Friday, 7 June 2013
Sunday, 2 June 2013
Sunday night nerd
Replace MacBook Air harddrive @iFixit [YouTube] youtube.com/watch?v=PnV7mHS7Qi8 macupgrades.co.uk [pic]
Saturday, 1 June 2013
Monday, 27 May 2013
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Facebook privacy horror
My current favourite Facebook privacy horror is the new app permission to take photos when it wants & know exactly where you are.
"Fine (GPS) location - Access fine location sources such as the Global Positioning System on the phone, where available. Malicious applications can use this to determine where you are, and may consume additional battery power.
Take pictures and videos - allows the application to take pictures and videos with the camera. This allows the application at any time to collect images the camera is seeing."
Couple that together with the rollout of Facebook's new Photo Sync feature, which started yesterday, and "Once enabled, every photo you take gets uploaded with no work on your part."
http://m.techcrunch.com/2012/12/01/facebook-photo-sync-data/
It takes photos and videos when it wants and keeps them on Facebook where it may come under their licence, terms & conditions.
Oh, forgot to mention. The app's new permissions also include:-
"Read phone state and identity - allows the application to access the phone features of the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.
Record audio - allows the application to access the audio record path."
I love the insanely glib 'and the like'
So if you download the current Facebook app for Android and choose to "Get started" with Facebook Photo Sync, you're allowing Facebook to use your phone as a video & sound recording device and save all recordings for Facebook's use.
Have you seen Enemy Of The State with Will Smith & Gene Hackman?
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/
Where the government needs to place 6 tracking devices on Will Smith to find him, hope to capture his face on CCTV or satellite imagery that they have to manually process to identify him, break into his home to place cameras and microphones to watch and listen to him, and tap his phone to find out who he's calling?...
...No need. With the latest Facebook app for Android, Facebook Photo Sync and Facebook facial recognition; the tracking devices, microphones, cameras, and phone taps are all there on your mobile for Facebook to access at any time and process automatically.
How helpfully efficient of them!!!
While writing this I have noticed the tagline for Enemy Of The State: "It's not paranoia if they're really after you."
Before you ask; I have not downloaded the new Facebook app, I have not enabled Photo Sync.
The moral of the story; be careful what you publish online and who you give permission to access your information and your devices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dvvLzNC3hE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Best regards
Mark K Smitham
"Fine (GPS) location - Access fine location sources such as the Global Positioning System on the phone, where available. Malicious applications can use this to determine where you are, and may consume additional battery power.
Take pictures and videos - allows the application to take pictures and videos with the camera. This allows the application at any time to collect images the camera is seeing."
Couple that together with the rollout of Facebook's new Photo Sync feature, which started yesterday, and "Once enabled, every photo you take gets uploaded with no work on your part."
http://m.techcrunch.com/2012/12/01/facebook-photo-sync-data/
It takes photos and videos when it wants and keeps them on Facebook where it may come under their licence, terms & conditions.
Oh, forgot to mention. The app's new permissions also include:-
"Read phone state and identity - allows the application to access the phone features of the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.
Record audio - allows the application to access the audio record path."
I love the insanely glib 'and the like'
So if you download the current Facebook app for Android and choose to "Get started" with Facebook Photo Sync, you're allowing Facebook to use your phone as a video & sound recording device and save all recordings for Facebook's use.
Have you seen Enemy Of The State with Will Smith & Gene Hackman?
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/
Where the government needs to place 6 tracking devices on Will Smith to find him, hope to capture his face on CCTV or satellite imagery that they have to manually process to identify him, break into his home to place cameras and microphones to watch and listen to him, and tap his phone to find out who he's calling?...
...No need. With the latest Facebook app for Android, Facebook Photo Sync and Facebook facial recognition; the tracking devices, microphones, cameras, and phone taps are all there on your mobile for Facebook to access at any time and process automatically.
How helpfully efficient of them!!!
While writing this I have noticed the tagline for Enemy Of The State: "It's not paranoia if they're really after you."
Before you ask; I have not downloaded the new Facebook app, I have not enabled Photo Sync.
The moral of the story; be careful what you publish online and who you give permission to access your information and your devices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dvvLzNC3hE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Best regards
Mark K Smitham
Email: maakusan@yahoo.com
Twitter: @maakusan
Web: www.maakusan.com
Written on my Sony Xperia
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
The Professionals...
...government IT professionals. Following on from my blog posts last week on mentoring and how good mentoring can only improve your professionalism, the theme for this week's blog posts is Government IT Professionalism.
On Thursday 27 January 2011, the Home Office Government IT Profession facilitated a Focus Session entitled "Government IT Profession as a Key Resource" by Kate Silver, Deputy Director of the Government IT Profession. The Government IT Profession is a team in the Cabinet Office responsible for leading government IT as a profession. Kate was keen to stress at the outset of the session that the "key resource" is not the Government IT Profession team themselves but the people who are IT professionals in government.
So, dear Reader, what is driving the government it profession and makes that resource so key in the first place? Well, there is a strong push in the current climate to achieve "Better for Less". Not more, better. There is also the need for transparency and open information management. And finally I should mention that good government IT professionals are key to putting pressure on suppliers in order for government to deliver better for less and be as transparent as possible.
Supplier pressure has seen 800m pounds shaved off contracts already. This is principly achieved by leveraging Crown buying power, delivering shared services in a more service oriented way, such as G-Cloud, and reducing reliance on external resource; consultants/contractors/interims.
Reliance on external resource has been brought before parliamentary committees by Sir Gus O'Donnell and Ian Watmore. 1bn pounds was spent on consultants/contractors/interims in the financisal year 2009/10. 60% of that, up from 50% the previous year, was spent on IT and Project and Programme Management (PPM). 4 out of every 10 pounds in the Home Office is spent on IT and PPM. So, dear Reader, you can see the importance of good government IT professionals as a key resource.
There are 7 government professions; IT, HR, PPM, Procurement, Comms, Analysts (statisticians and economists), and Knowledge & Information Management (KIM). Each of these are important in there own fields but you can see the importance of a strong government IT profession. It is possible to change profession in your career or even be dual profession.
If the government IT profession is a key resource then what is being done to make it as strong as possible?
The Government IT Profession, centrally from within the Cabinet Office, provides government IT professionals with a toolkit to enable them to progress and strengthen their career. This toolkit consts of; Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), qualifications framework, role profiles, redeployment service, knowledge bank, job space. In addition, the team are also responsible for the Technology in Business Fast Stream (TiB).
SFIA helps us to map out the skills we have and the skills we need and the qualifications framework helps to accredited those skills gained from professional experience. These both feed into the role profiles that describe the ideal model for staff to fulfil a position appropriately.
Once government has ideally skilled and qualified staff in the appropriate roles, then we need to ensure that this expertise is shared across and held within government. This is where the redeployment service, knoweldge bank, and job space come in. These are hosted on the Government IT Profession website http://it.civilservice.gov.uk
Government needs a strong resource of IT professionals and the Government IT Profession has provided a toolkit to enable those professionals to strengthen their careers. So what can government IT professionals do to help? What can we do to put ourselves in a position to go forward?
Firstly, know your skillset from:
- your current role
- your previous roles
- where these fit to SFIA
- your 10 strongest skills
Secondly, know your core competencies that can be evidenced from actiivities outside work or previous work.
Finally, take responsibility for your career. Know your current situation, the opportunities and threats. Keep your head up - do some horizon scanning and see where the business is going - sign up for Computer Weekly, it's FREE!. Invest now in your future career - don't expect to stay in the same department.
On Thursday 27 January 2011, the Home Office Government IT Profession facilitated a Focus Session entitled "Government IT Profession as a Key Resource" by Kate Silver, Deputy Director of the Government IT Profession. The Government IT Profession is a team in the Cabinet Office responsible for leading government IT as a profession. Kate was keen to stress at the outset of the session that the "key resource" is not the Government IT Profession team themselves but the people who are IT professionals in government.
So, dear Reader, what is driving the government it profession and makes that resource so key in the first place? Well, there is a strong push in the current climate to achieve "Better for Less". Not more, better. There is also the need for transparency and open information management. And finally I should mention that good government IT professionals are key to putting pressure on suppliers in order for government to deliver better for less and be as transparent as possible.
Supplier pressure has seen 800m pounds shaved off contracts already. This is principly achieved by leveraging Crown buying power, delivering shared services in a more service oriented way, such as G-Cloud, and reducing reliance on external resource; consultants/contractors/interims.
Reliance on external resource has been brought before parliamentary committees by Sir Gus O'Donnell and Ian Watmore. 1bn pounds was spent on consultants/contractors/interims in the financisal year 2009/10. 60% of that, up from 50% the previous year, was spent on IT and Project and Programme Management (PPM). 4 out of every 10 pounds in the Home Office is spent on IT and PPM. So, dear Reader, you can see the importance of good government IT professionals as a key resource.
There are 7 government professions; IT, HR, PPM, Procurement, Comms, Analysts (statisticians and economists), and Knowledge & Information Management (KIM). Each of these are important in there own fields but you can see the importance of a strong government IT profession. It is possible to change profession in your career or even be dual profession.
If the government IT profession is a key resource then what is being done to make it as strong as possible?
The Government IT Profession, centrally from within the Cabinet Office, provides government IT professionals with a toolkit to enable them to progress and strengthen their career. This toolkit consts of; Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), qualifications framework, role profiles, redeployment service, knowledge bank, job space. In addition, the team are also responsible for the Technology in Business Fast Stream (TiB).
SFIA helps us to map out the skills we have and the skills we need and the qualifications framework helps to accredited those skills gained from professional experience. These both feed into the role profiles that describe the ideal model for staff to fulfil a position appropriately.
Once government has ideally skilled and qualified staff in the appropriate roles, then we need to ensure that this expertise is shared across and held within government. This is where the redeployment service, knoweldge bank, and job space come in. These are hosted on the Government IT Profession website http://it.civilservice.gov.uk
Government needs a strong resource of IT professionals and the Government IT Profession has provided a toolkit to enable those professionals to strengthen their careers. So what can government IT professionals do to help? What can we do to put ourselves in a position to go forward?
Firstly, know your skillset from:
- your current role
- your previous roles
- where these fit to SFIA
- your 10 strongest skills
Secondly, know your core competencies that can be evidenced from actiivities outside work or previous work.
Finally, take responsibility for your career. Know your current situation, the opportunities and threats. Keep your head up - do some horizon scanning and see where the business is going - sign up for Computer Weekly, it's FREE!. Invest now in your future career - don't expect to stay in the same department.
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