Washed Up CIO

Tracy Mitrano, the Director of IT policy and Institute for Computer Policy and Law at Cornell University applauded Oxford University's decision to turn off Google Docs.

Not long ago, the IT Department turned off Facebook Access for Maryland's state delegates' offices.

The problem for Mitrano alike CIOs are 1) lack of technical insights; 2) lack of understanding of role of IT departments.

Mitranos do not understand they can't turn off the Internet. From the born of computers, they are not perfect. Programmers and users live with known weaknesses and shortcomings of computer systems.

The mission of IT department is to support and facilitate the workflow of production groups. In the case of Mitrano, her job is created to help students and faculty at Cornell University to access, exchange and disseminate ideas. Instead, she acted like a small town cop, who is obsessed with the power to stop a car at her own discretion.

Having known what was purported as the risks of using service such as Google Docs, a CIO should not rush to the easy solution. Mitrano was shocked to read about the listed 'issues' with Google Docs, an informed reader would be amazed to vision her reaction if she were told of Windows operating system's thousands of known and documents bugs. As a matter of fact, Windows is an exemplary well maintained system thanks to Microsoft's army of developers. Any major software products including key server products are running with thousands of known bugs and often known security vulnerabilities. Google has the resource to patch any obvious ones. A qualified CIO should work with Google to help the users she is supposed to serve, instead of enjoy the sensation of blocking their access to key software.

Instead of shutting down Google Docs, a qualified CIO should ask questions and find out the usage patterns of her users. She should educate and warn users of potential risks. She should identify the technical intricacies and work out an in-house temporary patch before the vendor's next service release.

It's a pity that such a position is filled with people who has no technical background, no service experience, but only big mouth agenda and (even worse) genuine fear of technology because of lack of technical depth. It's a disservice to the academic community and the University.

Stay Undercover in the US, Await the Call from Motherland

Former table tennis player and world champion Mr. Zhuang Zedong passed away on Feb 10, 2013 in Beijing. Zhuang was a key figure in the ping-pong diplomacy which began the official ties between China and US. It was an amazing incident that was often dubbed as 'a small ball who pushed around the globe.'

As many of those who rode the tide of the Great Cultural Revolution, Zhuang was sacked after Deng Xiaoping took charge of China in 1978. It might be a hint to understand his public demonstration of loyalty to Mao in following years. Actually, Zhuang was deemed an idol by many who shared the same political ideology.

In days on his sickbed, Zhuang kept a high spirit, receiving many visits from extended family members, friends, social and cultural celebrities.

Zhuang's last words was a remark written on the back of a photo of kids of a close friend of him. It reads: await for the call from motherland while living undercover in the US.

Zhuang was also known for his mastership in calligraphy. Seventy-three year-old Zhuang had been a living legend, and a lasting winner transcending career, time, age and political trends. But for him, the call did not come in time. With any luck, it should never do.

The President's Picks

The Senate is conducting confirmation hearing on the Treasury Secretary Jacob Joseph "Jack" Lew. Lew's new post is the top federal official who is in charge of anything to do with financial and monetary matters. A veteran politician, Lew had a Citigroup title to brag about his Wall Street Experience. Between 2006 and 2008, Lew was the 'chief operating officer' of Citigroup's Alternative Investment Unit. A unit that now has been known to fraud billions of dollars out of its customers (it has lost 14 out of 14 arbitration cases across the country), after the financial meltdown overseen by this Lew.

Lew's past was brought up in a previous confirmation hearing in 2010, when Lew defended himself as a 'manager' with no insight into the financial sector. Also is question was his heavily personal investment in the Ugland House, where Obama himself referred to as 'either the biggest building in the world or the biggest tax scam in the world.' This time, he is claiming the same time period as his experience in the same field.

Yet, Lew was hand picked by the President to lead the financial and monetary sector of the world's largest economy. Obama stated that he was not concerned about Mr. Lew's past financial transactions.

Lew is expected to be confirmed, a telling of the moral level of the President and the Senate, and a reflection of the marol expectancy of both in track record.

Lew's predecessor, the US Secretary of the Treasury 2008-2012, Mr. Timothy Geithner was revealed to own a back-tax of $35,000 in Social Security taxes, way back from 2001-2004. Geithner wrote a check to the IRS days before his 2008 Senate hearing and sailed through it. In defense of his pick, President Obama stated that no one else processed the skills Geithner had. The Senate concurred. The same could be said to a range of subjects: no good man survives the Wall Street/Illinois/Chicago/US Political System.

If the public does not think that's a big problem, then we are in a huge problem.

Universities Busy Defending Lawsuits over Grades

On the path of spiral dive of quality of higher education in the U.S., the justice system just can't stand on the sideline.

• Megan Thode took Lehigh university to the court for $1.3 million over a dispute on a C+ grade she received from her fieldwork class.

  Megan is the daughter of a Lehigh professor Stephen Thode, and attended the school tuition free. According to local newspaper The Morning Call, the case was expected to settle.

  The irony is, the student attended York College, paid by Lehigh as part of her father's benefits, and went through a Master program at Lehigh tuition free, after the incident. The University helped her land a job after she graduated. And, as it appears, Ms. Megan will get a sizable chunk of the $1.3 million.

• Less than two weeks ago on Jan 31, 2013, a court in Detroit awarded a Wayne State University student Tina Varlesi near a million dollars over a bad grade she received from a internship at the Salvation Army.

  Tina alleged her bad review was the result of discrimination of unmarried pregnancy from her supervisor at The Salvation Army.

  The irony is, as it appears, Ms. Tina's bad grade had nothing to do with anyone at Wayne State University.

.., all at the beginning of destruction of value of working hard.

Gubernatorial Candidate Flexes Muscles to High School Student

A youth basketball team coach was suspended by one week for inappropriate post-game altercation with a referee.

According to Frederick News-Post, while the 17 year-old referee was changing shoes after the game, Coach Young walked to him, and hovered over him for a moment, before started blaming calls made by the referee during the game. Young exploded when the young referee told him to 'get off my face'.

Young told the newspaper, "I'm old school, and when someone disrespects me, I let my feelings be known."

A reader drumdigger1976 commented, 'Blaine is ...... a talented politician like Sarah Palin in that he knows how to fire up an ignorant crowd, but he has no real ideas and, more importantly, no real moral fiber. This is shown through his decisions to engage with prostitutes, drink heavily, gamble heavily, curse at minors, throw his political weight around, etc. I really have no idea why anyone would vote for someone with such a clear lack of decency and zero moral compass.'

Blain Young recently kicked off his campaign for the Maryland Governor with a initial fund of $447,000. Young is the current County Commissioner for Frederick County, after a short stint at the State delegate. Young's father was the mayor of Frederick City, and now a State Senator. Young's wife is the alderman of Frederick City.

When the story was first broke out by the newspaper, Young played victim, until the kid's mother came out to tell what had happened. Now Young 'decided' to call the kid to apologize. Not far from where Young stands, there was the 'Macaca' moment, which stumbled George Allen's presidential bid.

Blooking of Github Led to Whitehouse Petition

Github become the newest major programming websites blocked by China's Great FireWall (GFW), following glories of sites such as SourceForge, Python, etc.

Concerned citizens filed a petition at the Whitehouse. The online petition asked the President to deny entry to the US to those "who help internet censorship, builders of Great Firewall in China." The Whitehouse pledge to respond to a petition if it can generate 100,000 signatures within 2 weeks. This petition collected about 3,000 votes in its first day.

Demanding an immigration policy change from the Whitehouse might be a long fetch. There are, actually, easier ways to do just the same, if the movement can gain the sympathy from the visa interviewers at the US's Beijing Embassy.

The embassy should be provided with a list of most notoriously active GFW researchers. Individual interviewer may block anyone who appears on that list from entering US. Per US laws, the interview agent must exercise her own judgement in each case, regardless of directives from her boss or other government agencies.

The GFW is the most extensive and most advanced content filtering and management system in the world. It is estimated thousands of researchers are working on this project on daily basis. Most of them keep a low profile. Few ever show their pride on the Wall in public, with the exception of two persons so far.

The first one is of course 'the Father of the GFW', Mr. Fang Binxing. In an interview, Mr. Fang said he truly believe the Wall is an important tool that benefits the Communists government. Because the government is for the people, thus it also benefits the people.

The second person is an associate professor Mr. Han Weili in Fudan University. The Wall is rarely discussed in public. When Professor Han posted a job ad for research assistants on the internal bulletin board system (BBS), several students questioned how could he do this in his conscience. Some commented that how would anyone get involved to fix their resume later on (so that not to offend any potential employers whom with no exception must have been victimized by the research). Han boasted his 12 years experience on the Wall, and stated that he only interested in the technology. A student pointed out there is a difference when you already knew how your technology would be deployed (against human mankind) but still work on it.

Mr. Han Weili should be found a spot on the list, no question about that.

Dr. Han's research activities can be viewed at his university homepage.

On an unrelated note, it seems the Great FireWall conducted an MITM attack targeting the Github. It is not clear whether the attack is sponsored by the government, or is a personal act launched by a few operators (Dr. Han). Visitors within China was cheated from a self-issued certificate when they tried to access the Github websites. Chinese government and GFW operators have the authority to issue security certificates with their root certificate privilege. The attack lasted about an hour. The fake certificate was captured and displayed at many security sites and blogs. While it is impractical to yank the root certificate controlled by Chinese government, concerned individuals should make an effort to remove it from their own computers.

Update: After the petition, the GFW Dr. Han issued a statement in which he denied any involvement in the GFW project ever. The Seagull found a screenshot of the exchanges between the GFW Dr. and a Fudan University student luosheng. Anyone reads Chinese can see with your own eyes.

Science: Gened Up For Success

Most modern genetic research steer around any discussion that may imply any correlation between a person's likelihood to succeed in a society and his genome, until recently.

In a paper published in the Leadership Quarterly, researchers 'address leadership emergence and the possibility that there is a partially innate predisposition to occupy a leadership role.' In plain English, if your body holds rs4950, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) residing on a neuronal acetylcholine receptor gene (CHRNB3), you are on your way to become a leader, regardless of your education experience or your parents's social status.

In today's politically correct scientific community, it is inappropriate to suggest genetic differences between two groups. For example, scholars recognize the biological difference between men and women (they have different reproductive organs, to begin with), and they even recognize some genes difference may contribute to higher risk of certain diseases. However, they do not want to comment on whether some of the genetic difference may contribute to differences in developing or processing certain skills. For example, whether one group is more likely to make logical decisions, or whether one group is more likely to turn out good drivers.

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Slava Mikhaylov, Christopher T. Dawes, Nicholas A. Christakis, James H. Fowler. Born to lead? A twin design and genetic association study of leadership role occupancy. The Leadership Quarterly, 2013; 24 (1): 45 DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.08.001

Readers shouldn't be surprised when asked for a voluntary biological sample by future employers, as having been forecast-ed in movie Gattaca (1997). There could be kiosk booth along vending machines, which is labeled, 'leave us a hair, we may have a job for you (we do not share your genome information with 3rd party).'

A separated research identified genes that are responsible for a particular useful engineering skill: digging advanced tunnels. Apparently it is safer when we were not talking about human subjects, thus the appearance in Nature: Behaviour genes unearthed, Nature 493, 284 (17 January 2013).