“With $30 billion lost to shoplifting and employee theft last year, retailers are turning to increasingly sophisticated electronic surveillance systems to fight theft. Some systems, like RFID tags, have been well-publicized by privacy advocates. Others are less well known: video surveillance systems are being tied to software that can recognize specific types of activity and identify individuals; and data-mining software is being used to analyze everything from shoppers’ habits to irregular register activity.”

From the article: “Despite this revolution in retail tech, you won’t find many stores bragging about their new security tools. No one wants to tip off shoplifters or advertise that they suspect their customers. That’s why so much of the technology is hidden in the first place. But another reason stores don’t talk much about surveillance is that they know it sparks concerns about privacy. Consumer groups and legislators have opposed the spread of RFID and video surveillance for just that reason.”

The Marine Corps entrance into the hangout of 94 million mostly-teenage users is stirring up controversy.

In an effort to “fish where the fish are”, the United States Marine Corps has set itself up with a profile on MySpace in an effort to pique the interest of potential new recruits.

A Marine Corp representative said “The Internet is a great way to show what the Marine Corps has to offer.”

But some object to these tactics to recruit teenagers, noting that it’s not fair for the Corps to be using something that’s kind of like a youth domain, to “sucker youth into something they’re not really explaining fully.”

The US Army, originally leery of MySpace because of well-publicized report of online predators, plans to set up a profile soon.

Now, I’m not sure of the legalities around recruiting teenagers in the US, but this does seem a little stealthy to me, kind of like recruiting in a high school parking lot. I think perhaps I’d be more comfortable with the notion of a paid ad space on MySpace, rather than a “profile” set up as a member of the MySpace community.

What do you think? Is this just really savvy advertising or an unethical way to recruit teenagers?

Skipping school just got a bit harder for some Tucson-area students. Several high schools in the area are using a text-messaging system to alert parents of truant students.

The system, called “Messageyou,” is already in use in Australia. Messageyou sends a text message to parents that have signed up for the program, telling them the child has an unexcused absence.

Oftentimes, parents are hard to reach by phone and cunning students erase messages left on the voice mail.

Or the kids could just do what I did and have ahem, “valid” excuses, as to why they were absent.

If you haven’t heard of Linux, you’re probably not a high school student in Indiana. The Department of Education has installed 22,000 Linux workstations in 24 high schools over the past year and the number of schools is expected to grow to 80 this year. Like Windows, Linux is an operating system, the basic set of software that lets you run programs, manage files, and so on. Unlike Windows, however, Linux is available for free. Developed over the last fifteen years by hordes of eager volunteers, it has become a solid, reliable operating system suitable for both desktop computers and the servers that run the internet.

Mike Huffman, special assistant for technology at the Indiana Department of Education, said “The amazing part of this is, with everything we’re doing in the classroom, teachers don’t bring up Linux. They don’t bring up open source. They bring up curriculum.” Huffman asked a student, last year, what he thought of using a Linux-based computer instead of a Windows-based one. The student answered, simply, “who cares?” Huffman explained the impetus for the switch: “We have a million kids in the state of Indiana. If we were to pay $100 for software on each machine, each year, that’s $100 million for software. That’s well beyond our ability. That’s why open source is so attractive. We can cut those costs down to $5 [on each computer] per year.”

With a savings like that, it’s a wonder more schools haven’t made the switch. Currently, of the five active computers in my office, only one — a file server — runs on Linux. My next laptop, however, will definitely run Linux rather than Windows. Would you want to see your kids’ schools switch to Linux? Have you considered making the move yourself?