Author: Serkadis

As you’ve heard in some of our travel updates, there are a lot of things you can do on Air Force One. You can use computers, make phone calls, use the Internet. One thing you can’t do is avoid surprise birthday celebrations.

Yesterday, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes had a birthday party thrust upon them unwittingly at about 30,000 feet.

Lured into the conference room with the promise of a security briefing, they were instead treated to cake and good cheer by the President and some of his staff. No one was more surprised than myself, who arrived on the scene with my camera too late to film the event, but just in time for some cake. No one was less surprised than Ben Rhodes, who was unconvinced by POTUS personal aide Reggie Love’s clumsy promise of "some sort of briefing."

Analog vs. Digital. A battle that has lasted for all time (all the time that matters anyway), and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Although a sort of armistice seems to have been called of late, with the rising trend of analog controllers for digital software. algoriddim and Vestax have combined forces to bring you just that, a hardware turntable for their iTunes DJ software, djay 3.

Christened Spin, this “turntable” connects to your Mac with USB, allowing you to control djay 3, and by extension, iTunes, seamlessly. It weighs just a little over 3 pounds, making it a very mobile system. The two jog wheels and various faders allow you to control speed, looping, cue points, effects, and EQ, just as with a traditional DJ rig. There are dedicated mic in and headphone out ports, as well as a pair of stereo RCA jacks for house speakers.

You can pick one of these controllers up exclusively at any Apple Store for $249.95, which includes the djay 3 software. The software standalone price is $49.95.

Reaction to the amendment restricting abortion in the House health reform bill, passed more than a week ago, continued to reverberate through news outlets today.

Roll Call: “On the eve of the Senate debate over health care reform, a leading Democratic moderate predicted Sunday that reform legislation won’t pass if it doesn’t include a controversial measure to restrict abortion funding. ‘What is clear is that for this bill to be successful, there can be no taxpayer funding for abortion,’ Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said, appearing on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’  Conrad said he did not know whether the Senate would ultimately adopt the restrictive language that the House passed last week, which dictated that any new government-funded health insurance option cannot pay for abortions” (Kurtz and Roth, 11/15).

Fox News: “White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod suggested Sunday that President Obama will intervene to make sure a controversial amendment restricting federal funding for abortion coverage is stripped from final health care reform legislation. In doing so, the president would be heeding the call of abortion rights supporters like Planned Parenthood that have called the White House their ‘strongest weapon’ in keeping such restrictions out of the bill. The abortion amendment was tacked on to the House health care bill and was a key factor in securing the votes of moderate Democrats before the bill was approved by a narrow margin last weekend. … Axelrod said in an interview Sunday that the amendment changes the ‘status quo,’ something the president cannot abide” (11/15).

Politico: “By teeing up a public battle over abortion in the health care bill now before the Senate, congressional Democrats could be risking more than just the fate of the legislation. Hanging in the balance are millions of Catholic swing voters who moved decisively to the Democrats in 2008 and who could shift away just as readily in 2010. According to exit polls, President Barack Obama won the support of 53 percent of Catholic voters, a seven-point increase over the showing of the Democrats’ 2004 nominee, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a Catholic. … ‘It could be harder for the Democrats to keep those Catholics voters they gained and they may put some of their members at risk,’ said John Green, a religion and politics expert at the Bliss Institute at the University of Akron. Moreover, said Green, Catholics are a constituency that backs the reform effort itself. ‘To alienate them on abortion could be to alienate them on health care reform,’ he said” (Cummings, 11/15).

The Associated Press: “Abortion rights groups, outflanked and outnumbered in the health debate, are scrambling to regain lost ground after the House passed a health bill with strict abortion limits. They’re blanketing Capitol Hill with lobbyists, petitions, letters and phone calls in efforts to defeat the restrictions in the Senate, where debate could begin in a few days. They also have a larger goal: to prove that with their Democratic allies in control of the White House and both congressional chambers — but increasingly appealing to conservative voters who back abortion limits — they still have clout.  …. NARAL says it has begun a major grass-roots mobilization, including collecting more than 40,000 signatures on a petition addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., demanding that he omit the abortion curbs from health legislation he’s drafting” (Hirschfed Davis, 11/14).

The New York Times: “Robert J. Blendon, a professor of health policy at Harvard, said the choice between trying to stop an erosion of abortion rights and trying to improve health care for women pitted ‘what are described as two fundamental human rights — the right to universal coverage and the right of access to reproductive services — against each other. They aren’t just policy trade-offs,’ he said. ‘And that’s why this is so wrenching.’ Some House Democrats initially vowed that if the final bill contained the anti-abortion measure, they would oppose it — even though they had just voted for the House bill with that language” (Seelye, 11/14).

The Washington Post has a Q & A on the abortion language: “1. What is the status quo? Under the 33-year-old federal ban, there is no abortion coverage under Medicaid, the federal employee health benefits plan or the Tricare plan for military families, except where the life of the mother is endangered. Seventeen states use their own funds to provide abortion coverage for Medicaid recipients. A study co-authored by the Guttmacher Institute, which backs abortion rights, found that one in four women who would other get an abortion carry an unwanted pregnancy to term if they lack abortion coverage. Abortion coverage is widespread among private insurance plans — at least half of people with private coverage have abortion coverage, according to surveys by Guttmacher and the Kaiser Family Foundation” (MacGillis, 11/15).

NPR: “Backers of controversial abortion language added to the House health overhaul bill last week say it merely continues longstanding policy that bans federal funding of the procedure. But opponents say it could have much more far-reaching consequences on access to abortion, particularly in the private insurance market. The ultimate impact of the House abortion amendment could be to change abortion from being a procedure routinely covered by most private insurance plans to a procedure routinely excluded — even in cases of medical emergency” (Rovner, 11/14).

Related KHN story: How The House Abortion Restrictions Would Work (Appleby, 11/10).

Chicago Tribune has a Q & A about various aspects in the health bills, including: “Q: Will abortions be covered by the health care legislation, as it stands now? A: The House health care bill passed this month includes a provision that would bar the government-run insurance plan (the ‘public option’) and all private insurance plans that receive federal dollars from covering abortion services. That does not prevent employers from offering abortion services under their benefits packages. The Senate is considering similar provisions but has not decided on specific language” (Geiger and Oliphant, 11/15).

 

Now, it’s not this blog’s intention to post every little bit of gaming news (or is it?), but this is a more signal event than all the PR out there. Modern Warfare 2 for the PC, which infamously lacks dedicated servers, a console, the ability to kick players, and other things integral to a good PC game. Infinity Ward, maddeningly apathetic to the needs and requests of their users, has said that no changes to the stated areas are forthcoming.

Well, you can’t keep a good PC gamer down. Certain cracks already allow some online play, and now the console has been enabled, allowing players to kick, change POV and FOV, and presumably do most of the stuff Infinity Ward decided had to stay in the cookie jar. Tut tut, developers. You didn’t see this coming? You could have made it easier on yourselves, but instead you turned a whole segment of your market against you.

Here’s the download link for the tool (use at your own risk) and the discussion thread at Guru3D.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii hits stores today, and it will probably be on of the biggest games of the year. (Little Tommy and Little Susie shouldn’t be playing Modern Warfare 2!) To celebrate the launch of this latest Mario game, Nintendo invited its fans to the Nintendo World Store in New York yesterday. In addition to being able to buy the game a whole day early, fans could participate in a Mario tournament, get their picture taken in Mario garb, play the older games in the series, and meet Gary and Alison from Nintendo Week.

It was basically madness. I strolled in, along with my younger brother (who desperately wanted to meet the Nintendo Week hosts… it’d be like me wanting to meet Brock Lesnar or Lionel Messi), and found the Nintendo World Store swarming with children. You immediately realized that yeah, for all of the money games like Modern Warfare 2 or Assassin’s Creed II make, Nintendo’s audience is completely different. That’s not exactly breaking news, no.

Unfortunately for the Nintendo faithful, New York was being battered by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, so it was windy, rainy, and gray all day long. That made standing in line to buy the game much more of a hassle, and meant that I was juggling my camera, an extra lens, and an umbrella while trying to avoid running into anybody while taking photos.

The line to buy the game was quite long, stretching about halfway down the block. I waited, like an everyman, and was out there for around 20 minutes. Keep in mind that I find the idea of waiting in line for a video game to be ludicrous, but you sometimes have to make exceptions.

That’s about it. It was a fun little afternoon, only hindered by the fact that it was something like 98-degrees Fahrenheit upstairs (where the tournament took place). I also ran into E-Rock from the Opie and Anthony Show, which was pretty great in its own right.

I’ll have my thoughts on the game itself in the coming days.

While Canadian carrier hopeful WIND might not be launching any time soon thanks to its foreign ownership structure, outsiders are already drooling at the prospect of buying up all of WIND’s spectrum in the event that it doesn’t launch. WIND CEO Ken Campbell dismissed such things as “media speculation” during our interview with him and repeated ad nauseam that WIND is currently weighing its options, but now more of its would be competitors are speaking up on what might be. Said Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed on Friday: “Spectrum is a very valuable asset. Rogers for sure would be interested in picking it up.” Snapping up all of WIND’s spectrum wouldn’t be cheap considering it was originally purchased from Industry Canada in 2008 at a cost of $442.1 million Canadian ($420.4 million USD), but the possibility that several of the Big Three would buy it in parcels if the launch never happens remains relatively high. After all, Bell has previously said it would be willing to purchase half of WIND’s spectrum at $0.50 on the dollar.

Read

I have no backwards R key on my keyboard and I don’t have the wherewithal to figure out the tricky Wingdingy ALT+numpad+four digit code voodoo it’d take to produce it (if it’s even possible), so let’s just say “Toys R Us” and enjoy the store’s Black Friday ad.

Stores open at midnight – yes midnight – on Thursday night/Friday morning. Doorbuster deals are marked with an asterisk and are good until 1PM on Friday.

Computers

VTech Learning Laptop – $14.99 *

Digital Cameras

Fujifilm FinePix Red 12MP Digital Camera – $69.99 *

iCarly Mini Digital Camera – $12.49 *

Pink Or Blue Digital Video Camcorder – $29.99 *

Vivitar 8.1MP Digital Camera – $39.99 *

Digital Media Cards

SanDisk 8 GB SDHC Memory Card – $19.99 *

DVD Players

Coby 7″ Portable DVD Player – $49.99 *

Digital Labs DVD Player – $19.99

Electronics

Grand Prix AM/FM Clock Radio – $4.99

iHome iPod Docking Station – $39.99 *

iHome iPod/iPhone Alarm Clock Docking Station – $49.99

Nickelodeon Portable CD Player – $14.99

Sakar Digital Photo Frame Keychain – $9.99

Singing Machine Karaoke System – $49.99 *

Home Theater

Coby Home Theater System – $49.99

Miscellaneous

Toys R Us Battery 20 Packs – $4.99 *

MP3 Players

$50 Gift Card With Any Apple iPod 8GB Touch – $0.00 *

Nextar 1GB Digital Mp3 Player – $11.48

Nextar 2GB MP3 Player With Video – $17.49 *

SanDisk 8GB Sansa Fuze MP3 Player – $49.99 *

Photos

Nextar 7″ Digital Photo Frame – $29.99 *

Televisions

Haier 22″ LCD TV – $199.99 *

Video Games

All iCarly Video Game Accessories – 50% Off

Avatar For Nintendo DS – $9.99

Avatar Into The Inferno For Nintendo Wii – $9.99

Carrying Case For Wii – $15.00

Cheetah Girls For Nintendo DS – $21.99

Chrysler Classic Racing For Nintendo Wii – $9.99

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (Wii Game) – $29.99 *

Club Penguin For Nintendo DS – $17.99

Crash Bandicot For Nintendo DS – $9.99

Dead Space (Wii Game) – $24.99 *

Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360 Game) – $34.99 *

Gear Monkey Video Game Accessories – B1G1 Free *

Guitar Hero On Tour And Decades Two Pack Bundle (DS Game) – $29.99 *

Halo 3 ODST (Xbox 360 Game) – $34.99 *

Hannah Montana Guitar Video Game – $24.99 *

Hot Shots Golf – $21.99

iCarly (Wii Game) – $23.99 *

Ice Age For Nintendo DS – $9.99

Imagine Family Doctor For Nintendo DS – $9.99

Imagine Party Babyz For Nintendo Wii – $9.99

Kingdom For Nintendo DS – $9.99

Messenger Bag For Xbox 360 – $15.00

Monsters Vs Aliens For Nintendo DS – $9.99

Mushroom Men For Nintendo DS – $21.99

MySims Party For Nintendo Wii – $9.99

Narnia For Nintendo DS – $21.99

Need For Speed: Shift (PS3 Game) – $34.99 *

Need For Speed: Shift (Xbox 360 Game) – $34.99 *

Nintendo DS Lite Starter Kit – $11.99

Petz Horse Ranch For Nintendo DS – $9.99

Pirates Of The Caribbean – $21.99

PSP Accessories – 50% Off *

Scooby Doo First Frights (Wii Game) – $23.99 *

Select Nintendo DS Accessories – $5.00

Select Nintendo DS Games – B1G1

Select Wii Accessories – $10.00

Sonic Rivals 2 – $21.99

Spore Hero (Wii Game) – $24.99 *

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Wii Game) – $29.99 *

The Price Is Right For Nintendo Wii – $9.99

Tony Hawks Motion For Nintendo DS – $9.99

Transformers For Nintendo DS – $17.99

Ultimate Alliance 2 For Nintendo DS – $17.99

Video Game Charge Docking Stations – $15.00 *

Wii Fit Accessories – 50% Off *

Wii Nerf N-Strike Bundle (Wii Game) – $14.99 *

Xbox 360 Arcade System With Carry Case And Three Games – $229.95 *

Xbox 360 Wired Guitar Hero Game Controller – $9.99 *

Toys R Us Black Friday Ad [BlackFriday.info]

More Black Friday deals…

The CLASS Act—the far-reaching proposal to create a national long-term care insurance program—is in the House health reform bill, and is still in the mix as Senate leaders struggle to design their own version of reform. But the key question about the CLASS Act remains: How many will buy the coverage even if it is broadly available?

The answer is significantly more than currently purchase private insurance, but not enough to truly solve the nation’s severe long-term care financing challenges. With some changes, however, it could cover even more.

It is a critical issue. The program’s success will be measured by the number of buyers it attracts. But the economics of insurance makes a large pool of purchasers imperative. The reason is the chicken-and-egg relationship between the number of buyers and the rates they pay: The fewer who buy, the higher the rates, and the higher the rates, the fewer will buy.

In a phenomenon called “adverse selection,” the people most likely to purchase insurance are those most likely to need it. So insurers keep rates down by selling to many consumers who turn out to never require benefits. It is no different for a government plan. Thus, for CLASS to offer attractive rates, lots of people would have to buy.

So how many would purchase CLASS policies? The insurance industry says almost no one. In July, the American Academy of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries looked at an early version of CLASS and concluded that only about five percent would participate, about the same percentage who currently purchase group long-term care policies. The Congressional Budget Office also assumes a participation rate of about five percent at an average monthly premium of about $120. On Nov. 13, Medicare chief actuary Richard Foster predicted that only two percent of potential participants would buy and that premiums would average $180 per month.

The industry actuaries insisted CLASS policies would be far too expensive—averaging as much as $160-a-month—to attract many buyers. While the proposal has changed from the version they studied last summer, insurance executives say their estimate has not. An industry-funded poll released on Oct. 28 reported that while three-quarters of those surveyed favored CLASS, only about 10 percent would pay premiums of $85 while just three percent would pay $160.

Supporters of CLASS point to focus groups and insist enrollment would be far higher. But they won’t say what they think the participation rate would be.

Privately, industry insiders and other experts think if average CLASS premiums can be held below $100, about 20 percent of workers would buy—roughly 30 million people. That’s four times the number currently insured. The latest version of the bill would allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to set both benefits and premiums.

All this uncertainty is driven by the design of CLASS. Workers would be enrolled automatically, but they’d be allowed to opt-out if they chose. And employers would not be required to deduct premiums from wages. Since nothing quite like this has ever been tried before, no one really knows what will happen.

But there are some models to look at. For instance, many employers now automatically enroll all their workers in 401(k) retirement plans, but give them the option to opt out if they choose. Compared to the old system, where workers had to decide whether to participate before they could sign up, enrollment has nearly doubled among some employees.

Long-term care insurance is not a 401(k). But inertia is a powerful thing, and many workers won’t bother to stop their long-term care premium deductions. Some may even come to learn how important it is to prepare for this risk: Two-thirds of those over 65 are likely to need some care in their lives, and 20 percent will need it for five years or more.

Could the CLASS Act be changed to keep premiums low and attract even more buyers? I think so. In an ideal world, I’d make coverage mandatory, even though that’s not in the cards this year. Even if workers are going to be allowed to opt-out, I’d at least require all large employers to offer coverage. I’d impose tough penalties on both workers and employers who do not participate.

I’d also do more to encourage participation by young people. For instance, in the House bill, initial premiums would be set by age, but once you enroll, your monthly payments generally would never increase, although your benefits would. A better design would permit small annual premium hikes. This would permit extremely low initial monthly payments and encourage the “indestructible” 20-somethings, many of whom won’t even buy health insurance, to enroll.

Government could also give employers financial incentives to partially match worker contributions, either for CLASS coverage or for private insurance to supplement the government insurance.

With some tweaking, CLASS can do what its backers intend—provide long-term care insurance for millions who are now totally unprepared.

Howard Gleckman, a resident fellow at the Urban Institute, is author of “Caring For Our Parents” and a frequent writer and speaker on long-term care issues.

A lot of interesting bits popped into the Nintendo block this week – from race-able Chocobos, re-imagined sountracks, to retrained cops. If you want t…

Tech blog Digital Foundry reports that sources “intimately involved with the alliances and deal-making within their sector” have effectively confirmed…

Apple’s charges of copyright infringement and DMCA violation against Psystar have stuck and, friends, things ain’t pretty for the two brothers in Miami. The problem with Psystar’s approach wasn’t that they were crazy for trying it. It’s that the were selling a counterfeit unit.

Apple contends that Psystar has violated its distribution right by offering and selling Mac OS X on Psystar computers to the public. Psystar admits that it has distributed Mac OS X (Chung Exh. 17 at 4).

But Psystar responds that its conduct is protected by the Section 109 first-sale doctrine. Section 109 provides that “the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under this title, or any person authorized by such owner, is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that copy or phonorecord.” 17 U.S.C. 109. This provision is a limitation on the distribution right. It applies only to an owner of a copy.

Groklaw puts it best when it writes:

I know. They’ll say, but, but, but … what if they hadn’t used the master and just used each copy, then would it work? Sons, why do you think Psystar used the master copy? Because it’s a business, and in a business, efficiency is money. That’s why businesses set themselves up, to make money. The whole world is not with you on a holy war to destroy EULAs and the GPL. Even this rinkydink business wanted to make money. Theoreticals belong on message boards, not in business and definitely not in courtrooms, and even on message boards, everyone told you for years that this wouldn’t work out if someone tried it. It’s been tried. It didn’t work out.

Shine on, you crazy Psystar diamonds. I guess I’ll never get support for the janky Hackintosh we bought.

Thanks, Alex

Images are a very important part of our life, whether we are talking about the photo of a cute actor that we want to use as a wallpaper or the image of a rose to employ as a postcard, the Internet is an enormous source of all sorts of pictures. But it’s quite difficult to locate the image that you want just by using an ordinary search engine, you would want something that would search through many image sources and you would want it done fast.

That’s where Ginipic comes to save the day. It’s a very easy-to-use application that will assist you in your quest for images over the Internet. The program is free, so you can use it for as long as you like and the only requirement is that you have .NET Framework 3.5 installed on your computer. We tested the application on Windows 7 and it proved itself to be compatible with this new operating system. Ginipic has as default sources Flickr, Google, Picasa, Yahoo!, Photobucket, DeviantART, and many other.

The interface of this software is very well done, colorful and a delight for the eye. It comes to appeal even to the picky users by its looks and, also, usability, by being very easy to employ: you just type the phrase that you are looking for and press Enter. You will receive in no time a list of all the images that have matched your search in thumbnail size and you can easily… (read more)

Many of you have been on the edge of your seats and sofas waiting for anxiously for the BlackBerry 9700 to drop. We already know it’s being released on November 16 on T-Mobile, but now you have a killer incentive to pick one up from Walmart. From November 14th to the 20th, Walmart is offering a $100 Walmart gift card with a new BlackBerry purchase — the only thing is it takes four to six weeks to get that card in the mail. It’s not exactly the same as getting a new BlackBerry 9700 for $99.99, but it’s as close as you’re going to get for now. And just imagine what you can get at good old Wally World with a $100 gift card just before the holidays. The usual bells and whistles apply with the two-year contract business, but that comes with the territory. Is it safe to assume that T-Mobile corporate stores will be hearing crickets on launch day? Who are we kidding… this is probably the most anticipated device for T-Mobile in years.

Thanks, Kara R.!

Read

When I accepted the President’s gracious offer to serve as his Ambassador in China earlier this year, I knew that the job would be challenging, exciting and rewarding.  As Air Force One heads to Shanghai, I am preparing to greet a President who has won the respect and confidence of China’s leaders through his thoughtful remarks, his gracious demeanor and his efforts to seek a relationship that allows us to define ourselves by our common interests and not by our differences. 

The President understands that critical problems require the U.S. and China to cooperate.  He has a sobering list of strategic objectives for this visit: in addition to the vital task of communicating the desire of the American people to be friends and partners of the Chinese, he will discuss with China’s leaders  cooperation on such global priorities as the economic recovery, climate change and international security issues in Iran and North Korea as well as make clear our core values.

And since it’s his first trip to China, he looks forward to seeing for himself the culture and traditions that have made China a great nation.  This trip will advance America’s interests in Asia and the rest of the world and I believe our Chinese friends will view it that way as well.

Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. is the United States’ Ambassador to China

Pop quiz for all of you who already blazed through Modern Warfare 2’s single-player campaign. You know who Ghost is? He’s the guy with the badass skul…

Babies, as we know, are dumb. They’ll look at any old thing. That’s why the Shutter Buddy is ingenious. You put this checkered hood over your camera, make a bunch of funny noises, and wham – instant smiley baby. Or instant crying baby. Or instant baby crawling off to the stairs to try to climb up the first two only to slip onto the floor and cry.

Wow, right? If I weren’t so sleep deprived I’d kick myself for not thinking of this.

In all honesty, though, isn’t this ingenious? It’s hard to get baby to pay attention to you so you’ve basically got something that grabs that attention and doesn’t let go. It’s a mere $19 and I’ll try to give it a go with young Milla, our one year old, and report back.

For the fifth issue of the Information Security and Strategy Carnival, I am pleased to present the following texts:

• Dan Cornell over at Denim Group posts a great article on 13 Things a Web Application Attacker Won’t Tell You as well as 5 More Things a Web Application Attacker Won’t Tell You

• John P Mello at AllSpammedUp has a take on benefits of spamming social networks in Why social networking spam reaps more rewards than email

• Roger Halbheer from Microsoft discusses Why it pays to be secure – Chapter 4 – I want to learn!

Please send submissions by the 25th each month to e-mail:shortinfosec _at_ gmail dot com

Related posts
Information Security and Strategy Carnival – Issue #1
Information Security and Strategy Carnival – Issue #2
Information Security and Strategy Carnival – Issue #3
Information Security and Strategy Carnival – Issue #4