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The News - June 18, 2008
"Common-sense is part of the home-made ideology of those who have been deprived of fundamental learning, of those who have been kept ignorant. This ideology is compounded from different sources: items that have survived from religion, items of empirical knowledge, items of protective skepticism, items culled for comfort from the superficial learning that is supplied. But the point is that common-sense can never teach itself, can never advance beyond its own limits, for as soon as the lack of fundamental learning has been made good, all items become questionable and the whole function of common-sense is destroyed. Common-sense can only exist as a category insofar as it can be distinguished from the spirit of enquiry, from philosophy. ” – John Berger
Top Picks
CleanMPG.com
This website has lots of tips to get the best gas mileage out of whatever type of car or truck you drive. You may have heard the term “hypermiling”, which means to get the most you can from your vehicle and there are people beating their EPA stickers.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/
[ Interesting note – the day that CNN ran a story on the site it was so buried with traffic that the forum server repeatedly responded with a “server too busy” message. ]
Olympic visitors' data is at risk
“National security agencies are warning businesses and federal officials that laptops and e-mail devices taken to the Beijing Olympics are likely to be penetrated by Chinese agents aiming to steal secrets or plant bugs to infiltrate U.S. computer networks.”
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2008-06-10-olympicspy_N.htm?csp=34
Study: Arctic warming rate could triple
“Rapid Arctic sea ice loss could triple the rate of warming over northern Alaska, Canada and Russia and trigger permafrost thawing that unleashes extremely potent greenhouse gases, according to a new study.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25081131/
Book Recommendation
Normal Accidents by Charles Perrow
This is a great introductory book to accident theory relating to complex accidents. He uses Three Mile Island, Fermi, Bhopal and other incidents to introduce the reader to a number of fascinating concepts about how accidents come about and how simply saying “human error” is not appropriate. This is definitely a book I recommend to people interested in gaining new perspectives on how accidents can occur.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691004129?ie=UTF8&tag=georgespaffor-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0691004129
IT Audit / Internal Audit / Compliance
Comp Consultant to Pay for Backdating
“Harvey Benenson, former advisor to Cablevision, will be the first to do so. He owes $2 million as part of a $34.4 million settlement in a lawsuit brought by investors.”
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/11525586?f=alerts
It's Your Loss. (Maybe.) Now Explain It.
“The Financial Accounting Standards Board has proposed substantially increasing the amount of information that companies are required to provide to investors about potential future losses. The new rule could have a dramatic impact on how companies disclose potential liabilities in their financial reports, particularly when it comes to lawsuits.”
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/11525749?f=insidecfo
[ This could include lawsuits stemming from information security issues as well and not it would require some specifics about the dollar amount plus qualitative info. It’s definitely an interesting article. ]
Global Technology Audit Guides (GTAGs)
The Institute of Internal Auditors and their author teams have developed some great guidance on a variety of topics including IT controls, change & patch management, privacy, IT auditing, IT vulnerabilities, etc.
http://www.theiia.org/guidance/technology/gtag/
IT Process Improvement / Quality Management
Metrics and Behavior
“Metric selection takes careful planning and selection. All too often we take a junior IT person who can use a report writer, hand them a copy of a list of ITSM metrics and tell them to generate a report that shows these. That is really a shame because metrics are an integral part of the processes that we implement and improve. What we’ve learned is that metrics need to be planned and managed for a variety of reasons.”
https://swarm.jupitermedia.com/itsmwatch/2008/06/metrics-and-behavior.html
Demand for Data Puts Engineers in Spotlight
“In Silicon Valley, the stars have long been charismatic marketing visionaries and cool-nerd software wizards. By contrast, mechanical engineers who design and run computer data centers were traditionally regarded as little more than blue-collar workers in the high-tech world.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/technology/17data.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
Security and Risk Management
Tripwire has a Blog
Tripwire now has a blog and are covering a variety of topics including virtualization.
http://www.tripwire.org/blog
DarkReading
This is an interesting security news website.
http://www.darkreading.com/
Emergency Management: Observations on DHS's Preparedness for Catastrophic Disasters
GAO-08-868T, June 11, 2008.
The report is at: http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-868T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08868thigh.pdf
Security hole in software exposes world's utilities to Net attacks
“Attackers could gain control of water treatment plants, natural gas pipelines and other critical utilities because of a vulnerability in the software that runs some of those facilities, security researchers reported Wednesday.”
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/hacking/2008-06-11-utlities-net-attacks_N.htm?csp=34
Healthcare / Bio-Informatics / Care Delivery Organizations (CDOs)
For hospitals, Sarbanes Act a shot in arm
“Big nonprofit hospital systems -- with their billion-dollar budgets and lucrative ventures -- are run much like corporations. Now some of these systems are tackling something that has become a part of daily life for publicly traded companies: the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.”
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080609/BUSINESS09/806090315/1109/BUSINESS09
Upgrade health care digitally
“Congress can lead the effort to make health care more accessible and affordable by encouraging the use of information technology (IT), coupled with initiatives to improve efficiency. This is a concept that manufacturers know well.”
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/OPINION02/806110326
[ This opinion piece was written by John Engler, the former three term governor of the state of Michigan. ]
U.S. life expectancy still trails 30 countries
“For the first time, U.S. life expectancy has surpassed 78 years, the government reported Wednesday. The increase is due mainly to falling mortality rates in almost all the leading causes of death, federal health officials said. The average life expectancy for babies born in 2006 was about four months greater than for children born in 2005.”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/06/11/life.expectancy.ap/index.html
Human Error / Safety / Environment
Poll: Stress of debt takes physical toll
“When people are dealing with mountains of debt, they're much more likely to report health problems, too, according to an Associated Press-AOL Health poll. And not just little stuff; this means ulcers, severe depression, even heart attacks.”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/06/09/stressing.over.debt.ap/index.html
Survey Finds Data Centers Lagging in Green Actions
“The report is the second in a two-part series of data center surveys asking more than 100 data center professionals about attitudes and actions on green IT. In the latest survey, Aperture found that most inaction is due to data centers not having the right tools and processes in place.”
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news/2008/05/30/survey-finds-data-centers-lagging-green-actions
Vtital Signs of a Warming World
Interactive presentation at MSNBC.com with additional information (pictures and videos) depending on what you select.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19463513/
Global News / Business / Economics
China's Local Leaders Hold Absolute Power
“Despite three decades of widely heralded economic reforms, the party has clung tenaciously to its Leninist-inspired monopoly on politics. As a result, most of China's 1.3 billion people still live under the thumb of local party secretaries who are responsible only to the higher-level party officials who appoint them.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/09/AR2008060902530.html?nav=rss_world
28 Chinese Officials Cited for Quake Laxity
“The Chinese Communist Party has disciplined 28 officials and promoted 50 as a result of their performances during rescue operations after the devastating May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province, the party said Tuesday.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061000577.html?nav=rss_world
How China's plastic bag ban works
“China's ban on free plastic bags has met with a mixed response since it took effect on June 1. However, the ban has been implemented fairly well, especially in supermarkets and large department stores across China.”
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90780/91345/6432630.html
US News / Business / Economics
Americans $1.7 trillion poorer
“Americans saw their net worth decline by $1.7 trillion in the first quarter - the biggest drop since 2002 - as declines in home values and the stock market ravaged their holdings.”
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/05/news/economy/fundflows/index.htm?postversion=2008060516
Banks vs. Consumers (Guess Who Wins)
“Often without knowing it, individuals agree in the fine print of their credit-card applications to arbitrate any disputes over bills rather than have the cases go to court. What consumers also don't know is that NAF, which dominates credit-card arbitration, operates a system in which it is exceedingly difficult for individuals to prevail.”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_24/b4088072611398.htm?campaign_id=rss_null
Now This Really Is an Oil Shock
[Instead of blaming oil companies] “… consumers offered a much broader array of explanations for high prices, including lack of conservation, too much dependence on foreign oil, and war in the Middle East. They even included a couple of villains that hadn't popped up last year—the shrinking dollar and speculators driving up the price.”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_24/b4088034596728.htm?campaign_id=rss_null
Tech giant Intel joins IBM and Applied in big solar bet
“While they have very early stage development in the works for some new and novel technology to reduce the manufacturing costs of solar cells, they are not sharing details. The Spectrawatt core business today will be about building a company to manufacture crystalline silicon based solar cells. In the near term the business will be buying wafers and manufacturing cells.”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9971003-54.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=GreenTech
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