Odyssey Online

…one of the great things about blogging is it gives you a venue to pass along news articles that give one the willies (and we do think about computer security here at Odyssey Online)…this from the Washingtonpost, organized crime taking an active interest in hacking. Quote that really gives one pause, ” responded to roughly 100 confirmed data breaches last year involving roughly 285 million consumer records. That staggering number — nearly one breached record for every American — exceeds the combined total breached from break-ins the company investigated from 2004 to 2007.”

…while Odyssey Online refrains from promoting products, a new aersol has come out that allows you to spray the small of old books on something. Something like a Kindle. So, for a few bucks, you can make your Kindle smell like a book. The sensory nature of reading has been beautifully documented by writers like E.B. White, Updike, Birkerts, Neal Postman, Eudora Welty…to name a few. It does rather raise the question about if one wanted to read something that smelled like a book…why not just simply read a book?

…more along this line tomorrow…

…a beautiful bright March day here in Canton so lets ruin it by checking in with the Washington Post on new web 2.0 identity theft web sites where you can buy the information you need for a couple of bucks…don’t even have to do your own hacking…it’s insulting…

…while it could just be the lousy weather, or that I have yet another birthday looming, I feel a need to vent against mobile communcation technologies.  This is partially inspired by coming across this Conor Friedersdorf essay that argues Twitter is a Fad, is the Myspace of 2009.  From my wonderful people-watching office in ODY, there are times of day that the commencement quad is nothing but people walking (some in circles) and talking into something. Or looking down at something that has little buttons they are thumbing. Why the urgent need to communicate–or, better yet, why the aversion to walking in silence. When I talk outloud while walking I make sure to be communicating with only myself (I do talk to myself a trifle much), and I simply cannot for the life of me think about how a cross campus saunter could be bad…so my advice to any and all today is to go for a walk and talk wth no one…

Indeed, after a December hiatus that saw, well, the author grade a lot of First Year Program papers Odyssey Online is back and in its new home! Situated now like a cat under a cookstove at blogs.stlawu, you can plenty of content commentary, and the occasional hair ball I’m sure.  To start with, some technology notes in the morning news…

• Our friends at the Washington Post report that data breaches are up by a whopping 50% over 2007. Security issues are an interest here at Odysseus online, and the intent is to provide useful information on all the security issues that effect (afflict?) the online world. It’s stuff worth noting…
• The Boston Globe reported on sites like Don’tDateHimGirl.com, where individuals can publish reviews of each other as potential partners, or at least Saturday night sweethearts.  There is something incongruous about treating a former date to a review, although I’m sure there were plenty of analog equivalents…oh Facebook, what you have wrought…

More soon!