Asides

Agency aims to rate mobile broadband service performance across the U.S.

Measuring Broadband America, that gauges residential broadband performance.

Agency aims to rate mobile broadband service performance across the U.S.

September 06, 2012
How fast is data access on your smartphone? The Federal Communications Commission wants to find out.

The agency announced plans Wednesday to measure the performance of wireless broadband services across the country. Under the program, called Measuring Mobile America, the FCC will work with major wireless carriers, research and public interest groups, and other parties to assess the performance of wireless services.
The program will be modeled after an existing initiative, Measuring Broadband America, that gauges residential broadband performance. In a report released in July, the FCC said consumers have used the data generated by that program for comparison shopping, leading to increased competition among service providers.
According to the FCC, the residential broadband survey has led to improvements in three areas: Internet service providers (ISPs) are making more accurate promises about network performance; ISPs are more consistent in delivering promised speeds; and consumers are subscribing to higher-speed tiers. [SNIP]
http://www.informationweek.com/government/mobile/fcc-to-measure-wireless-data-speeds/240006873

Unconstitutional Fishing Expeditions: The Massive Abuse Of Administrative Subpoenas By The Government

We are In The Matrix! We’ve seen increasing surveillance and abuse over the years, but it seems that any time people push back on these processes, they’re brushed off.

Unconstitutional Fishing Expeditions: The Massive Abuse Of Administrative Subpoenas By The Government

For years, we’ve talked about how the Justice Department has massively abused the “National Security Letters” (NSLs) process that lets it seek information from third parties without judicial oversight. At least with FBI NSLs, the FBI is required to release some (though not all) info on how they’re used, which is why we have some indication of how widely they’re abused. However, as Dave Kravets recently detailed in a fantastic article at Wired.com, the use of “administrative subpoenas” (NSLs are a form of administrative subpoena) allowing government officials to issue mandatory subpoenas to third parties with no oversight at all has become quite widespread. Even worse: most government agencies don’t seem to have any interest in revealing any data about them. In other words, if you thought the FBI was abusing NSLs, you should probably be even more concerned about some of these others administrative subpoenas.
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It’s worth reading Kravets’ full article, even if it is depressing. What amazes me is that we let this kind of stuff continue unabated. We’ve seen increasing surveillance and abuse over the years, but it seems that any time people push back on these processes, they’re brushed off because “OMG!Terrorists!” or something along those lines. It’s sad that we, as a country, seem so accepting of the government taking away basic Constitutional rights if it just screams something about terrorists and crime.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120901/01010120237/unconstitutional-fishing-expeditions-massive-abuse-administrative-subpoenas-government.shtml

White House Announces Plans to Create a National Science, Math, Technology, and Engineering Master Teacher Corps

Number 116: August 7, 2012

White House Announces Plans to Create a National Science, Math, Technology, and Engineering Master Teacher Corps

On July 18, the Obama Administration announced the President’s plan for the creation of a national Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Master Teacher Corps.
“The STEM Master Teacher Corps will begin with 50 exceptional STEM teachers established in 50 sites and will be expanded over 4 years to reach 10,000 Master Teachers. These selected teachers will make a multi-year commitment to the Corps and, in exchange for their expertise, leadership and service, will receive an annual stipend of up to $20,000 on top of their base salary. The Administration will launch this Teacher Corps with the $1 billion from the President’s 2013 budget request currently before Congress,” states a White House press release.
The White House intends to engage teachers at all levels in this program, including those in elementary schools and those who teach at-risk students. Another key intent of this program is that Master Teachers will promote “deep learning over teaching to the test.” The White House intends to assess the effectiveness of the program by talking to educators as the Corps is designed and then developing metrics for evaluating its effectiveness with further input from educators.
Funding to improve STEM teaching and learning was included in the President’s budget request for the Department of Education. This funding, in the form of competitive grants, is intended to help school districts “implement high-quality plans to establish career ladders that identify, develop, and leverage highly effective STEM teachers.” The White House is hoping to work with Congress to eventually fund the program at the intended level of $1 billion over the course of a decade.
The President’s budget request for FY2013 includes a $5 billion request for funding a new program, the Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence, and Collaborative Teaching (RESPECT) Project, aimed at re-envisioning the teaching profession. According to the White House Press Release:
“As part of the RESPECT project, the STEM Master Teacher Corps will be supported by the U.S. Department of Education, and established in collaboration with independent, non-profit organizations and local public-private partnerships between STEM-related businesses and industries and school districts.  Key parts of the plan include:
.  A rigorous selection of the best and brightest math and science teachers from across the country:  The STEM Master Teacher Corps will be established in 100 sites – each with 50 exceptional STEM teachers – and will be expanded over 4 years to reach 10,000 Master Teachers. Accomplished teachers will be selected for the STEM Master Teacher Corps through a highly competitive process, based on demonstrated effectiveness in teaching one or more STEM subjects, their content knowledge, and their contributions to the continuous improvement of teaching and learning both within their schools and across the community of STEM teachers. The selection process will be administered locally or regionally, but aligned to a set of national benchmarks.
.  National recognition and rewards, including compensation to keep Corps members in the profession: STEM Master Teacher Corps members will benefit from a professional compensation structure that will make their profession more competitive with alternative careers, keeping the best teachers in the classrooms where they are needed. STEM Master Teacher Corps members will make a multi-year commitment to the Corps and, in exchange for their expertise, leadership and service, will receive an annual stipend of up to $20,000 on top of their base salary.  This recognition further raises the prestige of the Corps members, enabling America’s classrooms to attract and secure the best talent in the STEM education profession.
.  Corps members as a national resource, for their schools and for other STEM educators: STEM Master Teacher Corps members will be called to serve their profession and the nation, through an ongoing commitment to professional learning.  They will build a community of teaching practice where they live, helping students excel in math and science while taking on leadership and mentorship roles in their schools and communities.  Corps members will lead ongoing professional meetings and teacher development activities; assist their schools and school districts in evaluating and providing feedback to other teachers; and validate and disseminate effective practices to improve STEM instruction. They will participate in regular convenings to engage in professional development and share best practices; deepen their subject matter expertise; consult with experts in teaching and learning; and improve their instructional leadership and pedagogical content! skills.”
As of the July 27 deadline for applications, over 30 school districts submitted applications for funding which would go towards identifying and compensating “highly effective teachers who can model and mentor STEM instruction for their teaching peers, providing those teachers with additional compensation, recognition, and responsibilities in their schools.”
The STEM Master Teaching Corps stems from a key recommendation of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which called for a national STEM Master Teacher Corps “to recognize and help retain America’s most talented STEM teachers, build a community of practice among them, raise the profile of the STEM teaching profession, and leverage excellent teachers to collaborate with their peers to strengthen STEM education in America’s public schools.”
Aline D. McNaull
Government Relations Division
American Institute of Physics
am******@*ip.org
301-209-3094

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Firefox, Opera allow crooks to hide an entire phish site in a link

Firefox, Opera allow crooks to hide an entire phish site in a link

By John Leyden
Posted in Malware, 3rd September 2012 15:52 GMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/03/phishing_without_hosts_peril/
A shortcoming in browsers including Firefox and Opera allows crooks to easily hide an entire malicious web page in a clickable link – ideal for fooling victims into handing over passwords and other sensitive info.
Instead, the malicious web pages can be stored in data URIs – uniform resource identifiers, not to be confused with URLs – which stuff the web code into a handy string that when clicked on, instructs the browser to unpack the payload and present it as a page.
It negates the need to find somewhere to secrete your malicious page, and once shortened using a service such as TinyURL, the URI can be reduced to a small URL perfect for passing around social networks, online chats and email. Crooks would still need to set up a server to receive data from victims, however.
Google’s Chrome browser blocks redirection to data URIs, and other browsers have limits on the volume of data that can be packed into URIs. Klevjer created a 26KB attack page that failed to load in Internet Explorer, but worked on both Firefox and Opera.
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