Body Fat Scale - Reader Feedback

Feedback about the Body Fat Scale has ranged from "why bother" to "wow, didn't know about that". There was also constructive feedback from Tony, who endorsed the need to monitor both weight and body-fat. "I'm 46, with a family history of heart disease. I have mild hypertension, Type II diabetes and I'm slightly overweight and over-fat", he said. Tony cautioned that one thing to be aware of is the reliability of body fat impedance measurements. (read more)

Gadgets December 29, 2003 10:22 PM

Tanita Body Fat Monitor/Scale

I can't say that I am in the best possible physical condition, but I do work hard at staying fit. When I received a Tanita Body Fat Monitor/Scale as a gift this week, I hope it was more about my love of gadgets than a different implication. The theory behind having a way to measure how much body fat you have is that it is an important element of your fitness. Weight alone is not a clear indicator of good health because it does not distinguish between pounds that come from body fat and those that come from lean body mass or muscle. Too much fat is often called obesity, and most health experts would agree that obesity puts a person at risk for many serious medical conditions. (read more)

Gadgets December 28, 2003 01:17 PM

Privacy And Trust - Epilogue

Another dimension of Trust has to do with standards. Because of standards, the Internet is the only thing I know of that works the same everywhere. Most things work differently in different parts of the world. The side of the road we drive on, the side of the car we drive from, the width of the railroad tracks, the plugs that we put in the wall; all work differently around the world. But not the Internet; it works exactly the same in every corner of the world. There are a lot of debates during the process while Internet standards are being developed but once published as a standard every vendor has an obligation to implement the standard. Most do. (read more)

PKI December 26, 2003 12:33 PM

Privacy And Trust - Part 8

In "Too Secure?", I described how a financial services company insisted that I use the fax machine to send them a document. Let's contrast that process with how it might have worked using a public key infrastructure approach with the five security functions described in the last part of the Privacy And Trust series. We'll look at each of the five elements. (read more)

PKI December 24, 2003 11:06 AM

Privacy And Trust - Part 7

The most important benefit of a digital ID is authentication. Once digital IDs are more commonplace, you will no longer have to send your login ID and password over the Internet. Your password, passphrase, or biometric will go no further than your smart card, token, or your PC. Once you are authenticated, you will be able to authorize an encrypted exchange of digital data between your PC (or phone or other information appliance) and the other party. The result of the exchange is that both parties will be able to confirm that the other party is indeed who they say they are. If you provided biometric data the person will know not only that it was your ID but that it was actually you and not someone who may have ?borrowed? your login/password. (read more)

PKI December 23, 2003 08:34 PM

Privacy And Trust - Part 6

In the near future most people will have a digital ID along with an accompanying biometric link such as a fingerprint, face print, voiceprint, iris or retina scan. The combination of digital ID and biometric will enable you to establish yourself as a completely unique person. At last you have the ability in the digital world to establish that you are who you say you are just as you can in the physical world! Step one is to get a digital ID from someone that knows for sure who you are and who is trusted by others as a reliable source for authenticating you. And who would this someone be? (read more)

PKI December 22, 2003 05:34 PM

Google On Over To Net Attitude

My book, Net Attitude, has been for sale on Amazon since it was published and there is a link to purchase it directly from the book image on the patrickWeb homepage. (the commissions from Amazon are modest and I contribute them to charity). The new news is that there is now an interesting way to not only get to Amazon to buy the book but also to find and read part of the book content through Google's new book searching site. Here is a link to the Google beta test. (read more)

Favorites December 21, 2003 01:53 PM

Privacy And Trust - Part 5

There was a cartoon by Peter Steiner in the July 5, 1993 issue of The New Yorker showing a dog at a PC speaking to another dog watching from the floor. The caption was, ?On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog.? Very true and in fact nobody really knows for sure just who you are. Nor do you know who is at the other end of a chat session or e-commerce transaction either. Assuming success of the numerous technologies at the Inside ID conference in Washington, D.C. this week, we will soon have Digital IDs that will change this. There are many issues but has become urgent that we get digital ID's in place for all of us (and for our servers and eventually for everything. (read more)

December 20, 2003 04:41 PM

Inside ID - Summary

Before I continue with the Privacy and Trust series, Ins I wanted to summarize what I learned at the Inside ID conference in Washington. In my presentation I tried to set the stage for the conference by speaking about how the evolution of the networked world presents a staggering necessity and opportunity for organizations of all types to provide the means to establish who they are and who they are dealing with, whether it is across the counter or across the Internet. The Inside ID conference then drilled down in great depth as nearly 100 speakers and more than 60 vendors discussed the systems and technologies that facilitate identification -- ranging from digital identity to identity management. There were a lot of detailed things I learned but what I want to share is the big picture of what I learned. (read more)

PKI December 18, 2003 04:02 PM

Phishing - Part 2

A number of readers were surprised to learn about phishing, and more than one suggested that I send the example to eBay. Actually, I am quite confident that eBay is on top of this issue. I suspect they scan continuously to find eBay fraud of all kinds -- including phishing emails. eBay is an incredibly large and successful community for buyers and sellers and they have thought through all the aspects of the buying and selling processes. Any inhibitor to the growth of the community is something they are responsive too. Unfortunately, it is a constant battle to stay ahead of the fraudsters. Bob Safier shared with me an amazing fraudulent email that he received. (read more)

PKI December 16, 2003 05:34 PM

Phishing

In the Inside ID Conference report (part 4) I mentioned "phishing" as one of the types of fraudulent activity that is happening on the Internet. Today I received an example personally. This is such a blatant example of fraud I hope and suspect that the Federal Trade Commission is taking swift action. I also hope sharing this here will make more people aware of this kind of sham, and I urge all to let their friends and families know. According to people at the conference I just attended, the positive response rate -- people who actually provide their personal information to the phishers -- is 30%. That is extraordinarily high compared to spam or legitimate advertising. (read more)

PKI December 14, 2003 04:47 PM

Inside ID Conference - Part 5

I am planning this and one more story about things I learned at the Inside ID conference in Washington, D.C. and then I will continue to write stories that are part of the Privacy and Trust series. There were more than sixty exhibitors at the conference. Naturally, they all claimed to have *the* key ingredient needed to solve the identity management and authentication issues of the world. I was quite impressed with a number of them and this story will summarize what I learned about four vendor solutions. Three of them offer biometric technology. If one thing is clear from the conference it is that all government entities are looking to biometrics as the way to tie a person's body to their credentials. (read more)

PKI December 13, 2003 03:03 PM

Linux In School - Part 2

It was privilege once again to be able to speak to students at the IT Leadership Academy program at Naugatuck Valley Community College. A show of hands indicated that about 20% of the students had some familiarity with Linux. Michael Mino, the program director, had provided a laptop with Red Hat Linux to each of the seven school groups so they could learn more about it. After my talk the students broke into groups and I looked over the shoulder of some of them to see what they were doing. One student was using Red Hat and I asked him how it was going. "I am figuring out how to use it", he said. The point is that he didn't have a reference manual, had never been to a class, and didn't need to ask any questions. He was just "figuring it out." (read more)

Personal Computing December 12, 2003 03:16 PM

Inside ID - Part 4

The next story in the Privacy and Trust series will be coming shortly, after a couple more updates from the Inside ID conference in Washington, D.C. In my keynote on the opening day of the conference I asserted that organizations and individuals should be spending more time and money on the security of their systems. I said that we don't leave our homes for the weekend with doors and windows open and yet we effectively leave our "always on" network-connected PC's wide open. In John Gould's talk he took this to the next level and discussed specific vulnerabilities of the PC including viruses, worms, hacking, phishing, and spyware. It was a wake-up call for me and I immediately headed for the Net with my ThinkPad to get some new software. (read more)

PKI December 10, 2003 10:41 PM

Inside ID - Part 3

The next story in the Privacy and Trust series will be coming shortly, but first will be an update or two from here in in Washington, D.C. at Inside ID. The conference has an exhibit area where dozens of vendors are showing digital identify solutions including smart cards, biometric technology, and middleware. There are almost 100 speakers from government, academia, and the private sector. I gave a talk at the opening general session where I shared a big-picture view about the shape of the future of the Internet. I talked about what the Internet has in store for our business and personal lives and why trust, in the form of secure digital identity and authentication, is critical. Since I have a meeting in Washington on Thursday, I decided to stay in town to visit the exhibition hall and attend as many of the seminar sessions as possible. I am very glad I decided to do that -- I have learned a lot. (read more)

PKI December 10, 2003 05:32 PM

Inside ID - Part 2

The next story in the Privacy and Trust series will be coming shortly, but first will be this update on the Inside ID conference in Washington, D.C. The conference has an exhibit area where dozens of vendors are showing digital identify solutions including smart cards, biometric technology, and middleware. There are almost 100 speakers from government, academia, and the private sector. I gave a talk at the opening general session where I shared a big-picture view about the shape of the future of the Internet. I talked about what the Internet has in store for our business and personal lives and why trust, in the form of secure digital identity and authentication, is critical. Since I have a meeting in Washington on Thursday anyway, I decided to stay in town to visit the exhibition hall and attend as many of the seminar sessions as possible. I am very glad I decided to do that -- I have learned a lot. (read more)

PKI December 10, 2003 11:57 AM

Inside ID - Part 1

On Tuesday morning I will be speaking at Inside ID in Washington, D.C. They are calling this conference a "Mega Show" because there will be dedicated sections of the exhibit hall branded to reflect the major tools used in modern identification solutions. These "shows within the show" include: Inside Identity Management, Inside Digital Identity, Inside Card Technology, Inside Biometrics, and Inside Document Security. I am extremely interested in the content of the show and will be reporting more on it later. My talk will be called "The Future Of The Internet: A Distributed Web of Trust". The talk will be based on my views as expressed in a story in Network World where I wrote an 850 word summary, called "The Ultimate Internet".

PKI December 9, 2003 07:44 AM

Privacy And Trust - Part 4

Mention the word trust and many people immediately think of security. We hear so many negative questions about Internet security. Is it strong enough? What will happen to my credit card number? What about hackers? We would like to implement this or that application but we can't because of ?security?. The list goes on. This is one area where some ?old fashioned? attitudes are actually healthy. Security is critical and needs to be taken very seriously -- but not in a restrictive sense. In fact the question that business and government leaders should be asking is about how security on the Internet can become the enabler of global commerce, the enabler for enabling people to control the email they get, the enabler for more secure and efficient processing of healthcare information, and the enabler for trusted transcations. (read more)

PKI December 7, 2003 12:35 PM

Linux In School

Two IBM colleagues, John Boutross and Craig Fellenstein, are helping out as volunteers in a program called the IT Leadership Academy. The program is sponsored by the Governor of Connecticut and is designed to bring 180 public High School students together to work on IT related projects during the school year. The participating high schools include both suburban and urban. The Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, CT is the host for the sessions. I was fortunate to be guest speaker this morning. (read more)

Personal Computing December 5, 2003 04:05 PM

UPS On Demand

I have written some stories about e-business on demand extolling the virtues and acknowledging that we have a long way to go to get there. Today I witnessed a good example of the potential. I had a business document that needed to be overnighted so I went to myups.com and made a request for a pickup at my side door. Five minutes later a big brown truck pulled in the driveway and a young man went to the side door and picked up the envelope. UPS is committed to building an infrastructure to make them a truly on demand e-business. E-business On Demand is very profound but my simple definition of it is that it enables all constituencies of an organization to access any business process they need whenever they need it from wherever they are using whatever kind of device with which they are connected to the Internet. Easy to say. Much to do.

Other patrickWeb stories about e-business

e-Business December 5, 2003 02:23 PM

Privacy And Trust - Part 3

Most websites now have privacy policies and it is a good idea to read them, especially if it is a company you have not done business with before. Some privacy policies amount to "We capture data about you and we sell it or give it to anyone we choose". Other companies have a policy like "We will always tell you if we are capturing your personal data. We will never give it away or sell it. If we want to use it in any way other than to fulfill an order or something you asked of us we will ask your permission first. We guard all data with extremely tight backup and security procedures to insure your data is never compromised". That is a good policy but how does a company insure they are actually complying with their own policy? (read more)

December 4, 2003 07:03 PM

ActiveWords (corrected link)

ActiveWords has teamed up with Lockergnome to offer a free download of the basic version ActiveWords to anyone who wants it. There has been a lot of demand that has resulted in some download problems so it may take some patience, but I can recommend the product to anyone who spends a lot of time at the keyboard and would like to try a good productivity tool. The free download is here.

Personal Computing December 4, 2003 09:45 AM

ActiveWords

One of the software tools I use to leverage my time is ActiveWords. The basic idea with ActiveWords is that you type a word and the word launches a program, jumps to a website, sends an email, substitutes text, or any number of things. I have gotten hooked on it. There are an unlimited number of uses. I type "mob" and ActiveWords types "Best way to reach me is on my mobile phone at +1 203-526-3680". When blogging, I have a number of ActiveWords that speed the creation of links. For example, I type "cat" and ActiveWords responds by typing "http://patrickweb.com/weblog/categories" or I type "ht" and it types "http://www.". I also use it to speed up various functions in Outlook. ActiveWords is one of those things that you have to try for awhile to see the power of it. ActiveWords has teamed up with Lockergnome to offer a free download of the basic version ActiveWords to anyone who wants it. There has been a lot of demand that has resulted in some download problems so it may take some patience, but I can recommend the product to anyone who spends a lot of time at the keyboard and would like to try a good productivity tool. The free download is here. Now, if only they had a version for Linux.

Personal Computing December 3, 2003 05:45 PM

Privacy And Trust - Part 2

In a world where every computer is connected to every computer a lot of things are possible. Some of them are not pretty. Trust will become critical. Brands will become more important than ever because they will signal to us what level of trust we can expect. How will we know whether we can really trust a web site? Trust goes hand in hand with good security and privacy. Offering good security and a solid privacy policy will be the bare minimum but we will also follow how an e-business acts over time. What is their commitment? Do they listen to their constituencies? Do they respond to concerns about privacy and make things better? These actions will separate the good guys and the bad guys. (read more)

PKI December 2, 2003 02:01 PM

Anonymity

From time to time I see an editorial or story suggesting that anonymity should not be allowed on the Internet. The motivation is usually associated with concerns over pedophilia. This is certainly an important concern but so are the concerns of some who feel they need to be anonymous. A battered wife or an alcoholic that are seeking help and finding it in discussion groups on the Internet have a very valid reason to be anonymous. We have to be careful that we don't react to ?bad things? that happen on the Internet with a cry for regulation of the Internet. There are laws that address many ?bad things? and law enforcement agencies need to use the Internet more effectively as a tool to enforce the laws that already exist. This is happening but more needs to be done. What we do need is authentication and digital ID's so that we can establish that we are who we say we are. Much more on this to come in the privacy series.

PKI December 2, 2003 01:56 PM

Too Secure?

Is it possible to be too secure? This morning I was working on a personal financial matter that required me to send some information to another person. The information was on a paper document and I did not have a machine readable version of it. I scanned the document and sent it via email as an eFax attachment. I first called the person to let them know that I would be sending the email. By making the call I was able to verify that the person was who they said they were and the person would then be able to expect the email and who it was coming from and what it contained. Five minutes later I got a call. (read more)

PKI December 1, 2003 02:23 PM