Bert Latamore
Latest from Bert Latamore
Personal Security Issues and Social Media
Posting your location on social media sites when you are away from home can be an invitation to home robbery. This is not just paranoid imagining -- it has happened. Nothing prevents the local criminals from joining social media sites and then searching for indications that neighbors are away from home, leaving an electronic invitation ...
Net Neutrality for Wired Carriers Only? I Think Not!
The Google/Verizon proposal for a two-class system for Internet delivery differs from previous proposals rejected by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in that it is for cellular carriers only. One thing that makes this interesting is that Verizon is, of course, both a wireline and a cellular carrier, so what it is proposing in essence ...
Why Intel-McAfee Acquisition is Good for Mobile Security
Intel's purchase of McAfee promises hardware-level security for mobile devices -- and I hope Windows computers -- in the near future. Does it also signal a buying spree by competing chip makers looking for their own security technologies to burn into chip sets?
Google and Verizon Vs. Net Neutrality: Bad News for SMBs
Lately I have seen a lot of press about how Google has joined Verizon to push a two-tiered Internet system for cellular providers. This is a major reversal for Google, which until this has been a major defender of Net Neutrality. And it is not good news for small- to mid-range businesses or consumers. This ...
The Dell Streak – Yawn
Ever since I looked at the iPad and found it not quite what I need, I have been waiting for the promised Android tablets to hit the market, in the hope that they might fit my needs better. So when Dell last week announced the release of its Android Streak tablet for the U.S. market ...
E-Reading, Multitasking, and a Less Insightful Society, Part 2
Editor’s Note: This is the second-half of a 2-part series on mobile e-readers. Click here to read part 1. Yesterday I looked at e-publishing from the viewpoint of the publishers and the survival of their businesses. But what does e-publishing mean to readers? Is it good news or bad? First, no one is talking about ...
E-Reading, Multitasking, and a Less Insightful Society, Part 1
E-reading, basically the act of reading books, newspapers, and magazines on mobile computing devices, has become surprisingly controversial. From people who cling to the “experience” of reading and say that reading on a screen will never replace the “feel” of a fine hardback, to recently published studies suggesting that reading on an electronic device creates ...
Mobile Computing in Secure Environments, Part 2: Wireless Networks
Editor’s Note: This is a continuation of a two-part piece on mobile computing security measures. See here for Bert’s first article, Mobile Computing in Secure Environments, Part 1: What’s Reasonable and Possible. Where my wife works, no devices with either a WiFi or Bluetooth capability are allowed in, even when carried by employees. To me ...
Mobile Computing in Secure Environments: What’s Reasonable and Possible. Part 1
My wife works in a medium-to-high security U.S. government environment – nothing exciting, just records management, but she does handle genuine secret information, the kind of thing that could compromise ongoing operations or in extreme cases get someone killed. And security in her workplace is tight, if sometimes a little misguided, which makes me conscious ...
Mobile Computing, Security, and the Separation of Personal and Company Applications
I clearly remember back when I first joined META Group in 2000 and was given a company laptop – and IBM ThinkPad as it happens. The tech person in our office told me, “Treat this as your own computer,” by which he meant that I was free to put whatever personal applications I wanted on ...