Cuppabits January 11th

Running late this morning. Latest items will be on the top
– — –

And finally,

is your spare change spying on you?

Money talks, but can it also follow your movements? That’s a question the Associated Press is asking this morning following a warning from the Pentagon that someone used “Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside” to spy on Americans, according to the Associated Press.

AP says “the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada.”

Security experts told The Canadian Press the miniature devices could be used to track movement. [AP via USATODAY]

But now it’s Canadian coins being used to spy on people travelling from the US to Canada?

I’m not sure if I want to go to war with Canada. Aren’t they like French or something?

Wait, who are we supposed to be warring against today?

– — –

I’m thinking about putting together an article for the romance authors who have websites with Access Romance and that started me thinking about security issues I might want to discuss. Password selection is important to many, simply because they don’t know how easy passwords are to crack, should anyone REALLY want to do you harm.

Here’s a background piece on passwords from today’s Wired blog [WIRED]

– — –

Cisco suing Apple over the iPhone name. We were misinformed yesterday when we reported that Apple purchased/licensed the name — turns out that Apple WAS in talks, but that someone dragged their feet on the thing, and Apple went ahead with the announcement anyway.

Now, the iPhone now to be referred to as “iPwned!!and11!!”
(It’s a geek speak thing. Refers to being owned as in “beaten” in video gaming - LINK)

A quick reference on how the music interface is going to work; vid from Apple via YouTube:

Spooky having this much power in the palm of your hand.

Back to the lawsuit, here’s Cisco’s take on events from their corporate blog:

So, I was surprised and disappointed when Apple decided to go ahead and announce their new product with our trademarked name without reaching an agreement. It was essentially the equivalent of “we’re too busy.” Despite being very close to an agreement, we had no substantive communication from Apple after 8pm Monday, including after their launch, when we made clear we expected closure. What were the issues at the table that kept us from an agreement? Was it money? No. Was it a royalty on every Apple phone? No. Was it an exchange for Cisco products or services? No.

Basically, Cisco wanted something more valuable than money: A cooperative deal, a partnership.

Apple said “Meh”

While this could get ugly, the phone is still going to do everything but walk your cat…

It won’t be the iPhone, but people will still call it that. Apple wins.

– — –

Two items of interest in the sporting world:

One, an aging but still very photogenic European soccer star is getting $250million so he can cheat on his wife in Los Angeles

Two, Barry Bonds got caught using amphetamines, but Barry claims he’s innocent of purposefully taking the uppers. Claims he stole the drugs from a teammate’s locker, so he’s not guilty of drug use, just theft.

– — –

Watching movies on your computer the same week they show up at the theater?

Illegal? You bet. Immoral. Uh, sure.

How is this possible? A YouTube clone and a website that collects the movie links and posts them in a nicely organized fashion.

http://movies.peekvid.com
CHILDREN OF MEN, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM are just two recent movies available to watch there. The versions aren’t great, but they ARE the movies — looks like they’re filmed in movie theaters in Russia.

Sure, it’ll be shutdown soon enough. Thought I’d give you a head’s up first.

– — –

Running late this morning. Latest items will be on the top