Dave the Web Guy

The Social Security Death Index database is a handy tool for folks doing research on their ancestors or for looking up social security numbers in cases of deceased relatives where you need them in order to conduct other business.  For instance I recently needed my father's number in order to facilitate a request for a police report involving his death in 1966.

I remember that the mid-90s web had this index retrievable in just one Yahoo search hit.  You clicked through and were able to "search and leave" without hassle.  Sadly and predictably I found trying to use it with "today's" web a bit more complicated.  It seems that most sites offering themselves up as a gateway to it are trying to sell the most important last-step data to users for a buck.  This would be fine except that one used to get the last-step data, the part containing social security numbers and perhaps other vital details, for free. 

It turns out there are a mix of web companies doing different things with the same data in terms of commodifying it (at its heart the data itself isn't actually "free", it's re-sold by the government to these intermediate websites who then decide what to do with it), and you could go a bit bonkers searching around for a gateway site that does in fact just give you the scoop.  Allow me to assist and point you straight to Family Search (.org).  They offer the information straight up and in a pleasant format to boot.

To me it sounds like George Zimmerman was covering his bases on the 911 call he made to police. He sounds confident to insert all the right keywords -- anticipating trouble -- that will result in him being cleared in the event that anything goes down, which of course we all now know, that it did. For instance, he makes a point to point out that Trayvon has his hands (ominously) in his waistband.

The same recording does put a damper on claims that police told George not to chase the suspect. In fact, on this recording at least, they never tell Zimmerman any such thing. I'm splitting hairs perhaps, the way a decent defense attorney will, but in fact, the 911 dispatcher merely observes that the Sheriff's office does not need George to go after anyone. They don't tell George "Do not chase the suspect". My guess is that's going to be the loophole here.

We just moved into our new apartment and due to the delay in transitioning Internet services found ourselves without Wi-Fi to the web. My Cradlepoint CTR35 hooked up to my Verizon 4G Pantech modem filled the gap nicely. To maintain router continuity with existing port forwarding and SSID references (we didn't want to switch to the 4G/Cradlepoint via its own hotspot name), I hooked the Cradlepoint router up the usual wireless one via the pictured ethernet hub.  I also used it to route our Vonage service and thus now have the entire house and all networking devices working off 4G. It's fast enough that it can actually do the job until we get real broadband from the cable company.

Of course we have to be careful not to exceed my monthly cap on the 4G plan, but I'm watching that on a little Verizon Wireless dashboard graph each day and taking advantage of alert features that should warn us when we approach a particular threshold. We have a standing rule to avoid You Tube videos while this infrastructure is in affect. Imagine the day all Internet service is metered; these are the things we'll start thinking about. :/

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The Chromebook seems like a great idea and looks fine today. There is enough consistent Wi-Fi, Mi-Fi, or home/work broadband for it to be useful and productive throughout the average day. If it isn't selling, it's because it's not cheap enough. And if it can't be built cheap, then, ta-da, that's the problem. This article suggests they should even be free.

If you own a device that doesn't include GPS capabilities like an non 3G iPad or perhaps the more current Kindle Fire, you might wonder how such devices work with location tracking services.  It's rather interesting. 

How is this possible on a Kindle Fire?  It's all thanks to Wi-Fi magic!

Some company like SkyHook decides to collect and store perfectly public and non-intrusive information on the location of millions of Wi-Fi signals.  The signal strength interaction between these locations is unique anywhere a reading is taken.  If you have 2 random Wi-Fi signals the strength of signal A is strong and the strength of signal B is weak, while you stand closer to A.  That's a signature.  Now, if you suddenly shift and stand closer to signal B, signal A becomes weak while signal B becomes stronger.  That's another signature.  If you simultaneously record the street locations of both signatures you finally have the last leg of data that devices can later use to compare their own locations to. 

Any Wi-Fi device can check itself for comparison.  All a device has to do is to note the same signal strengths from where it is being used at any given moment and report that information back to the central database.  Since your device is constantly monitoring and detecting Wi-Fi signals, even when connected to one, this is extremely easy. 

At the database, a match in the vast collection is made between your current signature and the one stored earlier.   The street address and other information related to it are then retrieved and conveyed back to you, probably on a Google map.  And the best part is that all of this takes place in mere seconds.

SkyHook actually hires drivers who will literally drive "every single street" in their city.  It's all they have to do.  Special scanning equipment in the car does everything else.

Now, for this to work, the database containing all that Wi-Fi signal strength data must be regularly refreshed.  Wi-Fi access points (like your own wireless router for instance) come and go quickly so Wi-Fi signatures are, as a result, quite dynamic.  They don't degrade or change fast enough that all hope is lost within days, weeks, or even months for making relatively accurate matches, but they do decay and evolve fairly quickly (one article I read on this subject likens these environments to clouds), so you have to keep up on the recording effort.  Luckily in the name of a buck the companies that do this sort of thing are committed to the job by sending out entire fleets of mobile data collectors every year.  Also, while I do the achievement no justice by merely blurbing this extra point, Android OS smartphones also provide the same data sans wheels.  The more Wi-Fi signals they record and the more regularly they update, the more accurately locations are derived.  

In all this turns out to be a good bargain for device manufacturers that don't want to drive up the cost of their device by building in GPS technology yet at the same time want their customers to be able to take advantage of location based services.  Customers don't wind up settling on the whole with this arrangement.  Wi-Fi based triangulation solutions are said to be superior in dense urban areas that GPS signals struggle with.