Loss of Privacy

We were told that the pain ray was going to be used in other countries. Then, we were told it could be used here for crowd control. Now, it’s being tested for use in the Castaic jail in Los Angeles.

The 7½-foot-tall Assault Intervention Device emits a focused, invisible ray that causes an unbearable heating sensation in its targets – hopefully stopping inmates from fighting or doing anything other than trying to get out of its way, sheriff’s officials said.

“We hope that this type of technology will either cause an inmate to stop an assault or lessen the severity of an assault by them being distracted by the pain as a result of the beam,” Osborne said. “So that we have fewer injuries, fewer assaults, those kinds of things.”

Deputies have tested the device on themselves and say the beam is painful – especially when it’s not expected.

Gee, ya think? After all, it says pain ray right in the product’s name.  We’re using on prisoners though, so it’s okay.

“This device will allow us to quickly intervene without having to enter the area and without incapacitating or injuring either combatant,” said Sheriff Lee Baca in a statement.

“If you got in the way, you’ll know,” said Mike Booen, vice president of advance security at Raytheon, which has been working on the device for about 20 years. “You feel the effect in less than a second. No one can stand there for more than about three seconds because it really hurts.”

“With this device, we can affect people that we need to have experience that effect and not have anything happen to other people,” Osborne said. “And there’s nothing to clean up, and no injuries.”

If there are no injuries, why was it recalled from military use and never actually used? Have the police done any research on this device to see what it actually does to an individual or did they just see it as an easy way to control people and didn’t care about the consequences?

While the painful heat ray gun was still in development, the Israelis began working on a portable pain ray. After more testing, the US Army is now all too happy to use show off their gun in Afghanistan. The company had previously attempted to use it in the US, with the DHS wanting it, but little has come from it. The heat ray gun, as the Army claims, burns the skin, but doesn’t leave any permanent damage. Known as the active denial system (ADS), it has been in development for the military for a few years. The ADS is meant to disperse crowds and beat back the enemy.

It uses a focused invisible beam that causes an “intolerable heating sensation”, but only penetrates the skin to the equivalent of three sheets of paper.

The discomfort causes whoever it’s pointed at to immediately start moving away. They often scream but the US military says the chance of injury from the system is 0.1%.

The beam produced by the ADS can travel more than 500m (1,640ft) and is seen as an important new way to limit unnecessary deaths and minimise war zone casualties.

Developers also say it could also be adapted to other operations, like fighting drug smuggling at sea and general peacekeeping operations.

With all the recent border activity with Mexico, the DHS might be able to try and sell the ADS to the general public again, claiming that it will help in the fight against illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

The BBC also notes that the US is continuing its research into a portable device, such as the one the Israelis have developed. As I wrote three years ago, this device has serious implications for damage and injury to individuals.

What is likely to happen is that your retina is going to be cooked due to the heat if it’s overused. In a short span, it will probably just melt your contact lens onto your cornea. 1/64th inch is more than enough to cause permanent eye damage.

Law enforcement and the military will over use this weapon as they did with the taser. It will be touted as a safe weapon, so, instead of proper policing, they will rely on electrical gadgets that they don’t fully understand.

This is already a long range torture device. One should hope that it never becomes completely portable and backpack sized.

If you have a web connected printer, HP is planning on using Yahoo’s advertising services to send targeted ads to your printer. HP’s new line of printers, introduced last week, allows users to print from their cell phones using an email address that is tied to a specific printer.

HP also launched a program called “scheduled delivery,” where a user can regularly schedule printing, for example, portions of a daily newspaper every day at 7 a.m.

The company also sees a potential for localized, targeted advertising to go along with the content.

While testing its ePrint Web-connected printers, HP ran two trials where consumers received content from a U.S. national music magazine and major U.S. newspaper along with advertisements, said Stephen Nigro, senior vice president in HP’s Imaging and Printing Group.

During testing, HP determined that people aren’t bothered by ads, so your printer will now use up ink and paper on ads that HP thinks you will want. Good Luck HP. You have to opt-in, so I assume most people won’t subscribe to such an asinine system. Still, I smell a lawsuit from stupid people in there somewhere.

Apple is currently seeking a patent for a device that forces you to watch ads that you may not want to watch.  In essence, if you don’t pay attention to the ad, you won’t be able to use your device.

Its distinctive feature is a design that doesn’t simply invite a user to pay attention to an ad — it also compels attention. The technology can freeze the device until the user clicks a button or answers a test question to demonstrate that he or she has dutifully noticed the commercial message. Because this technology would be embedded in the innermost core of the device, the ads could appear on the screen at any time, no matter what one is doing.

The system also has a version for music players, inserting commercials that come with an audible prompt to press a particular button to verify the listener’s attentiveness.

The inventors say the advertising would enable computers and other consumer electronics products to be offered to customers free or at a reduced price. In exchange, recipients would agree to view the ads. If, down the road, users found the advertisements and the attentiveness tests unendurable, they could pay to make the device “ad free” on a temporary or permanent basis.

How about I just not buy or take for free any device that deems such tasks necessary.  If I bought it, I should be able to do what I want with it.  If this sort of device comes to fruition, I’ll be sticking with my dead tree novels and completely quit listening to music.

But Apple are not the only ones heading down this road.  Microsoft is getting in on the action as well.

In its case, the plans are definite: next year, Microsoft will offer Office Starter 2010, a free version of Office pre-installed on some PCs. It will include a small Microsoft display ad in the lower-right corner of the screen, and offer only barebones versions of Word and Excel, with fewer functions than the regular paid ones.

IN Office Starter 2010, Microsoft is not seeking revenue from advertising and is going to use the ads only to promote the full-featured, commercial versions of Office. The company plans to take customers “along a journey to educate them about the product,” said Bryson Gordon, a director on Microsoft’s Office team.

How about this instead?  Apple and Microsoft can go to hell.  I’ll use my free and open source alternatives and they can stick their ads where the sun don’t shine.

Here is an interesting wrap-around poster about war from the Inspiration Room.