Academics To Predict Next Twitter and Its Pitfalls

An anonymous reader writes "University researchers in the UK have put together a team tasked with predicting the next big thing in terms of communication technologies, in a bid to tackle ethical pitfalls before they become a problem. This is in the wake of the rise of social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, which has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of personal information available online."

Comments

Can they help with the exacta in the 9th race?

[QuincyDurant]

I'm getting killed here. (Sent my Blackberry from the $2 window)

Re:OpenBank

[JWSmythe]

    You haven't been in IRC lately, have you? I was just DCC'd the master list of all active bank accounts. I'll be pulling $1 from each, marking it as a "service fee", and I'll be filthy rich. I'm thinking of buying a tropical island. Maybe Hawaii.

    For my next trick, I'm going to buy a small fleet of slightly retired naval warships and freighters, and head over to Somalia to do some business. Those pirates will have nothing on me. Handheld weapons on speedboats? Ha! Wait til I level the guns of my slightly used battleship at them. I don't think anyone will argue with that. :)

  "Pirate ship Smythe to merchant vessel off our port. Please have all of your crew board the lifeboats, or we will turn your cargo ship into an artificial reef. You have 2 minutes to comply"

    I'm sure with the purchase of a fleet of slightly used warships, we could get enough small arms to equip several squads of mercenaries who will be more than happy to secure the boat for us.

    If the local pirates tried to play rough, they wouldn't have a chance. I'm not sure a radio call would even be in order (or possible, they probably don't have radios). Deck guns would be enough to eliminate any threat, should they show any resistance.

    With enough money (hey, a few catch and releases should fund that), I'm sure a few soviet states may be willing to let some more interesting ships go. Ever wonder what happens when you do an emergency surface in a Yankee class sub under a small boat? :) They may not be the latest greatest ships, but with what they'd fighting against, you don't need it.

    It's all about the money though. The crews would be given safe passage to the nearest safe port with a nearby airport, and a paid ticket home. Of course they'd have an apology note, so their bosses wouldn't be upset.

    Ya, if I was a bad guy, I could be dangerous. It's a good thing I'm a good guy. I'm sitting comfortably in the US, with no plans on getting any bank account lists, nor my own navy. Then again, if a rogue navy started really screwing with the pirates by Somalia, it would probably stop all that BS. What are they going to do? Declare war against a navy with heavy weapons, flagged as pirates? :) Maybe the US Navy could be encouraged to free up some mothballed ships of various flavors for a few false flag missions. I can't imagine that US Navy ships are the only thing they have laying around. A rogue navy could be useful in many ways. Need an enemy seaport destroyed without implicating your own country? Leave it to Smythe Industries. We'll lay waste to any port city you want. Pesky pirates interfering with your commerce traffic? We'll blow them out of the water. Need a war started with a couple tense countries? A little paint and we'll have them believing they started it themselves. False flag operations starting at only $1 billion. Need your special forces moved into unreachable waters with no questions asked? Take a ride on our "fully loaded and documented" freighter. We'll bring them right into port! No target too big or too small. Radio first, and have an unarmed helicopter drop cash on the ship named "Pirate Funds".

    Just wait until the false flag navy gets a hold of a couple carriers and some decent (yet retired) aircraft.

    You thought Blackwater had something going? Nah, we'll show you how it's done. Think "Air America" meets "Lord of War"