Big Brother Tracks Your Cell Phone
Technology can be a wonderful thing. Over the years, it has given us the automobile, the airplane, the personal computer, and the cellular phone, perhaps the most versatile device each of us uses today. Cellular technology has advanced so much that, in emergencies, we can simply dial 911, whereupon the emergency dispatcher can locate us and direct emergency services right to us. But now, as it is wont to do, government has found yet another way to intrude in our lives, further eroding our constitutionally protected right to privacy. (more…)
The Internet: Necessary Evil or Secret Partner?
Forty years ago, as UCLA Professor Leonard Kleinrock and his computer science students logged onto a Stanford University computer and attempted to send data, the Internet showed great promise. Or did it? While that initial attempt–typing the word “login” and verifying that the letters appeared on the remote terminal–resulted in the Stanford computer crashing, the Internet has matured such that vast quantities of information are just a few keystrokes away; but it also delivers graphic pornography alongside beheadings by terrorists. Is the Internet a necessity or a secret partner?
Until 1987, the Internet was not accessible by the general public. Today, only 20-some years later, it has changed life as we know it, and some say in the wrong direction, since it seems to foster interaction via computer rather than face-to-face, a situation that itself seems to attract some of society’s less than sociable citizens. From “You’ve Got Mail” to SPAM, from Facebook and MySpace to the Craig’s List killer, all manner of evils have been perpetrated over the Internet, yet it has also spawned the explosive expansion of collaboration and information sharing. With YouTube and Twitter, chat rooms and blogs, we are able to express thoughts and debate issues of the day in ways completely unimaginable just a few generations ago. (more…)
