Is this funny? Or cruel? Or imaginative? Or annoying? Or clever? Or just sad?
Only you can decide!
(Or is that not the way ‘ethics’ work these days?)
Category Archives: Computing
Drop the Dead Donkey! (Is that really ‘News’?)
Most of us, watching TV from time-to-time, find ourselves saying, “Why’s that made the news? Surely there are more important stories?” That may well be true so is there a logical way to approach the issue?
Let’s start with a couple of extreme examples, to try to get a feel for this:
- On May 7th this year, the UK went to the polls to elect a new government. Just about every news programme on radio and TV, as well as the whole Press, led with variants on the ‘story’ “Voters start voting in the General Election”. But was this actually ‘news’?
- At the other end of the scale, what about the dog that can play the piano? (Or any similar ‘and finally’ space-filler.) Is it worth the space?
A Real “Marauder’s Map”?
This follows on from last month’s post, in which we discussed the possibility of a future Shazam for People service and extends it to the concept of a ‘universal tracking system’ or real-world Marauder’s Map …
So, just how feasible is it?
The ‘Prof on a Train’ Game
The Shazam for People discussion revisited as an article, ‘Identity Voyeurism‘, in September 2015’s British Computer Society (BCS) IT Now Magazine, made all the more relevant by recent breaches of personal privacy …
There’s more than one type of identity ‘crisis’. Conventional identity ‘theft’ is one thing but what of identity ‘voyeurism’? How much of ‘us’ is ‘in the shop window’ anyway? Are we in control? What are the risks? And where’s it heading?
The next time you’re on public transport, try playing the ‘Prof on a Train’ (PoaT) game. (It doesn’t really have to be a train or an academic but it’s a good example to work with.) Take a look at the person opposite you. Armed only with your senses, intelligence, intuition and an Internet connection, how much can you find out about them?
Well, if they’re quietly dozing in the corner, unremarkably dressed, with no distinguishing features whatsoever, you’ll probably lose. However, any activity at all or any visible clues might give you a chance. Are they doing, reading, saying or wearing anything? Who’s with them? Are they easier to identify? Where did they get on and do you know where they’re going? Anything odd? Here’s the basic strategy, on which PoaT is based:
They’re reading an academic paper on a certain subject (X) and you know where they got on (Y). A quick look at the photos on the ‘Department of X’ webpage for the ‘University of Y’ might be enough.
Under the lamp
Turing's Radiator 