Our Hero

Early humans found hollowed out rocks to turn into homes, originating the term “Cave men”. ¹ This constraint made community difficult, so humans advanced to creating homes from natural materials, such as wood. Primitive homes were modeled on the cave, with nothing but some closed walls and an uncovered opening. Thousands of years of evolution lead us to create doors that open, close, and lock, and windows that allow us to see out and in, then glass to keep what’s out out and what’s in in, then curtains to cover what’s both out and in. In the end, we have the same caves we had before, with our darkness and privacy.

In the 1600′s the Dutch East India company was like the Wal-Mart of the high seas. If you worked on a ship for the DEI, actually called VOC, but let’s not have an acromania tournament over it, you lived day in and day out with the other people on the ship. Everyone knew everyone’s business, and that’s just how it was. There would be no need to do a status update when you went to the head, because everyone watched you go.

With the onset of industrialization and assembly-style production in the 1900′s, factories became central to small towns and people began working together, but their was a similar environment of everyone knew everyone’s family and friends and kids and lifestyle. There just weren’t a lot of secrets. Only in the last 50 years have we moved to the cubiclised, white-collar, technically-oriented jobs where turnover is an expectation and no one really bothers to get to know everyone else. Cliques form, but on the whole there isn’t a sense of community.

In a relatively short span of time, we created a generation and a culture that has a “right to privacy.” We have seen this concept denied by courts who say employers can regulate lifestyle as a condition of employment, and that what an employee does outside of work can still be used against her at work. Drinking, drugs, cigarettes, and even functions allowed to be attended can all be used as conditions of employment in our “right to work” world.  Though it has been upheld time and time again, the belief in this right grows ever stronger.

The political buzzword of the last decade has been “transparency.” We the people should have an open window on the workings of our government, of our corporations, of our financial institutions. We should see how the cogs turn and the deals are made, we should have open access to it all. At the same time, a subculture of companies has grown around controlling the online image of individuals. Ex-boyfriend posted some risque pictures of you? They can fix that. You got fired from your old job for coming to work drunk, and some people decided to blog about it? They can fix that. From the benign to the outright slanderous, companies that specialize in online identity rehab are doing bang up business curing the internet of individuals’ indiscretions.

Should it matter? Should you want to work for a company that would use your facebook status update about hating filing against you in an interview? Does that tweet about being drunk at the Alice In Chains concert make you a bad person or in any way impact your job performance? Are companies better off pretending that their employees don’t have a personal life? Maybe this is the wake up call that companies need to start treating their employees like people. Maybe it’s time to open up the door to the cave and not worry about what others will see, because their cave door is wide open too.

^{1. This is rather vague and unresearched proposition, because this is a tech blog and not an anthropology blog. Please do not blame us when you crib this and fail your class.}

If you want to be judgmental of our thoughts, feel free to follow Fred and Patrick on twitter!

Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 – Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to make it unlawful for any person in the United States, in connection with any telecommunication service or VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) service, to cause any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information (“spoofing”) with the intent to defraud or cause harm. Prohibits construing these provisions to prevent blocking caller identification or to authorize or prohibit law enforcement or U.S. intelligence agency activities.

Interestingly, the bill provides the FCC authority to “to collect fees from the telecommunications industry sufficient to offset the cost of its regulatory program” — a cost which is estimated at $1 million dollars per year. The only exception to the proposed law appears to be for Law Enforcement purposes, however even the CBO points out that domestic violence shelters (attempting to protect the identity of spouses) may be affected by the new regulation.

Of course, as Schoolhouse Rock taught us, the next step is for the House and Senate to resolve any differences. After that, it’s up to the President to decide if this bill becomes law. After all,  it’s a long, long journey to the capital city. Today, it’s just a bill.

Additional Reading / Links of Interest

• Schoolhouse Rock: I’m Just a Bill (Schoolhouse Rock)
• S. 30:Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 (govtrack.us)
• HR 1258, Truth in Caller ID Act of 2010 (Congressional Budget Office)
• HR 1258, Truth in Caller ID Act (Library of Congress)
• Grammar Girl: Affect Versus Effect (Grammar Girl)

Keep these simple rules in mind:

• No one from the IRS or the Census bureau will ever email you about your taxes or the Census. Ever.
• No one from the IRS or the Census bureau will call you and ask for your address, social security number, and bank account information. Ever.
• No one from the IRS or the Census bureau will ask for money, a donation, passwords, or pin numbers over the phone or via email. Ever.

If you get a phone call from the IRS and do not feel comfortable with the questions they ask to identify you, the real IRS is always willing to accept a callback. Their phone number is 1-800-829-1040 (800-TAX-1040). Doing this callback will (almost) always ensure you are talking to the IRS.

This is a good rule of thumb for any unsolicited phone call. If the questioning or “verification process” makes you feel uncomfortable or involves revealing sensitive information such as a mother’s maiden name, social security number, driver’s license number, bank information, or credit information, get a callback name and number. Anyone can spoof an outgoing phone number, so caller id is no protection here. In the case of official agencies, it’s fairly easy to verify the listed phone number before making the callback, and legitimate businesses will never try to goad you into giving information.

If you are struggling with confrontation, all legitimate businesses will also be willing to conduct business via mail. Specifically in cases of debt collection or IRS matters, request the correspondence be provided via US mail instead of the telephone. Legitimate agencies will comply with this request, anyone who doesn’t you can safely hang up on.

Further Reading:
Census on Scams
IRS on Scams

As a follow up to our podcast last week, Fred left the teaser of a discussion of airport security this week. In (unexpected) preparation for this discussion, I took a “short” trip from my home in Chattanooga, TN to Salt Lake city, UT. The flight out was uneventful, Chattanooga is a small, 5-gate airport with a fairly simple metal detector security checkpoint.

On the trip back, things got interesting. At the Salt Lake City airport, one of their security lines has been converted to the full body scan. Had I been a terrorist, I likely would have paid more attention and just not gone through this line. Since I am not, I got my first full body scan. Research scientists have suggested that even one of these scans can cause long-term mutations in DNA and lead to the development of cancer, but I am using the George Carlin theory of more carcinogens generate more cancer, and the cancers will just eat each other.

As a matter of habit, flying five – ten times per year, when I go through security I place my driver’s license and boarding pass(es) in my back pocket. With a metal detector this is never an issue, and surprisingly my new belt that is a fabric weave with two small square hoops for the buckle does not trigger the metal detector. NOW we have full body scan technology, where it was necessary for the fairly well-humored TSA agent to grope my right butt cheek in order to ensure that I did not have explosives or weapons.

For perspective, a walk-through metal detector and wand cost well under $10,000 per unit and requires one TSA agent to oversee use. A full-body scanner costs over $100,000 per unit and requires at least three TSA agents to oversee use. One or two agents work in an unseen location viewing the passenger’s genitals and giggling, then a male and female security officer are present to do the intimate pat down of the genitals. On the upside, the female TSA agent was cute, on the down side they do not accept requests for a pat down. Lest you believe I am being sarcastic about the genital pat-down, the gentleman ahead of me in line was told, “there is an area of concern on the scan. I am going to feel across your waist, down the zipper of your pants, and across.”

So for ten times the cost, you need at least three times as many workers, and this advanced security technology can’t tell the difference between a thin plastic ID card with a magnetic strip and explosives. Additionally, no screening was done of the ID. Terrorists, take note: Driver’s License bomb.

On a side note, I must express appreciation to the Salt Lake City airport for compromising federal regulations and allowing me to take my four ounces of contraband caramel through security, and the Memphis airport (where the hiring process clearly involves rudeness training) for being oblivious to the four ounces of mystery goo in an unmarked container and wrapped in a shopping bag but stopping the belt to dispose of my twenty ounce Coke Zero (purchased at the airport twelve hours earlier.)

The more I look at the post-nine-eleven world, the more I see money and technology being dumped into solutions that are all about smoke and mirrors.  They don’t increase the detection of explosives, they don’t deter terrorism, they just route more government money into a private industry and increase the power of government agencies to disregard the constitution and bill of rights. We see it in airports, we see it in the “war on drugs”, we see it in the telecom industry with increased latitude on wiretapping and records subpoenas.

First, allow me to quote the US Constitution:

Amendment 1 – Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Before I continue, can you imagine a law or amendment today that could be written in only 45 words? I digress…

First, I completely understand that the Federal Government, in this case, does not suggest taxing SMS (right now). In this case, we have the City of Vallejo, California placing a tax on SMS (texting), private phone networks, pagers, and VoIP services. Yet, we do have many taxes from the Federal Government placed on our phone and communications bills (have you checked all those taxes on your cellphone bill?).

Second, I also understand that we have an amendment making the amendments of the US constitution applicable to the states. But, this really isn’t about civics; although we do know that I love to get into long civics discussions for some unknown geek reason.

This post deals with a new proposed tax on texting, private phone systems, and VoIP. Clearly, both Patrick and I do not support this tax. We do not support any communications tax; excepting a minimal tax to ensure availability to 911.

Right now, contrary to what people may or may not think, VoIP systems are subjected to the USF. In fact, VoIP service receives the highest tax rate of any service. The USF, short for the Universal Service Fund, arrived courtesy of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in order to:

• promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable, and affordable rates
• increase access to advanced telecommunications services throughout the Nation
• advance the availability of such services to all consumers, including those in low income, rural, insular, and high cost areas at rates that are reasonably comparable to those charged in urban areas
• increase access to telecommunications and advanced services in schools, libraries and rural health care facilities
• provide equitable and non-discriminatory contributions from all providers of telecommunications services to the fund supporting universal service programs

Regulation of this fund and what it does can make you pull your hair out. The USF can help Ma and Pa get a landline on the ol’ farm. It can also be abused and allow free international calls from rural Iowa. And, it can even lead to the hotly publicized Google/AT&T smackdown.

But this isn’t so much about the USF. Although based on my rambling approach here, you’d never guess.

This is about the taxing communication.

I personally understand the desire to provide universal service. I do not understand how a tax subjected against a private phone network constitutes anything other than a tax on free speech.

For that matter, I believe any communications tax to be a tax on free speech. Anytime a new service comes along it’s taxed. My cell phone bill had communications taxes from the city, state, and federal governments. I pay a city, state, and Federal tax on my cable bill. On top of that, I pay a USF fee on the VoIP lines that I use from the Internet I’m already taxed on.

Are you going to increase my taxes on the SMS messages I send? Really? Aren’t I already taxed on my cell and VoIP bills? Are you going to increase the tax based on the number of times I exercise my freedom of speech?

Taxing the communication is one thing. I disagree, but it is what it is. I try to vote for people who are against those taxes; sadly they are hard to find. But taxing me on the speech itself, that just seems incredibly unconstitutional. And taxing me on a private network? It’s private. We don’t tax people for the amount of books they have in their personal library either.

To me this tax seems as absurd as taxing someone for the amount of books they read.

Recently, Ed started writing a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Friday series, detailing examples and stories from the world of Public Information. The article mostly deals with the Michigan FOIA, however parallels can be drawn for other states (such as Florida’s Sunshine Laws) and the Federal government.

It’s a great read. This week, Ed discusses how to write a FOIA request. Check out the post at http://www.annarbor.com/news/government/foia-friday-how-to-write/.

A few months back, we posted a nice little article on using Asterisk to get Parking Space Availability from Ann Arbor garages. The response from the VoIP community was fantastic! We received great comments and feedback from people like Jason Goecke, Dug Song, Dave Michels, Evan Cooke, and more! People not only responded, they even showed different ways of providing access to this information. And everyone shared their work in an open forum — truly a great example of open source coding inspiring innovation (albeit with Parking Spaces).

Even better was the local response in Ann Arbor. Edward Vielmetti and Fred Posner were interviewed in the local papers, appeared on a radio show, and even rode the teeter totter. Everyone loved the idea of being able to check on parking space availability… everyone except for the DDA (insert scary music).

The DDA (Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority), funded by tax dollars,  “provides a diversity of transportation and parking options to meet downtown’s [Ann Arbor’s] ever-changing needs.” The DDA does not like us making information of parking spaces available to the public via phone. Instead, the DDA wants to control this information. Seriously, they want to control parking space availability information.

Tyler Erickson helped Edward Vielmetti and Fred make this project even more fascinating by tracking parking space availability over time. The plan was to provide predictability of availability. For example, “We’re sorry, the lot at 4th and Washington is currently filled, we predict the parking lot will be available in 7 minutes. Press 1 to be notified…”

Wouldn’t that be neat? We thought so… The DDA’s response was to block Tyler’s access. Of course, since it was using Google Apps, it blocked Google, but that’s another story. We inquired as to why this blockage occurred and… well enter Susan Pollay. Susan Pollay is Executive Director of the DDA. She told us (and remember, this is a tax funded organization):

“Hi all.   Over the last day or so I have talked about your project with a few DDA members and what arose from these conversations was a shared concern that because the project was not an initiative created by/run by the DDA there are no controls in place for this at present.  For instance, there is no DDA policy about how to allow /or even if it should allow an outside group to use the DDA’s parking data for a private enterprise.  There is a concern about how unsecure/secure the DDA website is made when sharing this data.   And finally, a concern that if the project had value to parking patrons, that the DDA itself should consider providing this service as an extension of what it is already doing on-line.”

Interesting… but the story doesn’t stop there. Due to real-life concerns of all of us, we kind of let this project move to the back burner. But then, two days ago Edward Vielmetti noticed the DDA website was no longer publishing real-time parking information. The response from Susan Polly follows:

From: Susan Pollay
Subject: RE: DDA real time parking data via web is not working // was Fwd: parking app busted again
Date: March 12, 2009 11:36:56 AM GMT-04:00
To: Sabra Briere, Edward Vielmetti
Cc: Margie Teall, Christopher TaylorC, Carsten Hohnke, Fred Posner, Tyler Erickson

Many thanks for this and other emails.  The DDA became aware of Mr. Vielmetti’s project after reading about it in the press.   Immediately a number of concerns were expressed including 1) no permission from the DDA was granted before this project got underway, 2) this project hopes to sell this software to other communities and thereby make a profit and is using DDA-generated information to accomplish this, 3) the DDA has no control over what is done with this information yet this information is attributed to the DDA, 4) persons interested in finding out about parking structure vacancies must make a toll-call out of state.

The DDA Operations Committee met and discussed these concerns.  Their resolve was to provide information by phone to interested members of the public using real human beings answering phones at the Republic Parking office.

There are several benefits to the public with this arrangement.  1) Republic Parking staff members can provide the follow up information that an automated system can’t.  e.g. You call to find out if there are vacancies at 4th & Washington – and if there are no vacancies or very few, Republic Parking staff can suggest a nearby convenient alternative parking location.  They can give directions to the parking structure.  They can provide information like yes, they do take credit cards.    The automated system only tells you there are 0 spaces available.      2) Republic Parking staff members can keep track of how many people are calling, what structures they call about most often, the follow up questions, etc.   This way if we ever decide to acquire an automated phone system we know how to prioritize and provide the information most sought after by patrons.  The DDA would have retrieved none of this information from Mr. Vielmetti.       And finally 3) a call to Republic Parking is not a toll call.  It is a local office, staffed 24 hours a day, 6 days a week (Sundays all facilities are open and unlikely there are vacancy concerns).

Thanks again for contacting me.  I hope to be helpful, so please let me know if I can answer any additional questions about this…..

Best wishes.

Susan

WOW!

Fred’s response follows:

From: Fred Posner
Subject: Re: DDA real time parking data via web is not working // was Fwd: parking app busted again
Date: March 12, 2009 4:13:08 PM GMT-04:00
To: Susan Pollay

Good afternoon,

First, my apologies to Tyler and Carsten. They both wrote exceptional, professionally toned replies. I, however, am so appalled at this email, that I must speak directly to the points mentioned.

Susan, the DDA is funded by tax dollars and parking fees. Perhaps you have forgotten that public money is used to fund the DDA’s mission to serve the public?  Allow me to introduce you to the concepts of open government and “public domain.” I don’t want to waste everyone’s time here, but please read up on these concepts so we can be on the same page.

Lets take your first point:

“No permission from the DDA was granted before this project got underway”

What permission should we have gotten? The DDA publishes parking space availability on the internet and on big, bright signs attached on garages. Do you believe that this is classified information that should be controlled by the government? If I asked someone if they knew how many spaces were available, should they say to me “I’m sorry Fred, I don’t have specific permission from the DDA to release that information.” Should people who release this information be considered enemies of the state and locked in Guantanamo Bay?

The bottom line here is that to horde this information is ridiculous. Let’s forget the tax/government/information aspect for a second. Even if this were private parking, I could never imagine an organization that would say… “Hey, I don’t want people to know that I have spaces available. They might come give money to park here.” An example of this is movie theaters. Movie theaters regularly welcome people announcing availability of shows and times. Why? Because they want to fill the seats. And if the seats are full, they want to let people know so they will plan to come back at a time when there is availability. With this in mind, there are many, many private companies that assist movie theaters with publishing this information on websites and phones.

This translates well to Ann Arbor Parking. I’m sure the citizens that you serve would like access to information. I’m also certain that the businesses would like people to know that parking is available. And, I’m certain they want a lot of access to that information. After all, no one suffers from having too much access to the same information. But the DDA response was completely the opposite. You actively stopped us from getting this information by blocking IP’s (such as google application server) and changing the format of the information.

In regards to needing your permission, I say simply, “You’re wrong. Either the information is public information on the public internet and public signs, or it’s private information that should be properly secured. Your idea that this public information must be secured is wrong. The idea is wrong, the approach is wrong, and the underlying ideology is wrong.”

Let’s look at point number 2:

“this project hopes to sell this software to other communities and thereby make a profit and is using DDA-generated information to accomplish this”

Wrong. Simply wrong. And your saying this is borderline libelous. Ed, Tyler, and I did this project to provide information. No money was thought of, and as a matter of fact, it cost me money to provide phone service for the beta project. Not only did we do this work for FREE, we also published the work, the source, and the methods online. We published the code we wrote and entered it into the public domain.

You know what happened when we did this? Others wrote similar code and also published it online. A discussion of open sharing of information took place with some very big names in the VoIP (voice over Internet) industry. We all shared code and provided public information to our work. Sadly, private companies and individuals are willing to share information, but the public DDA is not… that seems backwards, no?

Take a look at the post written on VoIP Tech Chat and the discussion that followed:

http://www.voiptechchat.com/voip/218/use-asterisk-cepstral-and-perl-to-get-parking-and-weather-updates/

Point number 3:

“the DDA has no control over what is done with this information yet this information is attributed to the DDA”

Ok. When I was in third grade I had to write a report where I researched information and cited my sources. I attributed the information I learned and gave credit to the source so that others could also get that same information. This “marvel” concept of citing sources is still used today.

I must ask, what control of this information is needed? “My goodness, it’s crazy. I can’t believe it… with this parking space availability information… I can unlock the secret to who killed Kennedy!!!! Eureka!”

Sarcasm aside, the thought of government controlling information means the end of freedom. Information is for people and there’s a reason why people need access to information. If you have thoughts of controlling information, please leave government. Also, citing the source of information is not a problem, it’s actually proper, responsible, and good practice.

Point number 4:

“persons interested in finding out about parking structure vacancies must make a toll-call out of state.”

Wrong. At one point, I had this project linked to a 212 number. Why? Because I could support unlimited callers at that number. I did this at a cost of 1.5 cents per minute from my pocket. It took me two weeks, but we received a local Ann Arbor number capable of having more than 2 simultaneous calls. So for a brief 10 day period, you needed to dial 212. Then you could dial 734. We released this information online, over the radio, and to newspapers… So basically, since January 20th, you’re wrong (and we really didn’t make this live until January 10th).

But let’s take this a step further… and say “So what?” Right now the DDA releases this information only online at at the garage. If people want to make this available via SMS, Phone, Twitter, Facebook, Smoke Signal, Tea Leaves, or whatever communicative method one can imagine, it’s simply another way to access the same information. After all, no one suffers from having too much access to the same information.

So, not only is there a local number, it shouldn’t matter if there wasn’t. I truly see implementing a Detroit number, maybe Toledo, Grand Rapids… and more. Could you imagine the possibility of people from another area calling a local number (for them) to visit Ann Arbor? I can… and wow, that would be great.

Benefit number 1:

“Republic Parking staff members can provide the follow up information that an automated system cant.  e.g. You call to find out if there are vacancies at 4th & Washington  and if there are no vacancies or very few, Republic Parking staff can suggest a nearby convenient alternative parking location.  They can give directions to the parking structure.  They can provide information like yes, they do take credit cards.    The automated system only tells you there are 0 spaces available”

Our system not only can do all this, it can do more. Our system can speak many languages. Our system won’t call in sick. Our system doesn’t have attitude, ever. And here’s the best part… Our system doesn’t only say there are “0″ spaces available. Our system actually calls you back when spots are available. Our system will also call you back when there are no more spots available. Are you going to have Republic Parking do that? Our system can give instructions, make recommendations, provide hours, and do much more than a staffed person and it costs you… nothing. No benefits, no salary, no cost, and yet more service.

Benefit number 2:

“Republic Parking staff members can keep track of how many people are calling, what structures they call about most often, the follow up questions, etc.   This way if we ever decide to acquire an automated phone system we know how to prioritize and provide the information most sought after by patrons.  The DDA would have retrieved none of this information from Mr. Vielmetti.”

We keep track of this information. Any time you want it, all you have to do is ask. Unlike the DDA, Mr. Vielmetti, Mr. Posner, and Mr. Erickson have demonstrated an ability and willingness to share information.

Final Benefit number 3:

“a call to Republic Parking is not a toll call.  It is a local office, staffed 24 hours a day, 6 days a week (Sundays all facilities are open and unlikely there are vacancy concerns).”

A call to Republic Parking can be a toll call for many of the users who travel from out of town or are students here in Ann Arbor  but I already addressed that above. Our system is a local call to Ann Arbor right now which you imply otherwise. Also, our system is open 24/7 and yes, you do have some availability problems on Sunday… well at least we could see that when you weren’t blocking access to the information.

Sometimes it helps to have other people look at information, this way we can assist you when you make incorrect statements. Your statement is a PERFECT illustration of why open access to information is needed. Open access to information corrects statements that interpret information incorrectly.

In closing…

Right now I wear two hats. I’m both a Florida Resident and am renting in Pittsfield Township. I also own a small business. After watching these Jeff Daniels’ commercials promoting the benefits of doing business in Michigan, I was very seriously considering moving my business from Florida to Michigan. However, dealing with the DDA has really opened my eyes.

You see, I’ve worked for the government. And say what you want about Florida, we take public access to government very seriously in the Sunshine state. We have what is called the Sunshine Law that provides both criminal and civil penalties when public access is restricted. It’s a great law, and perhaps needed here as well. You see, I believe, as many others do, that in a government of the people and by the people, that information belongs to the people. Government agencies, such as the DDA, should help get information to the public, not wish to control it.

The thought of the DDA requiring permission to access public information and / or control information is not only a scary thought; it’s absolutely anti-American. After all, no one suffers from having too much access to the same information.

A personal hero of mine has always been Benjamin Franklin, and I leave you with this:

“Never trust a government that doesn’t trust its own citizens…”

Fred Posner

PS…

Wonder why the phone number can’t tell you the available spaces? We are specifically blocked and forbidden to access their website. Here’s the page we get:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>403 Forbidden</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Forbidden</h1>
<p>You don't have permission to access /parking__transportation/available_parking_spots/
on this server.</p>
<hr>
<address>Apache/2.2.4 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.4 OpenSSL/0.9.7a DAV/2 mod_jk/1.2.20 PHP/5.2.1 Server at a2dda.org Port 80</address>
</body></html>

Welcome to the new world order.

America’s structural burdens have hit home most profoundly in terms of jobs. The U.S. workplace is “in a profound, historic state of turmoil that for millions of individuals is approaching panic,” according to labor consultant Dan Lacey, publisher of the newsletter Workplace Trends.

The latest recession has hit white-collar workers particularly hard, both in terms of layoffs and slippage in their real wages. “These people can’t believe what is happening to them,” says Illinois opinion pollster Mike McKeon. “They decided they didn’t want to work in factories, so they learned how to use computers. They were rewarded with service-sector jobs[...], but now they’re out on the street and no one wants them.” Open season has been declared on corporate bureaucrats. “The middle manager has gone out of vogue in corporate America,” says Lacey. “Indeed, the word manager is the kiss of death on resumes.”

One major obstacle to efficiency remains: a runaway U.S. health-care system, whose costs are rising at the rate of more than 9% a year and today stand at $2,500 a person, more than twice the level of most of the world’s industrialized economies. Such costs add 15% to the price of every new motor vehicle, for example, a margin that single-handedly threatens to eliminate the entire cost advantages achieved by Ford and Chrysler.

All of this looks familiar…same headlines we see over and over about the current catastrophic state of the economy. Why post it? Because these are excerpts from a 1992 time magazine article.

How about:

[...] plan calls for an $80 billion four-year public-works project to rebuild roads and bridges and create a national fiber-optic information network to enhance learning and to link homes, schools and offices. Clinton also wants a national education and retraining program, financed by a 1.5% payroll tax, for all employees from the mail room to the executive suite.

[...] would reduce personal income tax rates 1% across the board, saving the average family about $5 a week, which he would offset with mostly unspecified spending cuts.

Wow! It’s Obama’s change! Except that first paragraph begins: “The heart of Clinton’s” and the second begins “Bush”.

Just a moment of hope, because we have been in this hole before and the way out can’t be that different from the last time.

Our hero Benjamin Franklin

The University of Florida is in Gainesville — my private information is everywhere.

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA — For the third time in less than a year, the University of Florida reported a breach exposing personal information. This time, the breach includes the names and social security numbers for more than 90,000 people. In this latest attack, the University announced the hack was executed by an “intruder” and that the University of Florida Police Department was notified.

Ok, at this point, I need to go ahead and just vent. I’m sorry to have a soap box moment… but the Police Department was notified? Yay! Thank God, Buddha, that little idol Bobby found when the Brady’s visited Hawaii, or whatever higher power works for you. I can now sleep soundly knowing that the police department was notified after my information was already out there. Sweet!

If this was the first time this happened, I would be disappointed. I can tell you that without hesitation, because when this actually happened the first time (June 2008), I was disappointed. If this were the second time? Well, when this happened the second time (November 2008), I was annoyed. Now that this has happened the for the third time? Well, honestly I haven’t decided if I’m angry, postal, or just bleeping bleeped off. (Trying to keep this PG rated)

In November, when we reported the breach of 344,000 names, birth dates, social security numbers (and more) from the University, I said simply that I expected “more” from Florida’s flagship University. Now, I demand it.

In June, we spoke of encryption. When you read “lessons learned” from security breaches, you most often hear of the business, institution, or even individual work to strengthen their outside protection while at the same time encrypting sensitive information. Encryption at this point isn’t just a good idea, it’s seriously the least UF can do to demonstrate that they take security seriously. And encryption isn’t the catch all end all here… it’s just a first step that should have been taken months ago.

And let’s think about this another way… Sure, the University as a public institution enjoys a certain degree of civil immunity. However, at what point do we say the University’s handling of Personally Identifiable Information is simply negligent. After the second breach, what actions were done to protect data? (I’m not being sarcastic here, I’m literally asking “Hey, what actions were taken?”)

Now that UF has three strikes, can we get a new batter to the plate? The University of Florida is a large, prosperous institution. Whilst (look I used whilst) the University complains of limited resources and inability to pay professors a decent salary, the University’s President banked $731,811 (in 2008). The football coach makes over $3 million dollars. I bet you that for only $200,000 we can get a great executive to run the University. This first year’s savings of 500k could more than fortify some immediate security needs.

Sadly, there’s no public outrage here. Maybe no-one else was effected, or maybe I’m one of the few who were effected each of these three times. But regardless, I am simply disgusted by my alma mater and think it’s time for us to demand that Florida not only learn from their mistakes, but actually demonstrate how to properly secure information.

Yes, you struck out. You missed three easy pitches. Pitches my friend’s daughter would have knocked into the nose-bleeders — but the good news is that there’s still another inning. The bad news is I’m in the stands and I got a whole box of cracker jacks. I think you hear me knocking…

So c’mon Gators. Let’s pretend this is important and knock it out of the park. My name is Fred and I’m a Gator.

For those of you not familiar with the University of Florida, the opening statement mocks an advertising campaign from Florida a few years back, “The University of Florida is in Gainesville — the Gator Nation is everywhere.” It’s actually a cool ad, available from YouTube.