Archive for RB

| October 8, 2013
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LA Schools iPads Hacked In A Week

– UPDATE 08-28-2014 – Just in time for the start of School reports surface LAUSD is “re-opening” bids for its controversial billion-dollar contract with Apple and Pearson to give all students, teachers, and administrators iPads.

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LA iPads Hacked In A WeekThe second-largest school district in the US is spending at least $1 Billion to complete a 1:1 tablet initiative. The Las Angles Unified School District (LAUSD) plans to deploy 650,000 Apple (AAPL) iPads, one for each student in LA county. The project slated to be completed by December 2014, has had problems that may prevent if from reaching that goal.

Las Angles Unified School DistrictThe project includes 500 million dollars for iPads and 500 million dollars for Wi-Fi and related infrastructure. The initiative is funded mostly by voter-approved school construction bonds, which taxpayers typically pay off over 25 years which the LA Times says “has sparked some concerns and legal and logistical hurdles.”  (rb- I first noted the project here)

The project has run into a series of issues. The first issue focused on the 25 year payback period on a $500.00 device. A second issue emerged in September 2013 when the district recognized that it may need to buy Bluetooth keyboards for the iPads. The LA Times estimated a bill of $38 million for the oversight. The LA Times reports that the included software keyboard on the iPad might not satisfy the needs of older students writing term papers.

650,000 Apple iPads,Also, LAUSD has planned to use the iPads for testing based on new Common Core English and math learning standards. The article contends that the iPad’s touch screen could frustrate students and even obscure portions of a test item that would be visible in its entirety on a full screen. (rb- I talked to many school districts about the SBAC keyboard testing issue, who is going to configure Bluetooth on and off? What about power? Does Bluetooth decrease the battery time on the iPad? Do you have enough electrical outlets to plug in 30 iPads? How is your Wi-Fi?)

In late September 2013, the LAUSD iPad project ran into a bigger problem as they deployed the iPads to high school students. According to the LA Times, it took exactly one week for nearly 300 students at Theodore Roosevelt High School to defeat the LAUSD installed device security. Following the news that students were using the hacked tablets for personal use, district officials halted home use of the Apple tablets until further notice.

Common Core English and math learning standards.Students told the LA Times once they had the iPad home they could not do anything with the $678 device. Apparently, the students began to tinker with the security lock on the tablets and soon discovered all they had to do was delete their personal profile information. With the profile deleted, a student was free to surf, tweet like, and stream music.

The new found freedom prompted L.A. Unified School District Police Chief Steven Zipperman to suggest that the district might want to delay the distribution of the devices. The chief said in a memo obtained by the LA Times, “I want to prevent a ‘runaway train‘ scenario when we may have the ability to put a hold on the roll-out.”

I want to prevent a 'runaway train' scenarioAccording to a March 2013 blog post from Roosevelt HS, LAUSD chose AirWatch as the provider for the mobile device management system. And that when students first get their iPads they will have AirWatch already installed. The district posted an update on their website that indicated they have turned to AirWatch and Apple for better solutions to their iPad problem.

rb-

This really is a story of mismanagement from the top down. A billion-dollar project for consumer devices financed over 25 years – Really? Are the students of LA’s class of 2038 going to have to use the iPad’s from 2013? Where is the refresh program? How are they getting the money to buy 650,000 iPad 9’s in 5 or 6 years?

If the iPads are to be used at home? how is LAUSD addressing the digital divide in LA?

Did the big-wigs consider the equity of using iPads for high-stakes nationwide common core testing? Not only will LA students be compared against each other and the rest of California but also students in 44 other states.  It is my understanding that the current SBAC test is not optimized to display well on small screens. Will the tablet form factor handicap LA students or others across the US using tablets when competing against others using large screens and real keyboards in ergonomically proper positions? Will LAUSD show the test takers how to see the entire question, or how to easily switch between back and forth between screens to review a passage and then write a response.

Call me cynical after working in K-12 and living in the Detroit area, but a public $1 Billion dollar government project seems like a magnet for mismanagement, fraud, waste, and pay-to-play scams. It already seems to be at least $20 million over budget to buy keyboards even at K-12 discounts. Hopefully, the iOS and AirWatch updates are already included in the existing contracts.

While the headline-grabbing hacking story may be resolved in Apple’s iOS7. AFAIK Apple does not let anybody into its BIOS or whatever chip it is on an iPad. That is why students can easily delete the AirWatch agent. LAUSD still has a task on its hands to get all the deployed devices up to iOS 7.

LAUSD is missing 71 iPadsIn more signs of mismanagement, The LA Times reports that LAUSD is missing 71 iPads. They deployed 69 of the missing iPads last year at the Valley Academy of Arts and Science. PadGadget reports that after the fact, the District ramped up its tracking efforts by adding stronger safeguards. Global positioning can now be activated for every tablet. Plus, an electronic inventory system registers who is now responsible for a particular device, and District officials can remotely shut down iPads reported stolen.  Lt. Jose Santome of the school district’s Police Department stated, “We know what’s going out and deployed on every campus.”

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| October 6, 2013
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Ultimate Hot Wheels Track

Ultimate Hot Wheels TrackThe “World’s Highest Wall Track” for Mattel (MAT) Hot Wheels was built on the side of an apartment building in Barcelona. The seven-story, 60-foot track was constructed on the ground and the 500 parts were hoisted and mounted on the side of the building.

Autoweek reports the track was part of fan-fest during the Spanish Grand Prix and the run was witnessed by 40,000 adoring Hot Wheels fans. See this record-breaking track in action in the video below… (OK- it’s in Spanish).

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| October 3, 2013
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BYOD Could Land Employees in Jail

BYOD Could Land Employees in JailAgreeing to a BYOD policy could land an employee in jail. Courts can go after employee personal phones in litigation involving companies. Michael Kassner, an information security consultant told FierceMobileIT that employees could be dragged into civil or criminal litigation.

Agreeing to a BYOD policy could land an employee in jailEmployees could be required to give up their personal device to the courts or even have all the data on the device searched, with possible legal ramifications for the owner.  According to Mr. Kassner, “There is legal precedence involving e-discovery and plain-view doctrine that allows the seizure of evidence whether it is related to the case under investigation or not.” There are three possible legal scenarios involving BYOD, says Mr. Kassner who consulted with Tyler Pitchford, with the law firm of Brannock and Humphries.

The first scenario outlined in the article involves an employee who has signed a BYOD end-user license agreement, having his personal data wiped along with the corporate data. If the end-user agreement includes the clause enabling the wiping of all data on the personal device, the employee is out of luck.

Legal contract“In the above scenario we’re talking about a legal contract, which means if the employee signed the contract, he agreed to its terms, granting his employer the right to reset the employee’s phone,” comments lawyer Pitchford.

In the second scenario, the enterprise becomes involved in a civil lawsuit and a subpoena is issued for the employee’s smartphone. During the legal discovery process, sensitive personal information is publicly disclosed.

“Since the employee co-mingled work and personal data, she has turned her smartphone into discoverable evidence …The employee can seek an order quashing the subpoena or an order sealing the discovered information, but that’s unlikely in this circumstance,” Mr. Pitchford observes.

DetectiveIn the third scenario brought up in the article, the employee’s company does business with a firm that is the subject of a criminal proceeding. Authorities issue a warrant for the employee’s phone because the employee has done work for the targeted firm. Incriminating evidence is found on the employee’s phone and the employee is now under criminal investigation.

“Assuming the warrant is valid, then anything the government located in plain view within the scope of the warrant is admissible against the employee in another proceeding,” Mr. Pitchford notes.

Case lawMr. Kassner concludes: “Until case-law or new technologies decide which way the legal winds are blowing about BYOD, it might be in your best interest to avoid BYOD and its alluring convenience.”

rb-

I am not a lawyer and you should consult your own legal counsel but as I have said this before – ummm Acceptable Use Policy?

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| October 1, 2013
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R Social Networks Bad 4 U?

R Social Networks Bad 4 U?The average U.S. Facebook user spends 6.5 hours a month on the site. There is growing global evidence that using social networks have a negative impact on their users. Not only do social networks open their users to malware (PDF) and identity theft, but the latest research from around the world suggests that social media can impact user’s emotional well-being.

Facebook can make you feel badBuzzFeed reports that social scientists at the University of Michigan looked at the impact of social networking. The UofM researchers released new research that using Facebook can make you feel bad. The U of M research published in the online journal Plos One found that Facebook use predicted declines in the well-being of surveyed participants.

Facebook

The Michigan research indicates that using Facebook negatively impacts how people feel from one moment to the next. It also impacts their overall life satisfaction. As UM social psychologist Ethan Kross explained to BuzzFeed:

“On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection. Rather than enhancing well-being, however, these findings suggest that Facebook may undermine it.”

University of MichiganBuzzFeed points out that the results are just another piece in a larger stack of evidence. The evidence says that increased hours per month spent on Facebook could have a harmful effect on our lives. Professor Kross told the LA Times, “We measured lots and lots of other personality and behavioral dimensions … none of the factors that we assessed influenced the results. The more you used Facebook, the more your mood dropped.”

The Michigan study tested for and discounted alternative reasons that might account for Facebook’s negative impact on happiness. However, the article claims the deceased life satisfaction of Facebook users has more to do with behavioral patterns than the service itself.

The article equates Facebook use with gambling. The author cites Alexis Madrigal‘s article in the Atlantic, “The Machine Zone.” The Atlantic article says that Facebook users, similar to those who play slot machines, are unwittingly lulled into a time-distorting rhythm. They are lulled by repetitive and sometimes rewarding tasks — like looking at an endless stream of your friends’ photos. This behavior can mimic the deleterious effects of gambling and even addiction. The article claims this kind of problem stems from Facebook’s savvy design and engineering. Facebook takes advantage of how humans are wired to keep users on the site.

Social networks in China

China's Beihang UniversityTechEye also points out a study from researchers at China’s Beihang University. The Chinese study claims social networking sites are generating a lot of anger. The study, by Rui Fan, Jichang Zhao, Yan Chen, and Ke Xu, examined human emotions on China’s Twitter-like microblogging site Sina Weibo.

After reading 70 million messages from 200,000 users of Weibo, the researchers found that anger spreads faster and wider than other emotions like joy. The TechEye article suggests that posts you write out of anger will have more impact than those expressing happiness. The researchers also found that users with a larger number of friends have a more significant sentiment influence on their neighborhoods. According to the article, the Chinese researchers found that anger among users correlated much higher than that of joy. They concluded that angry emotions could spread more quickly and broadly in the network.

Angry tweetsIf a user sent an angry message, researchers looked at how likely the recipients were to also send out an angry message or retweet the same emotion. The BuzzFeed article also references a German study. The German study found that Facebook’s social pressures created noticeable stress and feelings of envy. These are emotions that could, ultimately, lead to people abandoning the social network.

Social networks FOMO

A Pew Research Center report released in May 2013 reinforces the risks Facebook faces. According to BuzzFeed, younger users told Pew the stress of needing to manage their reputation on Facebook contributes to their lack of enthusiasm for the social network. Nevertheless, the site is still where a large amount of socializing takes place. The teens reported feeling they need to stay on Facebook to not miss out.

social media as an industry ranked third to last in consumer satisfactionThe BuzzFeed article concludes that future social media networks will have to figure out have to survive if they make us sad. The question isn’t exclusive to Facebook. In a recent survey, social media as an industry ranked third to last in consumer satisfaction. Social networks ranked below the airline industry. They state that it’s not hard to imagine a future where users will demand social platforms that are not only intensely engaging but also keenly aware and respectful of how our psychological state works.

As Madrigal notes in his post, “fighting the great nullness at the heart of these coercive loops should be one of the goals of technology design, use, and criticism.” Facebook has succeeded in its mission to connect the world. But we’re only beginning to understand what that means for humanity.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| September 27, 2013
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Farewell to Steve

Farewell to SteveNow that Microsoft’s (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer is on his farewell tour. GigaOM has an article “In Defense of Steve Ballmer” it’s an interesting read. However, I plan to commemorate Farmington Hills’ own Steve’s departure from MSFT in his own way.


 

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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