Author: Andy Tytla

Published: 237 articles

e-Defense

Learning self-defense techniques is good idea. Judo, for example, can be a rich source and has been around for hundreds of years.

What about your “online self?” I know people in law enforcement and they’ve told me to never assume your data is safe. Anything coming across the Internet isn’t. Enter the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) with their Surveillance Self-Defense:

After an introductory discussion of how you should think about making security decisions — it’s all about risk management — we’ll be answering those two questions for three types of data:

First, we’re going to talk about the threat to the data stored on your computer posed by searches and seizures by law enforcement, as well as subpoenas demanding your records.

Second, we’re going to talk about the threat to your data on the wire — that is, your data as it’s being transmitted — posed by wiretapping and other real-time surveillance of your telephone and Internet communications by law enforcement.

Third, we’re going to describe the information about you that is stored by third parties like your phone company and your Internet service provider, and how law enforcement officials can get it.

In each of these three sections, we’re going to give you practical advice about how to protect your private data against law enforcement agents.

In a fourth section, we’ll also provide some basic information about the U.S. government’s expanded legal authority when it comes to foreign intelligence and terrorism investigations.

Finally, we’ve collected several articles about specific defensive technologies that you can use to protect your privacy, which are linked to from the other sections or can be accessed individually. So, for example, if you’re only looking for information about how to securely delete your files, or how to use encryption to protect the privacy of your emails or instant messages, you can just directly visit that article.

I plan to get into the details myself. Good stuff.

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Minivan Visibility

Interesting. The new Mitsubishi Delica comes with a bird’s eye view. The news, via Tech On, in Japanese-style English:

The Multi-Around Monitor System processes images shot by four cameras and displays a view from above the vehicle on the monitor. In addition, the front camera, which is equipped with a function to detect obstacles, detects vehicles, bikes and pedestrians approaching from either side of a blind intersection and warns the driver by sound and visual alerts.

As for the systems to display bird’s eye views, Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Honda Motor Co Ltd have already commercialized the “Around-View Monitor” and the “Multi-View Camera System,” respectively. But parts manufacturers of the two systems are different from Mitsubishi’s system.

Also, Mitsubishi’s system is the first one to detect obstacles by using a front camera that is used for bird’s eye viewing. The company is currently developing the two functions aiming at commercialization.

Mitsubishi developed the bird’s eye view system with Clarion and used a 250,000-pixel CCD for the front camera. Nissan’s system employs a 1.35-Mpixel CMOS camera develooped by Sony Corp, while Honda’s system is mounted with Panasonic Corp’s 350,000-pixel CCD camera. In terms of resolution, Mitsubishi’s system is similar to the one developed by Honda.

I’m particularly fond of Mitsubishi’s new tag line for the Lancer, “saving the world from global blanding.” It’s got legs.

Wonder if this minivan finds its way to the U.S.

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