The place?  Harriton High School, Lower Merion School District, in a wealthy suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The concept?  A school laptop rental program for students to have access to the computers that they need, issuing $1,000 Macintosh laptops to 2,300 students.  The problem?  The district employees who administered the laptops allegedly used a security feature on the laptops to spy on the schoolkids, at home.

The row started on November 11th, 2009, when student Blake Robbins, age 15, was called into his principal’s office on allegations of drug use.  The evidence supplied to support this claim was a picture of Blake holding what appeared to be a handful of colorful little pills.  There were two things wrong with this picture.  The first was that the “pills” were in fact Mike and Ike candies.  The second, this picture was taken in his home, from the camera built into his school-issued laptop.  Without his knowledge or expressed consent.

From there it was discovered that the school had installed LANrev security software onto all of their laptops, in case of theft.  The software was set up to take pictures every 15 seconds or 15 minutes (reports are very mixed over which it is) from the iSight camera without it showing any indication of being active.  It also recorded screen shots, revealing chat sessions.  And it recorded the internet address and DNS name to help in recovery.  A theoretically useful tool.

That was allegedly abused.

There were over 400 pictures of Blake Robbins taken.  In his home.  Sometimes in slumber.  Sometimes in various states of undress.  He did not steal his laptop.  The justification used to explain why the LANrev software was turned on was that his family did not pay their $55 insurance fee for the laptop.

Blake Robbins was not the only student improperly observed.  Thousands of photos were taken of numerous other students as well.

In emails taken from the administrators of the laptops, one schoolboard employee is reported as having stated that it was like watching, “a little LMSD soap opera.“  To which the technology coordinator Carol Cafiero reportedly replied, “I know, I love it!”

In the ensuing lawsuit Carol Cafiero has refused to answer any questions put to her, or to turn over her personal computer to verify whether or not it has any voyeuristic images of the students downloaded onto it, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.  Michael Perbix, the only other technician with the rights to use the LANrev software, has not fought the deposition.

Both Carol Cafiero, with a salary of $105,000, and Michael Perbix, with a salary of $86,000, are on paid leave while this drama unfolds in the courts.

The initial lawsuit has both prompted an FBI investigation into possible wiretap violations, and has stirred up a discussion amongst the parents about whether to support the potential class-action lawsuit or not.

Also of note are a list of rules uncovered from talking to students about what went on:

• Possession of a monitored Macbook was required for classes
• Possession of an unmonitored personal computer was forbidden and would be confiscated
• Disabling the camera was impossible
• Jailbreaking a school laptop in order to secure it or monitor it against intrusion was an offense which merited expulsion

You can read more about this ongoing drama at:

Philly.com – news

The Associated Press

Stryde Hax blog

So guess what Pennsylvania got for me for Christmas? My first earthquake!

My first earthquake! Lancaster, PA gets hit by a small (but noticable) quake!

It struck just after midnight. There was this shaking, then a weird rumbling noise, then worse shaking while the noise continued. Then it just ebbed off to nothing.

My first thought as it was happening (you know, not being an earthquake kind of guy) was what semi truck just ran into which house?! My second thought was maybe it was a bomb … but not hearing an explosion I was kind of not sold on the bomb idea. Still, I ran outside and looked around for lights or fire or smoke or sirens. Nada. Zip. Zero. No one seemed to be having problems. No damage anywhere that I could see. And my own house checked out just fine on my inspection.

My wife turned on the news. Again, zip.

We searched the internet. Nothing.

Even today, the morning after, the best internet article we can find is from WGAL, and it’s pretty unimpressive as news reporting goes. Okay, so it was only a 3.3 on the Richter scale, there were no damages, and no one got hurt. But it’s not like this happens every day. Isn’t this exactly the kind of thing that “news” is supposed to be?

But anywho, so that was my first earthquake.  As earthquakes go, it was nice that it was so minor, but still noticable enough to, you know, notice it.  And I didn’t freak out.  I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t run for any doorframes or anything earthquake-savvy.  I didn’t even realize that it was an earthquake until it was well over.   But it was kind of exciting!

It’s the Vernal Equinox. Yay! Winter is officially over! (In theory. Looking out your window may reveal different results.) Personally, I’m already seeing flowers bloom and rain fall like mad. There’s not a speck of snow on the ground. Spring has sprung!

But while Mother Nature is doing her best in spite of our efforts to poison the Earth and bring about “Global Warming”, technology has taken a few serious blows. Oh my! Is it some nefarious plot by nature to reclaim her power over us? I’ll let you decide.

Pennsylvania, the state you may remember as being previously bone-headed when their roads iced up, causing major highways and even their famous state turnpike to be down all night long with many stranded motorists, and heard PA state officials say things to the tune of, “the roads aren’t being salted because ice gives more traction,” has done it again. Any and all voter registration forms completed online in PA were made quite available for anyone to view all of the included information such as name, date of birth, driver’s license number, and political party. All by simply changing the unique number request parameter included in the URL of the voter registration site to a different number. Since each online registration is given a unique number, all you had to do to view someone else’s was change that number to a different one. Go through all of the numbers possible, and you’ll have gone through all of the online registrations. Can we say, “Oooops!” Once again PA proves their genius to the world and renders online voting unsafe for everyone in the state.

Meanwhile the US military has run into yet another nasty snag in their efforts to crossbreed a helicopter and an airplane. The V-22 Osprey is having problems with their AE1107C “Liberty” turboshaft engines made by Rolls Royce. The engines simply wear out too fast, making it costly and difficult to keep the Osprey in the skies. While not exactly new to problems in its development, this is certainly no boon for the V-22.