Blog
Google as a means of attack
By cdharris at December 23, 2005 | 11:18 pm | 0 Comment
The UK's The Register reported recently that hackers "appear to have been abusing Google to attack Web servers, switches and routers in a novel way, by crafting search terms to include known exploits. Such a search will occasionally yield active Web pages used by administrators. On top of that, a number of them have already been cached. It's more...
Surviving a fall from 35,000 feet
By cdharris at November 24, 2005 | 12:00 pm | 0 Comment
In illustration of the fact that there is now a website for everything, see this one to learn how to survive an unplanned freefall from 35,000 feet.Among the more amusing instructions: "Think of the pluses in your situation. For example, although you fall faster and faster for the first fifteen seconds or so, you soon reach "terminal velocity"—the more...
Microsoft Online Ads To Offer Demographic Filtering in 2006
By cdharris at November 18, 2005 | 1:22 pm | 0 Comment
Microsoft announced in March 2005 it planned to release a technology that neither Google nor Yahoo can yet offer: the ability for advertisers to precisely filter the people exposed to their search ads by demographic information.? For example,? advertisers will be able to target one ad to men, another to women, and use additional information such as age and geographic more...
Blog , Datamining , Media and Markets , Technology and Privacy
Cookie Wars
By cdharris at November 7, 2005 | 1:16 pm | 0 Comment
The technology company United Virtualities has escalated the war between marketers, who want to know how their ads effect Web surfers, and consumers, who want to keep information to themselves. The company proclaimed it has developed a new technology to bypass cookie deletions by consumers. The new method, dubbed the "persistent identification element," or PIE, more...
Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems for Federal Surveillance
By cdharris at October 25, 2005 | 1:57 pm | 0 Comment
The New York Times reported on October 23rd that the federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications. The action, which the more...
Webpreneurs
By cdharris at October 22, 2005 | 1:39 pm | 0 Comment
According to a July 2005 survey conducted by eBay, more than 724,000 Americans report that eBay is their primary or secondary source of income. In addition to these professional eBay sellers, another 1.5 million individuals say they supplement their income by selling on eBay. Mastercard published a research study on a new class of small business: the 'Web-Driven more...
Video iPod seen as threat
By cdharris at October 20, 2005 | 1:37 pm | 0 Comment
"Amid the explosion of available media outlets, advertisers will likely be scrambling even more to reach consumers, this time via portable media players, as a result of Apple's latest innovation, the video-enabled iPod - which is already offering hot TV shows such as "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" without commercials" - Reuters reported in more...
Data yearns to be shared
By cdharris at October 10, 2005 | 4:24 pm | 0 Comment
The marketing industry can't live without data, the "continuous marketing intelligence" stream that has become a necessity to predict and interpret market performance, consumer response, and just about every other function in marketing/advertising/communications relies on datamining. Everyone participates in the production of information culture, every time we more...
Camphones seen as a security risk
By cdharris at September 15, 2005 | 4:13 pm | 0 Comment
Camera and video-camera phones already pose a security risk. Phones which run an OS and are essentially small computers escalate that risk. Recently, while visiting the Giza plateau outside Cairo, a device scanner somewhere in the vicinity of the guard booths detected my Treo, identified it as a mini-computer (distinct from the many cellphones in pockets all around me) , more...
Blog , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Technology and Privacy
Researcher
By cdharris at September 12, 2005 | 2:34 pm | 0 Comment
Dr. Cheryl Harris is a researcher interested in the intersection of communications, media, and technology. She is currently a partner in the NYC-based research/technology firm Decisive Analytics LLC and in two other marketing and research companies. Reach her: cheryl at cdharris.com. This blog emphasizes topics related to Cheryl's current research and projects in more...
