Open-plan offices are making workers sick, say Australian scientists | Top Stories | News.com.au
According to this study, “…working in an open plan office is bad for your health.” Since privacy risks are also increased in an open office it would be nice to see the end of the cube farm. There are two big privacy risks in the cube farm. The first has to do with protecting the privacy of the individuals whose information is being used by the workers in the cube farm. This risk includes shoulder surfing, information left on desks, and overheard conversations. The second privacy risk is to the employees themselves. Any open office can go from community to prison fairly quickly depending on the management culture.
Open-plan offices are making workers sick
January 14th, 2009Australia Offers Best Blogging/Snorkeling Job In The World
January 12th, 2009Australia Offers Best Blogging/Snorkeling Job In The World
Job duties include fish feeding, snorkeling and blogging about your experience.
Sign me up!
The greatest Russians of all time?
January 10th, 2009From Guy Gavriel Kay in the Globe and Mail today:
globeandmail.com: The greatest Russians of all time?
Denying, suppressing, falsifying the past, however savage it might have been (perhaps especially when it was savage) exposes a society to the raw power of history when it isn’t dealt with. And that is a power strong as glaciers grinding everything in their path, shaping a landscape. It is critical to realize that this isn’t some abstract, intellectual issue. It defines the world today, from Moscow to the Middle East, Kosovo to Kenya.
Blunt message about welfare
December 29th, 2008An opinion piece on TheStar.com includes the following, “Canada strips welfare recipients of so much – their pride, their privacy, their savings, their ability to provide basic necessities for their children – that many will never escape poverty.” By stripping privacy and dignity away with food and shelter, we are effectively removing fundamental civil liberties. While the immediate privacy impact is on the homeless and the poor, this degrades all of our liberties.
I haven’t read the report underlying this comment but I suspect that the article may actually be softening the message. Canada is introducing it’s own ‘untouchable’ and invisible caste. Do you make eye contact with the homeless and the panhandlers on Canada’s streets?
PS. Why is that we think that Third World countries have beggars, but we have homeless people and panhandlers. Just how big is our level of self delusion and unjustified self satisfaction at the prosperity of Canadian society?
PPS. Check out the comments following the article, and see the outrage directed against the welfare recipients.
New Style Executive Recruiting
December 29th, 2008I saw this video via Doc Searl’s blog from the Have Mac Will Blog blog. A sign of the times perhaps?
Hundreds of Stolen Data Dumps Found – Security Fix
December 19th, 2008Hundreds of Stolen Data Dumps Found – Security Fix
According this this article, “…criminals can make hundreds, even thousands, of dollars a day selling data stolen with the help of widely available software toolkits.” Not a surprise. The blog post from the researchers, including a link to the technical report, can be found here: http://honeyblog.org/archives/9-Banking-Trojans.html
On Harper’s Economic Advisory Group
December 19th, 2008It’s Harper’s council, not Flaherty’s since Harper would not allow independent thinking or pronouncements from any of his Ministers.
This is a very ‘business oriented’ team. It seems like there is two fold thinking behind the selections. One is that this isn’t a group formed to deal with a national economic crises, but a group to address business recovery. In a situation where we may need out of the box thinking, this group defines the box. The second string to Harper’s bow is that this is a ‘bi-partisan’ group, in the sense that it looks there is involvement from Liberal and Conservative supporters. This serves the partisan purpose of deflating support for the coalition and keeping Harper in power.
In other words this is small minded thinking from a narrow thinking man.
If one were to try and predict the kind of advice that this group will come up with, a focus on big business support and tax breaks for the rich seem likely. Union busting legislation probably won’t be far behind. It could easily be a case of disaster capitalism. We have a disaster and Harper is reaching for the ideas that are on his shelf.
Oh, my poor Canada.
Majel Roddenberry … you will be missed.
December 18th, 2008A sad day for nerds, geeks, and SF fans:
Majel Roddenberry, widow of ‘Trek’ creator, dies
`Star Trek’ will always be her legacy
Identity 2.0 · Privacy Issue or Feature: Unpleasant vs Pleasant Surprise
December 18th, 2008This does a nice job of capturing the subjective nature of privacy, and how inappropriate use requires user engagement:
Identity 2.0 · Privacy Issue or Feature: Unpleasant vs Pleasant Surprise
Major Web browsers fail password protection tests
December 16th, 2008Major Web browsers fail password protection tests | Zero Day | ZDNet.com
That nifty password management feature in your favorite Web browser could be helping identity thieves pilfer your personal data.