Geotagging, the Internet and online privacy

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GEOTAGGING: Internet safety and online security

THE Internet and privacy have been major concerns in the past decade — and rightly so. Facebook alone has been caught up in several court cases in the past few years, which has seen the service making major revisions to their privacy policies. Facebook aside, several of the latest gadgets on the market today automatically make use of geotagging, which infuses media such as photographs with location-based information or metadata, which is perhaps the bigger concern when it comes to privacy and security online.

What is geotagging?

The following definition of geotagging is taken from the official homepage of the U.S. army which is trying to discourage troopers from using social media services and risk compromising their positions.

“Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification to photographs, video, websites and SMS messages. It is the equivalent of adding a 10-digit grid co-ordinate to everything you post on the Internet.” – www.army.mil

iPhones, iPads, smartphones with built-in GPS, and several other devices automatically create such metadata when content is shared or posted on the web. Smartphones in particular automatically embed geotags in pictures taken — often with users being un-aware. Social networking services, on the other hand, are being forced to be a lot clearer when it comes to geotagging photos and videos in particular when posting them on the Internet. Photo sharing sites such as Flickr and Picasa for example, offer geotagging options, but this is not an automatic function. The fear is that tagging photos or videos­ with an exact location on the Internet allows random people to track an person’s location and movement patterns.

Understand what you’re using

It is therefore important to understand the characteristics of any hi-tech device you might own, and study its manual to determine how to switch off GPS functions. This is, of course, if you fear for your own safety.

Perhaps the real concern involves parents of teenage children. There is a prevalent belief that pedophiles living in basements scan the Internet on a daily basis and use such services to find their next victims. It would be foolish to think that such people don’t exist, but it would also be a shame if technology was avoided altogether because of a fear of them. The bottom line is to practise being a savvy and cautious Internet user and teach such practices to your children. Social networking is all about bringing people together and sharing experiences with family and friends. It has also been used to capture criminals online. Good measures are already in place to keep things private and secure and are being continuously improved. The choice to behave in a relatively risk-free and secure manner lies entirely in the hands of the user.

Final thoughts

As soon as you sign up for a Google account or join a social networking site or service, you immediately begin building an online track record. Deciding who you connect with, and what information you choose to supply online, will determine who gets to learn what about you. If you use services such as Gmail, Twitter or Facebook, look under your “settings” tabs to access and edit privacy options. Of course there are risks of genuine breaches to private information; but, if you have nothing to hide and are savvy and cautious­ when online, the chances of geotagged media seriously harming you or your family are about the same as being struck by lightning.

Related Articles

• Geotags invade privacy and OPSEC (waronterrornews.typepad.com)
• Geotag Security, Remove Geotag Data From Photos (ghacks.net)
• Geotag Security Sanitizes Geotagged Photos [Downloads] (lifehacker.com)
• Are Digital Photos LeavingPersonal Info in the Open? (foxnews.com)

The Mind Sport Debate

MIND SPORT: Should competitive gaming be considered as an internationally recognised mind sport in South Africa?

THERE was a lot of talk and debate towards the end of last year about 2011 being “the year of eSports”. The central debate in a South African context was whether or not competitive gaming should be recognised and treated as an international mind sport in our country.

Electronic sport, or mind sport, falls into the category of non-physical competition. Competitive gaming is the fastest growing mind sport, and there currently exist several leagues and tournaments word-wide whereby gamers compete at amateur, semi-professional and professional levels.

With a steady increase in the number of competitive gamers across genders and cultures, the mind sport debate revolves around the idea of classifying network gaming as an official national sport and treating and covering it in the same manner as existing sports such as rugby and cricket.

It’s a misnomer that ‘real’ sport is physical and sweaty and demands an impressive display of physical prowess. With most sports being based on warlike principles, it’s often forgotten that quick wit and strategy play an integral part in most of the sports we love. And let’s face it – not everyone is cut out for the gym or has the impressive build of Os du Randt.

Consider chess, poker, pub quizzes, crossword contests and poetry slam as competitive mind sports. These all require quick wit, intellectual talent and creativity without the need to physically tackle opponents to the floor. And if you think that gaming is mindless finger-clicking, competitive gaming demands huge amounts of quick thinking, strategy, and above all, teamwork.

The World Cyber Games

The World Cyber Games, which began in 2000, initially consisted of 174 competitors from 17 different countries with a total cash prize of $20 000. In 2006, 700 competitors from 70 different countries fought for the cash prize of $462 000 (Wikipedia. Image: erodov.com).

The good news is that African countries are gradually getting on board and gearing up to compete internationally. Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is currently driving inter-school gaming leagues and organised the first official gaming test match between South Africa and Namibia last month.

According to an interview with the president of MSSA, Colin Webster, published on ITWeb, “One of the key highlights this year is the fact that MSSA is in talks with local government to organise a national e-sports LAN event that will have the same stature as a national sporting event. Gamers from all over the world will be able to test their skills against South African gamers.”

Unfortunately, for South African gamers to compete on a global scale and participate in the major leagues held in Europe, Korea and the United States, politics need to come into play. In order to compete internationally, gaming (as well as any sport) need to meet a certain set of criteria. There are good reasons for these, but when we consider that hi-tech sports such as gaming are ever-evolving with technology, perhaps we need to consider having such criteria updated as well.

The central issue is that for any sport to qualify and be able to compete at an international level, it needs to be accessible to everyone. Every government school has a sports closet full of soccer balls and cricket bats and there are real efforts to offer the same to rural schools around the country.

However, now that we are undoubtedly living in the digital age, it is also becoming compulsory for all schools to have computers and internet access. That’s all it takes to set the stage for competitive gaming tournaments. Learners could even opt to participate in network gaming during their lunch breaks. I’d guarantee that you wouldn’t have to twist any arms to get learners interested.

Mind Sport Growth and Revenue

There is also the opportunity to make a decent living from competitive gaming. The World Cyber Games held in South Korea every year sees a huge flow of revenue from sponsorship and advertising – not to mention the marketing value that top, individual gamers gain by proving their skills. As existing tournaments have shown, large technology and PC corporations are more than willing to play their part and offer sponsorship and support.

To put the growth and interest of competitive gaming into perspective, the World Cyber Games, which began in 2000, initially consisted of 174 competitors from 17 different countries with a total cash prize of $20 000. In 2006, 700 competitors from 70 different countries fought for the cash prize of $462 000 (Wikipedia).

I sincerely hope that competitive gaming gets the attention and coverage it deserves within the realm of mind sport. As an ardent gamer, I believe that having games pushed and played to their limits by professionals will improve the quality of existing and future games as well as associated technologies.

Furthermore, it’s a chance for people to engage with the latest technology, a chance to bring together people with similar interests, to team-build, to profit off all the advertising possibilities, and to show the rest of the world that South Africa has what it takes to compete globally in the realm of quick wit and real time strategy.

Mind sport links:
2011: The Year of eSports
Africa gears up for e-sports

The lunacy of language

ENGLISH LANGUAGE: Asylum for the verbally insane

Unfortunately the author of this clever poem on the English language is currently unknown. Nonetheless, here’s a quick look at the lunacy of the English language.

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is neither egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England. We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guineapig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writer’s write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham. Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend. If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English, should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? We ship by truck but send cargo by ship. We have noses that run and feet that smell. And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on. So if Father is Pop, how come Mother isn’t Mop? And that is just the beginning – even though this is the end.

Cooking tips and household tricks

DID YOU KNOW …

Cooking Tips: In the kitchen …

• Store opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not go moldy.
• Heat leftover pizza in a nonstick pan on the stove on medium-low heat. This keeps the crust crispy.
• If you take bananas apart they will not ripen as quickly if you were to leave them connected at the stem.
• Make scrambled eggs or omelettes taste richer by adding a couple of spoonfuls of sour or heavy cream or cream cheese, then beat.
• Before pouring sticky substances like peanut butter or honey into a measuring cup, rinse it out with hot water and don’t dry before pouring in the goo.
• Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating than peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom which are firmer and better for cooking.

Household Tricks: Around the house …

• Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up small bits of glass which are not easy to see.
• Eliminate a foggy windscreen or windows using a blackboard eraser. Works like a charm.
• Hairy legs? Use some hair conditioner to shave. It leaves legs smoother than a baby’s nether region.
• To open a sealed envelope without tearing it, place it in the freezer for a couple of hours.
• Wet torn bits of newspapers and layer them around the plants, overlapping them as you place. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds.

And just for fun: 8 amazingly simple home remedies …

• If you can’t fix it with a hammer, you’ve got an electrical problem.
• Avoid arguments with the females about lifting the toilet seat – use the sink.
• If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives. then you’ll be afraid to cough.
• Avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold the vegetables while you chop.
• If you’re choking on an ice cube, simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat. presto! the blockage will instantly remove itself.
• A mouse trap placed on top of your alarm clock will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
• You only need two tools in life – Q20 and duct tape. If it doesn’t move and should, use the Q20. If it shouldn’t move and does, use the duct tape.
• For high blood pressure sufferers ~ simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure on your veins. remember to use a timer.

If you have any of your own cooking tips or household tricks you would like to share, please do!

Accidental inventions discovered by mistake

INVENTIONS: some discovered purely by mistake

THEY say necessity is the mother of all invention. While this may be true during times of war and famine, etc., many inventions were conceptualised while the inventors were sitting on the toilet or trying to prevent their ice cream from melting. It’s rather interesting to consider how many life-changing inventions were discovered entirely by accident. Here are a few inventions that came about in unusual ways.

Accidental inventions: Potato chips

Mr Crum, a chef in Saratoga Springs, New York, was having a tough day at the office. A patron, who had ordered a plate of fried potatoes, kept sending them back asking for them to be thinner and more fried. Crum eventually lost his temper. He sliced the potato so thin that it went rock hard when fried. To his surprise the disgruntled customer really liked them and kept asking for more.

Accidental inventions: Penicillin

Sir Alexander Fleming knew nothing about penicillin until he threw away his experiments and equipment. He was working on a wonder drug to help cure diseases and was having a tough time of it. It was when Fleming noticed that a contaminated Petri dish he had discarded contained a mould that was dissolving all the bacteria around it, that the powerful antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered.

Accidental inventions: The Slinky

The slinky has got to be one of the most unusual toys that had a darker side behind its invention. Naval engineer Richard­ Jones was working on a meter designed to monitor power on naval battleships. Jones was using tension springs when one of them fell to the ground and continued bouncing from place to place. And so the slinky was born.

Accidental inventions: The outboard motor

Norwegian inventor Ole Evinrude was enjoying a holiday with his wife on an island during the summer of 1906. He had made an eight-kilometre round trip to get his beloved some ice cream during a hot summer’s day. Upset that the ice cream had melted before his return, he begun to ponder how he could get across the water faster. By mounting a motorcycle engine onto the back of his rowboat and attaching a propeller, Evinrude had invented the first outboard motor.

Accidental inventions: The microwave oven

Percy Spencer was an engineer conducting a radar-related research project with a new vacuum tube. During his experiments he noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket had begun to melt. When he placed popcorn seeds into the machine and they began to pop, Spencer knew he had invented something revolutionary.

Accidental inventions: Kellogg’s Cornflakes

The Kellogg brothers, Will and John, were simply making a pot of boiled grain when they discovered a pot that had been accidently left on the stove for several days. The mixture had turned mouldy, but the product that emerged was dry and thick. Upon removing the mould, the brothers had created one of the U.S.A.’s favourite breakfast cereals.

Accidental inventions: Fireworks

While we all know that fireworks were invented in China, their creation is somewhat uncertain. According to legend, a cook was experimenting with charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre, which are believed to have been common kitchen items 2000 years ago. When the cook noticed that a combination of these ingredients ignited with fury, he mixed them into a bamboo tube. The rest, as they say, is history.