CourseCasts with Ken Baldauf

CourseCast of the Week

Episode 0099, 05/03/2009

Title/Description: Facebook Threatens Productivity, Murder on Craigslist, and other headline stories

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 99, recorded May 3rd, 2009. This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information. This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.cengage.com/coursetechnology for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.

Only ONE WEEK until the 100th CourseCast! In preparation for the 100th episode, I'd like to hear from you! Let me know what you like about CourseCasts and share any ideas you may have for the show. If you are a student or teacher, let me know the name of your school, and I'll give you a shout out. Email me at coursecasts@gmail.com today!

This week's CourseCast goes out to June Sarbacker and her online students in Exploring Business Technologies at Madison Area Technical College in Madison Wisconsin, and to Jason Torgrimson and the amazing students at Twin Falls High School in Twin Falls, Idaho

And now, the news.

Story 1 - Facebook Threatens Productivity

The popularity of online social networks like Facebook is being blamed for decreases in the productivity of businesses. A recent study by IDC found that 30 to 40 percent of Internet use in the workplace is not related to business. The Gartner Group found that employees updating their status on Facebook, watching YouTube videos, tweeting on Twitter, and shopping at eBay is resulting in a 40 percent loss in productivity for businesses each year. In an economy where businesses are laying off large percentages of workers in order to stay afloat, these reports cause serious concern. Some businesses are employing content filtering technology that prevents employees from accessing social networks, media sites, and other time-consuming Web sites. Other software provides the employer with daily reports on how long each employee has been online, and what sites were visited. Under state and federal law, it is legal for private employers to monitor email, voice mail, and Internet activity so long as employees have been notified of the practice. It is also legal for businesses to lay off employees who use corporate networks, and time for non-business activities.

Monitoring Web Surfing at Work [NewsFactor]

Story 2 - Murder on Craigslist

Craigslist, the popular online classifieds service, is being scrutinized for the role it played in the recent murder of a Boston prostitute. Craigslist has been under fire recently for allowing prostitutes to advertise their services using thinly veiled references to massage and dating services. A 23 year old Boston University medical student, was arrested last week for murdering a prostitute that he found through Craigslist. Apparently the student had been utilizing Craigslist to find, rob, and in at least the final instance murder, prostitutes. This isn't the first person to have been dubbed the Craigslist Killer. A Minnesota man was labeled the Craigslist Killer a month ago after murdering a woman that responded to his ad for a baby sitter. And in March George Weber, a New York reporter was killed after responding to a personal ad he placed on Craigslist. The use of Craigslist in recent criminal activities has lawyers and law makers considering issues of liability for the online service and changes to the service that might better protect those that use it.

Murder brings scrutiny to fast-growing Craigslist [Reuters]

Twitter is all the rage right? Well, maybe not. A Nielson report released last week shows that 60 percent of the people that try Twitter end up giving up the service within a month. In fact over the past 12 months Twitter had a retention rate of less than 30%.
Twitter quitters are fleeing the site in droves [Computerworld]
A recent study of vulnerabilities on 80 million PCs on the Internet provided some frightening insight. Hackers are able to engineer attacks based on software vulnerabilities in under 10 days of the time a patch is released. For example on April 14, Microsoft released 6 patches to correct critical flaws in Windows, by April 24 there were viruses and worms spreading through Internet connections exploiting those vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, it takes corporations roughly 30 days to implement the patches that will protect their PCs from such attacks.
Infosec 2009: Cyber attackers are getting faster [ComputerWeekly]
Facebook users should watch out for messages from friends that include a link to fbaction.net. This link is designed to steal your Facebook Username and Password.As a general rule, never trust links sent to you by friends or strangers that ask for your username and password.
Phishers hit Facebook with scam messages [Computerworld]
Internet Explorer has lost marketshare dropping to 66.10% but maintaining its market lead primarily due to its popularity in businesses. Firefox comes in second with 22.48% of the market.
IE8 can’t stop IE market share decline [TGDaily]
Apple has recently hired some well known names in chip design and manufacturing, causing many to speculate that the company is planning to begin producing its own processors. Such a move would give Apple independence and an edge in developing proprietary innovative technologies.
New Hires Suggest Apple Plans To Build Its Own Chips [NewsFactor]
Windows 7 first Release Candidate will be available for download by the general public May 5th at www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7
FAQ: How to get Windows 7 RC [Computerworld]
Disney has purchased a 30 percent stake in online television service Hulu, joining ABC, NBC, Universal, Sony Pictures and other major media companies in taking content to the Internet. Disney brings along with it popular programs like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Private Practice, Scrubs, Lost and Grey's Anatomy
Disney's Hulu Investment Could Be a Milestone for TV [NewsFactor]

That's it for this week's CourseCast. But this is just the tip of the iceberg! Go to coursecasts.course.com for links to the full stories covered in this CourseCast. There you will also find discussion questions for use in your course, and the CourseCast Archives. Don't forget to email me with your comments and suggestions for the show at coursecasts.gmail.com. Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!