Media Bits & Bytes -This News Isn't New Edition- June 26,2012

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 Online Ads That Know Who You Know

 by Antonio Regalado

 Technology Review
 June 22, 2012

 http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428048/online-ads-that-know-who-you-know/

 The Internet is buzzing with advertising firms that follow
 Web users from site to site, and now there's technology that
 figures out who you share news and ideas with. It's called
 "social retargeting," and it's like automated "word-of-
 mouth" marketing. A new application is a Trojan horse
 strategy that can follow the links you use, even if you're
 not on Twitter or Facebook.

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 A Weapon We Can't Control

 By Misha Glenny

 New York Times
 Opinion
 June 24, 2012

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/opinion/stuxnet-will-come-back-to-haunt-us.html

 The decision by the United States and Israel to develop and
 then deploy the Stuxnet computer worm against an Iranian
 nuclear facility late in George W. Bush's presidency marked
 a significant and dangerous turning point in the gradual
 militarization of the Internet. If it continues,
 contemporary warfare will change fundamentally as we move
 into hazardous and uncharted territory, because unlike
 nuclear or chemical weapons, countries are developing
 cyberweapons outside any regulatory framework.

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 Color Of Change applauds Dell's decision to cut ties with ALEC

 By Campaign Staff

 ColorofChange.org
 June 21, 2012

 http://www.colorofchange.org/blog/2012/jun/21/colorofchange-applauds-dells-decision-end-its-memb/

 Today, tech industry giant Dell dropped its membership in
 the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the group
 that has pushed discriminatory voter ID legislation
 throughout the country. With its decision, Dell becomes the
 20th corporation to announce that it's left ALEC since
 ColorOfChange launched its campaign to stop corporate-funded
 voter suppression. We applaud the company for doing the
 right thing and encourage corporations still standing by
 ALEC to follow suit.

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 If CPB is defunded, 130 stations `at high risk'

 By Steve Behrens

 Current
 June 25, 2012 

http://www.current.org/funding/funding1212cpb-booz-report.html

 What if Congress stopped allocating federal aid to public
 broadcasting? The latest bleak financial analysis from the
 Corporation for Public Broadcasting, released last week,
 adds some specifics about how service would be affected
 across the country.

 Fifty-four public TV licensees in 19 states and 76 public
 radio operators in 38 states would be "at high risk of no
 longer being able to sustain operations" if federal aid
 ends, CPB asserts in a report delivered to Congress. It
 found no viable alternative income streams if Congressional
 funding is eliminated. The full report is posted on CPB's
 site.

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 How to blow $6 billion on a tech project

 by Sean Gallagher

 Ars Technica
 June 18 2012 

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/how-to-blow-6-billion-on-a-tech-project/2/

 The Army's canceled Ground Mobile Radio cost $6 billion to
 fail.

 In 1997, the Defense Department began its quest for the
 software-defined radios that, like computers, could be
 reprogrammed for different missions and could communicate
 with everything the US military used. The goal was to solve
 radio problems like in Afghanistan, when soldiers who
 watched an ambush were unable to use the many incompatible
 radio systems they carried.  But the program meant to fix
 the mess, called the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS),
 became a massive 15- year software and hardware mess of its
 own, and a financial disaster for the DOD. Billions were
 thrown away on technology that will never see the light of
 day.

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 Facebook Acquires Israeli Facial Recognition Company

 By Somini Sengupta

 New York Times
 June 18, 2012

 http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/facebook-acquires-israeli-facial-recognition-company/

 Facebook, the largest repository of pictures anywhere and at
 any time in history, has acquired an Israeli company, called
 face.com, that makes facial recognition technology.  The
 technology can identify not only individuals but also their
 gender and age.  Face.com's application allows users to
 click a picture of their Facebook "friends" and tag it
 automatically before posting it on Facebook or iPhones.

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 It's the end of books as you knew them: E-books out-sell
 hardbound for the 1st time

 By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

 ZDnet
 June 18, 2012

 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/its-the-end-of-books-as-you-knew-them-e-books-out-sell-hardbound-for-the-1st-time/2505


 You knew this was coming --  for the first time, adult eBook
 sales were higher than adult hardcover sales. It wasn't even
 close. The Association of American Publishers reported that
 in the first quarter of 2012, adult eBook sales were up to
 $282.3 million while adult hardcover sales came to only
 $229.6 million.  The conventional wisdom had been that e-
 books would eat up hardbound book sales. But instead, it's
 paperback books that are really taking the hit.

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 Lack of computer access a major hurdle for the poor

 By Alfred Lubrano

 Philadelphia Inquirer
 June 12, 2012

 http://articles.philly.com/2012-06-12/news/32175613_1_internet-access-computer-food-stamps


 Throughout the nation, a stark divide separates those with
 access to computers and training, and those without.  For
 low- income Americans, it's akin to being stuck yelling out
 a window to communicate while everyone else is using the
 phone.

 Overall, 90+ percent of Americans making more than between
 $50,000 are online, according to a new study from the Pew
 Research Center. But among Americans who make less than
 $30,000 a year, just 62 percent are online. And only 43
 percent of people without high school diplomas use the
 Internet, compared with 94 percent of people with college
 degrees.

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