April 2011

Apple and Google may be intensifying privacy concerns by tracking where and when people use their mobile phones—but the true future of consumer surveillance is taking shape inside the cellphones at a weather-stained apartment complex in Cambridge (MA).

For almost two years, Alex Pentland at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has tracked 60 families living in campus quarters via sensors and software on their smartphones -- recording their movements, relationships, moods, health, calling habits and spending. In this wealth of intimate detail, he is finding patterns of human behavior that could reveal how millions of people interact at home, work and play. Through these and other cellphone research projects, scientists are able to pinpoint "influencers," the people most likely to make others change their minds. The data can predict with uncanny accuracy where people are likely to be at any given time in the future. Cellphone companies are already using these techniques to predict -- based on a customer's social circle of friends -- which people are most likely to defect to other carriers. The data can reveal subtle symptoms of mental illness, foretell movements in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and chart the spread of political ideas as they move through a community much like a contagious virus, research shows.

Sprint Nextel Corp. is taking the battle against AT&T Inc.’s proposed merger with T-Mobile USA to Washington. It’s signing up lobbyists to man its barricades and standing in alliance with consumer groups.

Why fight so hard when conventional wisdom sees regulators ultimately giving the deal an OK? Perhaps to sway the terms of whatever fusion that regulators might approve. The ramped-up lobbying charge would serve Sprint in two ways even it fails to stop the merger. First, lobbyists could push regulators to demand a larger sell-off. Second, it could give Sprint insight about, and perhaps influence over, what clusters of subscribers and spectrum land on the auction block.

AT&T spent more than $15 million on federal lobbying last year and nearly $8.4 million in the first quarter of 2011, although the company’s interests roam wider than Sprint’s narrower focus on the wireless industry. What’s more, seven members of Congress own more than $100,000 in AT&T stock. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) owns more than $1.2 million. No one in Congress owns more than $65,000 of Sprint stock.

Password-protect your wireless router.

It’s unknown how often unsecured routers have brought legal trouble for subscribers. Besides the criminal investigations, the Internet is full of anecdotal accounts of people who've had to fight accusations of illegally downloading music or movies. Whether you’re guilty or not, “you look like the suspect,” said Orin Kerr, a professor at George Washington University Law School, who said that’s just one of many reasons to secure home routers. Experts say the more savvy hackers can go beyond just connecting to the Internet on the host’s dime and monitor Internet activity and steal passwords or other sensitive information. A study released in February provides a sense of how often computer users rely on the generosity — or technological shortcomings — of their neighbors to gain Internet access. The poll conducted for the Wi-Fi Alliance, the industry group that promotes wireless technology standards, found that among 1,054 Americans age 18 and older, 32 percent acknowledged trying to access a Wi-Fi network that wasn't theirs. An estimated 201 million households worldwide use Wi-Fi networks, according to the alliance. The same study, conducted by Wakefield Research, found that 40 percent said they would be more likely to trust someone with their house key than with their Wi-Fi network password. For some, though, leaving their wireless router open to outside use is a philosophical decision, a way of returning the favor for the times they've hopped on to someone else’s network to check e-mail or download directions while away from home . “I think it’s convenient and polite to have an open Wi-Fi network,” said Rebecca Jeschke, whose home signal is accessible to anyone within range. “Public Wi-Fi is for the common good and I'm happy to participate in that — and lots of people are,” said Jeschke, a spokeswoman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that takes on cyberspace civil liberties issues. Experts say wireless routers come with encryption software, but setting it up means a trip to the manual.

As technology transforms learning in classrooms across the nation, 3D printing, in which three dimensional objects are created through a system that successively layers materials on top one another, is taking hold in classrooms–and is helping to attract more students to technology-rich fields such as engineering.

Modern design uses a technology called CAD, which stands for computer-aided design, to represent 3D objects in a digital file. Today’s CAD software lets users create and draw objects in 3D, and those designs are brought to life via 3D printers. Companies that manufacture 3D printers for education include Z Corporation, Dimension Printers (a Stratasys brand), and 3D Systems Corp. A handful of different approaches can create 3D printed objects.