From Source to Secure : Privacy

Finally, answers on the Web – Bing

RockyH — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:17:28 GMT

Bing and the world Bing’s with you, Search and you Google alone…

I must admit I wasn’t a real huge fan of the search results that I got with Live. But I think someone was listening.

We introduced Bing to the world and I have to tell ya, it’s all it’s cracked up to be and more. I love the instant answers part of it. Not just for search but for things like flight schedules and even math equations if you are so inclined.

Bing is so much more than a search engine. It’s an Answer Engine. For example here is some of the stuff you can do with the Instant Answers features:

Find instant answers

Need a quick answer instead of a hundred links to websites that might contain your answer? Use our Instant Answers to get what you need fast.

Instant answers are available in the following categories:

Conversions

Convert units of measurements for distance, weight, time, volume, and temperature. You can also include mathematical expressions in some conversion questions to get a calculated, converted answer.

To see the conversion answer in action, try some of these examples:

How many seconds in a day
What is 50 degrees F in Celsius
How many kilometers in a light year

Flight Deals

Get quick access to flight deals and cheap tickets.

To see the flight deals answer in action, try some of these examples:

Deals on specific routes: flights from Seattle to Boston
Deals from a specific city: flights from San Diego
Deals to a specific city: flights to Boston

Flight Status

Make sure you're not late to the airport using the flight status answer.

To see the flight status answer in action, try some of these examples:

flight status for United
flight status
ua820

Hotels

Find a great place to stay wherever you're going with the hotels answer.

To see the hotels answer in action, try some of these examples:

Vegas hotels
hotels in Orlando
San Francisco hotels

Math

Find basic mathematical operators, exponents, roots, factorials, modulo, percentages, logarithms, trigonometry functions, and mathematical constants. In the search box, type the equation that you want to solve or the constant that you want to find the value of.

The following examples show some of the calculations and conversions that you can type in the search box.

Calculations: Get answers to arithmetic problems. For example:
- 5+3/1-(6*2)
- sqrt 9
- sin 100 * 50
- 32% of 54
Equation solver: Solve simple algebraic equations. For example:
- 4x=19
- 2y^2 + 5y + 10 = 40
- Solve 2x + 7 = 4

Note

For more mathematical symbols that you can use in expressions and equations, see Mathematical notations for use with Math Answers

Financial quotes

Go to http://www.bing.com/.
In the search box, type ticker symbols (Letters and numbers that are used to represent companies in stock markets.) for up to nine companies, funds, or indexes, followed by stock or quote.
Click the search button or press ENTER.

Statistical information

Go to http://www.bing.com/.
In the search box, type what you want to find. For example, population of China, or cars in US.
Click the search button or press ENTER.

So of course now I’m off to investigate just how much information can be found out on a person or company through this very powerful Answer Engine. Stay Tuned.

Stop Looking At Me You’re Invading My Privacy!

RockyH — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:28:45 GMT

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed herein in no way reflect those of my employer or colleagues. They are all my own and I take responsibility for them.

I read a little article recently about a guy name Rob Spence in Canada who plans to install a camera in his fake eye. (similar articles are at http://deadlinescotland.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/robs-all-seeing-eye-set-for-tv-screens-396/ and here http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/eye-spy-filmmak.html )

He wants to record things he sees. He has even been colloquially dubbed a ‘life caster’ along with a couple others who are doing this such as Justin Kan http://www.justin.tv/justin.

They say that they aren’t going to record things like gyms, private events, etc. According to Rob

“Spence is willing to turn off his camera in spaces such as gyms, theaters or private events. But he will be making many of those decisions on the spur, every day”

So then again, he might decide to record you in the gym, even the locker room.

But this guy is an armature film maker. He wants to record his life experience with this project.

This means recording people on the street, without their knowledge. He may even get famous from his little films and you would be the star…voluntarily, and unbeknownst to you of course.

We live in a world where privacy is becoming a bit concern. These guys claim to be doing this to heighten people’s awareness of privacy but it’s just their word on it.

Now I'm not a big fan of over reacting or freaking out and going overboard with being politically correct. but this even freaks me out.

Yeah sure the government has been able to secretly record you for many decades but I have nothing to hide from them. This guy, or other ‘life casters’ are just people, with no legal jurisdiction to record me, my life, or anything about me.

That bugs me, especially if they plan to turn it into a film and make money off of it. They don’t have to have a warrant, your permission or anything else other than line of sight.

So what does this say about privacy? In some EU countries where there is a right to privacy on the books, will this kind of thing be banned? In the US where there “is a reasonable expectation of privacy” you may be on the short end of the stick.

Yes I realise we are on surveillance video all of the time, but that is controlled and there are legal precedents around how it can be used.

What would you do if you saw a person recording you with a hand-held video camera? Not just a tourist recording the scenery that you happen to be walking through, but following your actions with his camera. It normally freaks people out.

In fact if you do it at a Sydney beach, you will get arrested. But this guy will be able to do that, for personal (ewww) use, or even profit with no restrictions on how he can use the video.

Where do we draw the line? At least with a hand-held camera you can see it and have a reasonable understanding if you are being filmed by private person or not and chose to leave the area. With eye cameras, you won’t be able to protect yourself because you won’t know you’re being filmed and more importantly you won’t know what will be done with the video.

Hey I’m not a supporter of an Orwellian government, but this is going too far in my opinion.