Of Ambient Music and Cyber Security

When I was thinking about what I would write about for today's blog post I had planned to do something about the Internet Archive, public domain and derivative works. I was inspired by a really interesting blog post by the actor / gamer Wil Wheaton, where he talks about getting public domain period music for a 1920's themed party; and using free open source tools to rework one of them into his own 90's-style ambient tune. All pretty interesting stuff.

But then, while eating breakfast this morning, I came across this tweet that made me reconsider my topic, and instead I'd like to bring up something a little more serious: National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Perhaps you've seen some of the flyers that OTS and the library have put up around campus and in our labs, warning about identity theft and cloud security. Maybe you haven't. But, regardless, you can find some great information from OTS here about how you can better protect yourself.

It may not be as fun, or exciting, as using free tools to publish your creative works online for the the world to see. But your privacy and identity online are pretty darn important as well.

And, if you use Verizon for the wireless connection on your phone or tablet, and are interested in seeing if they are tracking everything you do while on their network, you can go here. It will tell you if Verizon is adding the cookie to everything you do on the web. Just make sure you turn off WiFi beforehand, since this "feature" only applies to web browsing over their 3G and 4G networks.