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Shopping Centers are Watching You

Even if you shop online you are being watched. Furthermore, new technology is being rolled out in Australian shops to find out your shopping habits. This does not just include purchasing. The way you examine goods will also be recorded and analysed. The other day I was in Coles supermarket. I examined a product and put it back on the shelf. Then I continued into the fresh vegetable section. I was accosted there by a shop assistance who said I must purchase the product because I had lifted the wrapping on the corner. It was captured on camera. This was a bit of a shock I must say.

New data collection technology in shopping centers

The key to avoiding being tracked is to leave your mobile phone at home. Phones are being used as tracking sources without your permission. The government is going to allow this. To gain access to wi-fi you will unwittingly give your permission to be tracked. To confuse those collecting data you can lend your mobile to family members, or even wear a dress if you are a man.

Westfield shopping centers are leading the charge with 21 malls now using the new data collection technology. You will be bombarded with advertising on the walls of shops and on your mobiles based on the data as you walk through. The cost you pay is high. You cannot turn the vision or sound off.

Plans are afoot to find out what you buy and what you pay. This is all being done under the premise that we "will provide them (customers) with a far more personalised shopping experience. Funny, we didn't ask for this and we do not want it. Shops are the driving force: "businesses are rushing to gather data and learn how to interpret it." Sell, sell, sell! Ain't that the truth?

✴ Technology by Ty Buchanan ✴

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Email is an Increasing Problem

Since the email was "invented" in 1977 it has continued as the main means of sending information that is admissible in court. Though you may think that what you say is not important, the content can be used against you in a court of law.

For light social exchange people use Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter. If governments could get their hands on the data it would use that against you as well.

The main problem with email is that there is so much of it. The vast majority of users cannot deal with it. Most emails are discarded without being read simply because users think it is spam, or the nearest thing to it - continuing emails from a company you have either purchased something from or downloaded supposedly for free.

New email systems from Google, Amazon, IBM or WorkMail usually just provide more folders that you could create yourself. The boundary between work and home life is now blurred with a mass of emails that need ongoing, endless attention.

Trying to make email more manageable is just making it more complex. You cannot make anything simpler that opening an email, reading it and replying, or dumping it into Trash.

✴ Technology by Ty Buchanan ✴

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New Software for Mining Research

Environmental researchers do not have to take the kitchen sink with them on field trips any more. They can leave GPS camera and notepad behind as they do their work. New software makes this possible.

A single device linked to the Internet now has everything an investigator requires. This is especially so in mining. The Northern Territory has adopted the new system and it is doing all it promises. As farming takes up new technology it would be expected that researchers would do the same.

Capturing information is now very easy indeed with reports being done automatically. Photographs are coordinated with Google Earth maps. Relevant data is also stored. In depth analysis is now possible with the extra time on hand for investigators.

A researchers movement around a site is recorded. This makes monitoring of tasks much easier. The software is a significant step forward. Hours of tedious labor has been reduced. With a solid data bank in hand, looking back on work done previously is now a matter of course.

Technology by Ty Buchanan

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Australia Makes Quantum Computer Chip Breakthrough -Twice!

Australian scientists are still working feverishly toward producing a quantum computer. Two kinds of qubits, the building clocks of a quantum computer, have been made. Silicon is the base material which is the normal chip mineral.

Below the silicon base, atoms are the working parts. They are the storage medium. More data can be manipulated than in traditional computers. The error rate for quantum computers has been dramatically reduced.

Because two teams have made different chips and working computers, it means major production is imminent. Silicon is plentiful and relatively cheap so cost is not a major problem. There will be a rush to make a working computer and mass produce it.

The two systems are different. One uses an embedded phosphorus atom, the other an artificial atom. The Dzurak chip can be made in existing factories as it imitates normal transistors. Both chips can hold memory for 30 seconds which is sufficient to do complex work. Obviously one system will be adopted. Which chip will it be?

Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan

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Useful Drones for Conservation

Despite the fairytale stuff put forward about delivering things to houses in built up areas of large cities, drone can be useful. Patrolling of protected regions for environmental damage is efficient and less costly than other methods.

Conservation Drones a US company is mass producing drones to meet projected demand. Accidents will occur even though the drones will not land away from the operator, but injuries should be rare. Drones zooming around above our head will become the norm. Will there be complaints? Yes there will.

The first major project will be to protect elephants in Africa. The distance that drones can travel will have to be significantly improved to do the job properly. At the moment helicopters are used. These can be expensive as well. They do have better range, however.

Maximum range for non-military drones is about 40kms. High resolution videos can be taken. Preprogramming is possible to carry out surveillance and data collection. A test to monitor frigate birds has been successful in Western Australia.

Conservation by Ty Buchanan

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Australia Annoys Microsoft

Microsoft is unhappy about a country that does not like government data stored overseas. It is jumping up and down about this policy in Australia. The question that must be asked is - Why is the big data giant so miffed about it? The loss in income for Microsoft cannot be that great. There must be another reason.

Like Google, is Microsoft collecting data to use for its own ends? It is so upset it refuses to launch the Office 365 service in Australia. Microsoft is aggressively lobbying the Coalition government to change the rules and open up the market. It must be after something more than profit.

Everything put into the cloud can be accessed by the cloud's owner. These services already hold data from many countries. If say a major government could get its hands on such data think of the power they would have. It seems only reasonable that countries should consider national security to be more important than reducing costs.

Internet by Ty Buchanan

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Australian Government Accesses Data From Internet Companies

The NSA has said that it targeted non-US citizens in its information grab from large Internet companies. Australian and American government agencies have secured detailed data about Australian citizens. This fact came out in a new report.

In the first half of 2013 546 requests were made on Australians. Facebook provided details on 349 of these. The US demanded information on 20,000 users assumed to be Americans. Access was granted on nearly 16,000 US accounts.

Which government agencies made the demands was not announced by Facebook. Internet companies seem to have been given some sort of filtering power to decide what is released. This is strange considering such companies are not elected non-government agencies. Are they entitled to be above the law?

Requests to Twitter by Australia have risen 600 percent since the second half of 2012. All members of the international data oligopoly were approached. About two thirds of all requests were successful. There is a fine balance here. What happens if police want information that Internet companies will not grant? Are in-camera court cases about to become the norm, where information is deemed to be too sensitive for the public?

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Conservation