Tuesday, July 19, 2005

A Benton Headline: FAIRNESS IN THE BALANCE What is it about National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service et al. that so irks conservatives? The answer seems to be twofold, reflecting both a general ideological aversion (using taxpayer money to support radio and TV shows) and a specific set of complaints about the alleged leftward tilt of programs hosted by the likes of Bill Moyers and Tavis Smiley. At a time of massive government budget deficits, amid tight spending on social programs of all kinds, some Republicans assert that Washington's support of public broadcasting is expendable. What's more, conservatives like to say, those federal funds are subsidizing a system that disproportionately serves the tastes and interests of relatively affluent audiences. But about 27 percent of PBS viewers graduated from college, compared with 27.6 percent for the U.S. population. Among households that watch PBS, 32 percent earn more than $60,000 a year, compared with 37 percent across the nation. [SOURCE: Washington Post 7/17, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi] 10:48:49 PM    comment []

Cost of US cyber attacks plummets, by John Leyden, in The Register. The 10th annual Computer Crime and Security Survey, put together by the Computer Security Institute (CSI) in conjunction with information security experts at the FBI, shows financial losses resulting from security breaches down for the fourth successive year. The cost of breaches averaged $204,000 per respondent - down 61 per cent from last year's average loss of $526,000. Virus attacks continue as the source of the greatest financial pain, making up 32 per cent of the overall losses reported. But unauthorized access showed a dramatic increase and replaced denial of service as the second most significant contributor to cybercrime losses. Unauthorised access was fingered for a quarter (24 per cent) of losses reported in the CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey 2005. Meanwhile losses from theft of proprietary information doubled last year, based on the survey of 700 computer security practitioners in various US corporations, universities and government agencies. The study found fears about negative publicity are preventing organisation from reporting cybercrime incidents to the police, a perennial problem the CSI/FBI study reckons is only getting worse. Assuming that this isn't true of what respondents also told CSI's researchers (academics from the University of Maryland), the study presents a picture of reducing cyber crime losses that contrasts sharply with vendor-sponsored studies. 9:45:42 AM    comment []

From BNA News, word that NIGERIAN COURT SENTENCES WOMAN TO JAIL FOR EMAIL SCAM A Nigerian court has sentenced a woman to two and half years in jail after she pleaded guilty to fraud charges in the country's biggest e-mail scam case. Amaka Anajemba, one of three suspects in a $242 million fraud involving a Brazilian bank, must return $48.5 million to the bank, hand over $5 million to the government and pay a fine of $15,000 (2 million naira), the country's antifraud agency said Saturday. 7:45:22 AM    comment []

How to learn from your mistakes, by Scott Berkun. . . . .What’s missing in many people’s beliefs about success is the fact that the more challenging the goal, the more frequent and difficult setbacks will be. The larger your ambitions, the more dependent you will be on your ability to overcome and learn from your mistakes. But for many reasons admitting mistakes is difficult. An implied value in many cultures is that our work represents us: if you fail a test, then you are a failure. If you make a mistake then you are a mistake (You may never have felt this way, but many people do. It explains the behavior of some of your high school or college friends). Like eggs, steak and other tasty things we are given letter grades (A, B, C, D and F) organizing us for someone else’s consumption: universities and employers evaluate young candidates on their grades, numbers based on scores from tests unforgiving to mistakes. For anyone than never discovers a deeper self-identity, based not on lack of mistakes but on courage, compassionate intelligence, commitment and creativity, life is a scary place made safe only by never getting into trouble, never breaking rules and never taking the risks that their hearts tell them they need to take. Learning from mistakes requires three things: 1) Putting yourself in situations where you can make interesting mistakes 2) Having the self-confidence to admit to them 3) Being courageous about making changes This essay will cover all three. First we have to classify the different kinds of mistakes. Scott writes really fine essays such as the one blinked here. He's also the author of The Art of Project Management. When he visited the Inkwell for a conversation about it, I wrote this teaser: You probably have projects, whether personal or professional. In managing them, you have to coordinate the efforts of diverse individuals, think creatively, keep to a schedule, and not piss off the people who can help you. Much advice on project management emphasizes jargon-laden scheduling techniques. But here's a book that's different, by an author with real world experience. Scott Berkun consults widely on usability, team leadership, and project management. His fun, readable book, The Art of Project Management, applies a decade's experience managing software teams within a well known software company headquartered near Seattle. The Art of Project Management covers topics ranging from vision, leadership, power, and trust, to creativity and scheduling. Along the way he tells how to figure out what to do, how to manage ideas as well as people, what to do when things go wrong, and how not to aggravate people. Check it out. 1:44:28 AM    comment []