June 2010. A tool is available on their website to check on your own.”

Carbon : Very Strong Atom

So Earth day is coming up and Robert Krulwich over at Krulwich Wonders have this mini-series of video on the good old Carbon atom.  Trust me, these isn’t any there about the pros vs cons of Global Warming.  Just some short entertaining and educational videos about the Carbon atom.  Highly recommended, go check it out.  I think it will eventually about four(4) videos, as of today, there are there (3).