Technology in Society

Sometime back, I posted an article about a scam email that I got. Basically, it was from someone who offered to buy something from me. It turns out that they offer to send more money than the item is worth, provided you wire the difference back to them. The cashier cheque turns out to be forged, and you lose money in the deal. This time, it is from someone who wants to buy Land Rover Turbochargers in Uganda! I don't own nor sell Land Rover, nor any other 4x4 vehicle. However, my brother Omar has had successive Land Rovers and uses them for desert safaris in Egypt, for example, hare hunting or Rayyan Valley. As a matter of fact, he called me yesterday from Siwa where he was offroading with some friends.

Here is another Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Fraud Scam that uses a Christian theme.

Every so often, a new term takes new dimensions larger than the actual meaning and content of that term.
One such term in recent years is "blogging" or writing regularly to a blog or weblog (wikipedia).

What is blogging?

To me, blogs are just the new terminology for "a home page" from the late 1990s. However, there are a few new enablers that facilitates the so-called blog revolution. Free blogging sites have emerged, allowing people to start a blog in a few minutes. They allow publishing from a WYSIWYG web interface or some client based software, thus not requiring any HTML knowledge. For those with a bit more knowledge, there are many software packages, most of them free, that can be used to create a blog. Among them are WordPress, MovableType, and Drupal. There are also blog search engines too, such as Technorati.

Much has been written about the blog revolution where every person with an internet connection is a media source, often touted to be a rival to main stream media.

Last week, I advertised an old 486 computer forsale. It is worth around 10$Cdn. I posted it to a Usenet newgroup local to the area that I live in.

A few days after it has been posted, I received the following email. Note that the Subject contains what I advertised, but the text of the message shows that it is a generic format that is sent to all potential victims, since he asks for the quantity and cost, although this is stated. Also a 10$ 486 is not a suitable birthday gift for someone who is doing a masters degree.

As the phenomenon of blogging gained more popularity, there was bound to be conflict between what is personal and what is work.

Several people indeed got fired because of what they wrote about work in their blogs. This is just one of the pitfalls of blogging.

Here is rather an interesting dilemma. When new technologies or behaviors evolve, there is almost always someone that will abuse or misuse it, for example using it for illegal or criminal purposes, or just as an annoyance.

This misuse eventually reduces the usefulness of the new technology.

Our response to this misuse varies a lot, depending on our cultural and social upbringing, and outlook in life. This collective response is very important since it may shape the technology's future. It could either be limited, adjust to the change, or be abandoned altogether.

A while back, I wrote about Interrupting Interruptions, and Life Interrupted: Stressed by Distraction.This now seems to be on its way to be recognized as a 'condition', and even has some proposed names: from N.A.D.D.

The other day, I got an email from a well known company that is looking for certain skills for positions it wants to fill. Since the job required relocation to another the United States, I politely declined, despite the big name of that company.What interested me is how recruiters check out potential candidates on the internet using Google search. From the logs of my web server, I could see exactly what this person searched on, and the sequence of events. I am publishing this mini-research because it is really interesting for geeks like me.From the IP address of the sender, I could tell that he indeed was from that particular company, despite the fact that his email address said otherwise.