Has your external hard drive or USB drive changed “letters” in Windows XP?

Follow these steps to change the Drive letter:

1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane.
4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
5. Click Change.
6. Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK.
7. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the drive letter change.

I posted earlier about the police charging a 14-year-old girl with a misdemeanor for using her cell phone in school.

Look at those punks texting...

It turns out that Texting is Good for Kids!

According to NewScientist

“Phonological awareness has long been associated with good reading skills.” Exposure to the written word in any form is also linked to improved literacy. “These kids are engaging with more written language and they’re doing it for fun.”

Tech that Matters - www.myhusbandneedsajob.com - Robin Stearns, wife of Mike -a recently graduated man with an MBA took matters into her own hands to help him find a job in this ailing economy.

As CNN reports in their story, “Wife to Employers: Hire my husband, please“, Robin used her tax refund to create the site after watching him struggle to find a job since he graduated in 2008. Included on the site is an interview with Mike (conducted by his wife), a cool “about” page and also a formal resume both in web format and available for download.

If this format works for someone with an MBA, how much better would it work for someone looking for a job in software development, Face Stomping SEO, internet journalism, blogging or a school media specialists like Mike Stencil writing articles about male and female courageous protagonists?

It’s a pretty cool idea… but I’m not sure exactly how it made the front page of CNN.com? Hey CNN, in an effort to make myself more relevant I created a blog about Tech that Matters… you know… to help me stand out to potential empoyers. You should probably feature my website on the front page of your site as well… just to be fair?

Hold on, one sec… <enabled adsense banner on dwightdegroff.com> … OK, all set, feel free to put up a story whenever you’re ready. Thanks

sucks!

Tech that Matters - You (or your kids) could be arrested for texting in a text-free zone!!!? (snark)

Mind your manners, people - a 14-year-old girl was reportedly charged with disorderly conduct for refusing to cease texting in class and then hiding the phone down her pants.

The real question here: will they forcibly collect her DNA for this misdemeanor?

Today, 641 (mostly) small-market TV stations will no longer broadcast analog signals, while many others delay until the new deadline (June 12) set by President Obama.

For those of you who still view “over-the-air” Television and do not have an HDTV, now would be a good time to get your hands on a set-top box to act as a digital tuner.

P.S. My apologies for any “regular” readers out there who missed my regular Monday blog. “Things” have been crazy while Gwen and I ramp up our efforts to buy a home.

Lee Bains over at Switched first turned me on to this story, Washington State lawmakers are pushing to have a controversial proposal approved by Legislature
Suspects arrested in cases as minor as shoplifting would have to give a DNA sample before they are even charged with a crime if a controversial proposal is approved by the Legislature.
There are a number of issues that I have with this: practical, ethical and legal.

1. Doesn’t the justice system cost tax-payers enough already without taking DNA samples from every shoplifter? As Lee says, “Can’t we just put aside our creepy ‘Brave New World’ ideas until after the economic crisis?”
2. DNA says A LOT about someone. It can indicate certain traits and conditions, flaws, propensities towards certain behaviors. What if Jimmy and Bobby Jimmerson are arrested on suspicion of illegal drug usage and Jimmy’s DNA reveals that he might have a propensity towards using addictive substances while Bobby’s does not. Furthermore, let’s say there’s no other evidence that either has committed any crime. What now? Should what makes up a person cause Jimmy to be charged, but his brother let free? What are the risks associated with maintaining a DNA database of so many people? What are the risks of this data being stolen or misused? Do these risks outweigh the benefits?
3. What happened to “Innocent until proven guilty”? I’m sure that this policy would make solving crimes much easier. Torturing those we arrest would also expedite the process, as would eliminating the need for a warrant before performing a search-and-seizure. I think you get my point - that DNA collection provides convenience for law enforcement efforts should not be reason enough for infringing on our 4th amendment rights.
   

   “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” (emphasis mine, courtesy of FindLaw.com

   I can’t help but feel that taking DNA samples from those arrested, before they are even charged with a crime is an unreasonable search, is not justified under the “special needs exception” and is therefore unconstitutional.

Read more after the jump!

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“Tech that Matters” - if you can make a Mii on the Nintendo Wii, you can get job as a sketch artist for the police department in Kanagawa, Japan.

Mii Police Sketch

Sure, sketch artists might be able to create a more accurate likeness, but a Mii should be close enough for an arrest, right?

Apparently the Police have denied responsibilty for this poster, but… well… meh.

I blogged earlier about our tendency, as humans, to reveal more than we ought in on-line communication through portals like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Yet, these are but a few of the ways in which we often fail to safeguard the rights to privacy that we defend and claim to cherish. A NY Times article says that researchers refer to this as the “privacy paradox”.

normally sane people have inconsistent and contradictory impulses and opinions when it comes to their safeguarding their own private information.

Today, Google announced a new service called Google Latitude - a new service for mobile devices and “iGoogle” that allows users to views the location of their friends and loved ones (who have opted to share the information). It’s a pretty cool idea - basically you (the user) can opt to other specified users to see your geographic location and vice-versa. Purportedly, this information can be adjusted per “friend” to show the best approximation of your location, a city-level view, hide your location entirely or even to provide intentional false information. “No honey, I’m not out boozing it up with the guys… I’m… at work… <typetypetype> … check Latitude.”

<keep reading after the jump!>

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Too much Facebook makes all teenage girls depressed.

Chris Matyszczyk wrote a CNET article, disagreeing with a study done by Stony Brook University, which claims that:

excessive co-rumination–perhaps you would refer to it as “chatting with your friends about your problems”–by text, e-mail and on social-networking sites leaves impressionable teenage girls more prone to anxiety and depression.

He claims that if it wasn’t Facebook it would be “bathroom gossip”, text messages, phone calls, slumber parties… you get the picture. Having never been a teenage girl myself, I can’t really attest to this (hopefully Chris cannot either?), but it seems to me that the persistent and “open” nature of Facebook goes beyond text messaging and slumber parties and is asking for trouble. Not just for teenage girls or even the female gender - I think it can be a problem for anyone.

<keep reading after the jump!>

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