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CBS and Paramount’s parent company reports hack affecting over 80,000 people
National Amusements, CBS and Paramount’s parent company, confirmed a year-old hack this month affecting 82,128 people. TechCrunch first reported on the breach, revealed in a company legal filing with Maine’s Attorney General under a 2005 state digital privacy law.
Maine bans facial recognition technology from schools and most police work
Maine has passed the strongest statewide law regulating government use of facial recognition to date.
Former Google exec says he was pushed out for defending human rights
Google's former global head of international relations claims he was pushed out of the company for trying to protect free expression and privacy in China. In a letter shared today, Ross LaJeunesse says that, after 11 years of working to protect human rights in China, he was told there was no longer a job for him as a result of "reorganization." He says the company has strayed from its "don't be evil" motto, and rather than take a lesser role, he's leaving to run for a Senate seat in Maine.
Comcast sues Maine over a law requiring a-la-carte cable offerings
Cord cutting may seem like the new norm, but plenty of people still pay for cable TV. That doesn't mean they're happy with it though. This summer, in response to complaints that customers had to purchase an entire cable package just to watch one or two channels, Maine passed a law requiring cable companies to offer channels a-la-carte. Now, Comcast and a handful of cable operators, including Fox, CBS and Disney, are suing Maine and 17 municipalities to prevent the law from going into effect.
Maine passes bill requiring ISPs to ask permission before selling data
The current federal government might not be keen on privacy rules for internet providers, but Maine certainly is. The state's Senate has passed a bill that requires consent before ISPs can sell or offer access to their customers' private data, paralleling an earlier approval in the state House. It just needs Governor Mills' approval to become law.
Google Express delivery expands along the East Coast
East coast residents now have a new way to shop online. Google announced on Wednesday that it is expanding its Google Express online delivery service to a dozen states throughout the Northeast. Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont are all now within Google Express' delivery range.
Maine makes student laptop, iPad contract open to others
The state of Maine will make the contract it uses to negotiate for new devices like MacBooks and iPads in its schools open to other states, according to NBC affiliate WFMJ. In 2000, then-Maine Gov. Angus King foresaw that a digital divide was growing between wealthy and poor students. Wealthy students had access to technology like laptops while poor students did not. To bridge that divide, King worked with the state and the education board to distribute 30,000 laptops to seventh and eighth grade students by 2003. According to King, Steve Jobs wanted in on the program so badly that he allowed Apple to take a loss on the contract to win it. Maine currently uses 70,000 MacBooks in middle schools and high schools across the country. The state pays an annual price between US$217 and $314 per laptop. Now that the current contract is set to expire, the state has started to look at new technology to replace the aging MacBooks. Among the devices they are considering are "four-year leases with annual costs of $217 for an iPad, $273 for the MacBook Air, $254.86 for an HP Probook, $314.28 for an HP ElitePad and $294 for a CTL 2go Classmate PC with swivel screen and stylus," according to WFMJ. The state is also making its contract available to other states that want a model for similar programs.
Maine's "World of Warcraft" candidate Colleen Lachowicz appears to win State Senate seat
Colleen Lachowicz made headlines earlier this election season after she was attacked for playing World of Warcraft. Her opponent's party felt that her gaming was a negative factor that should sway voters into not voting for her. Lachowicz posted on Facebook this evening the following message: Facebook kind of disappeared from view for a little while, but with good reason. With one town of 300 left to report, the results cannot change. I am now the Senator-Elect of District 25 with a total of 8561 to 7545. With these numbers it would appear that Lachowicz has secured victory for herself as a Maine State Senator. For more on Lachowicz, take a read of our interview with her back in early October.
Interview: Maine Senate candidate tells why gamer shaming bodes ill for the future
Is playing World of Warcraft so bizarre and disturbing that players should be considered unfit for public office? According to the Maine Republic Party, the answer appears to be yes. Late last week, the party launched a jaw-droppingly clueless campaign attempting to shame Democratic State Senate candidate Colleen Lachowicz for -- oh yes, here it comes again -- playing a video game. "We're not attacking Colleen for being a gamer," Maine Republican party communications director David Sorensen denied in an interview with Polygon. "Our website and mailers are focused on Colleen's extremely offensive remarks made in connection with her gaming, including saying that Maine's governor must have been a child prostitute or drug dealer, and how she might drown conservative activist Grover Norquist in a bathtub." Despite the GOP backpedaling, one look at the mailer and ColleensWorld, the supporting website, makes the gaming slur (and the noncontextual nature of Lachowicz's comments) painfully obvious. Clearly, whoever conceptualized the campaign suffers from a lack of cultural context. Perhaps they didn't know that World of Warcraft is even used as a teaching tool in public schools, making gaming a natural fit for 48-year-old Lachowicz, a licensed social worker, stepmother, and licensed foster parent. We're guessing they probably didn't visit Lachowicz's campaign Facebook page, where a clip from gaming innovator Jane McGonigal outlines how gaming in moderation actually makes people better at the other things they do. Why does nonsense like this persist? In an exclusive phone interview with WoW Insider, Lachowicz told us why the Maine GOP's embarrassing misstep hasn't negatively impacted her campaign but still fills her with foreboding for the future of young people growing up in the digital age.
US launches first commercial tidal power project this summer, Maine to reap moon's gravitational benefits
Solar may be the green energy source that's been hogging the headlines lately, but there are other fossil-fuel free ways that can help meet society's electrical needs. One of these is tidal power, and the US is set to start harnessing the ocean's electricity-generating potential this summer with the TidGen Cobscook Bay project -- the first such commercial project in the States. Located just off the coast of Eastport, Maine, turbines will be placed in 50-100 feet deep water to take advantage of the 100 billion tons of water that flow in and out of Cobscook Bay each day. When the project goes live, it'll feed into the public power grid and generate enough juice to power between 75 and 100 homes, and the plan is to eventually install enough turbines to generate 3MW of power -- which should cover the needs of over 1,000 homes and businesses. There's more info, plus plenty of political self-congratulation in the source below.
Amtrak begins testing e-ticketing system, other futuristic things
It's been a long time coming, but it looks like Amtrak is finally ready to get with the times. This month, the human-carrier began testing a new e-ticketing system for passengers traveling along its Downeaster line, which extends from Maine to Boston. Under the trial, travelers can either print their tickets at home, or have them e-mailed as a barcode-laced PDF file for conductors to scan. Customers can also change their reservations at the last minute, without having to wait in line at the ticket counter and interact with other people. It's not exactly cutting-edge technology, but Amtrak attributes the delay to the unique nature of the railway, where conductors check tickets in transit and have to deal with a steady stream of passengers getting on and hopping off. As a result, the company had to find a scanning device reliable enough to handle this constant flow of organisms, though it looks as if it's nearing a solution. Amtrak plans to expand the trial to California in February, and if that goes well, the system could roll out on a nationwide basis as early as this summer.
The Secret World's Innsmouth Academy profiled
Earlier this week Funcom treated us to a blurb about The Secret World's creepily atmospheric Atlantic Island Park. Today the official site has been updated with a new reveal centered on Innsmouth Academy. By all outward appearances, the academy is a private high school for rich kids. As per usual in The Secret World, things aren't always what they seem on the surface. Innsmouth Academy serves as something of a prep school for children of the Illuminati, "and a degree from Innsmouth Academy opens many doors for a budding magus and occultist." The school has a lengthy history, and originally opened its doors in 1798 before being rebuilt three times as a result of three different disasters (including the opening of a dimensional portal in the elementalism lab). Head to the official Secret World website to read more about the school and its faculty.
Kindergarten iPad 2 program causes rift between parents and school officials in Maine
Recently, the school board in Auburn, Maine decided to launch a pilot program which would place an iPad 2 in the hands of the district's 300 kindergarten students. While school officials hail this program as "a revolution in education," some parents are questioning this decision. Spearheaded by Tracey Levesque of Auburn, the Auburn Citizens for Responsible Education are mounting an opposition to the school board's iPad 2 program. The group questions the effect of handing iPads to children who are not ready for the technology and objects to the use of taxpayer money to fund this experimental program. Read on for more information about the objections to a program some think is the future of education.
The Revenant infects The Secret World
Take one snip of Hitler's hair, a joybuzzer from Stephen King's IT, and the charred remains of Darth Vader, stir them all together in the Black Cauldron, and you'll cook up the perfect recipe for evil incarnate -- also known as The Secret World's Revenant. MMORPG.com has the scoop on Funcom's newest monster reveal for The Secret World. Conjuring shades of Lord of the Rings' Nazgul and Silent Hill's Pyramid Head, the Revenants are about as dark as they come: cloaked figures wielding black swords and feeding on pain and death. Plus, they get the nifty ability to turn into icky creatures like rats and worms, so chances are they have one of your phobias tucked up their sleeves. Revenants promise to be tough enemies who throw about plague and disease like it's candy, and players will reportedly encounter them in the Maine section of the game. You can check out more pictures of this big nasty in the gallery below! %Gallery-72395%
The coolest kindergarten ever: iPad 2s for everyone
In a move that just assured kids everywhere will view Auburn, Maine's kindergartens as the coolest in the country, the local school board there has purchased iPad 2s for every kindergartner in the district. At a total cost of $200,000, including 285 iPad 2s, insurance for the devices and educational software, the Auburn program will begin as a pilot this May, with a complete rollout expected in September. The idea came to the local school board after teachers noticed an improvement in schoolchildren who used educational software on the iPad to learn the alphabet. Auburn's board hopes the iPads, which are cheaper than buying the kindergartners laptops, will help raise the literacy rate over a number of years. Interestingly, though probably unrelated, Apple's first iPad 2 commercial showed an app that allows children to trace the outline of numbers and letters in an attempt to help them learn. Let's just hope that Auburn's children don't start lower-casing their pronoun I's. [via MacNN]
All hail the Kingsmouth Horror: The Secret World pays homage to Lovecraft
For a while now, the community over at The Secret World has noticed things in the game that are distinctly influenced by the writings of horror master H.P. Lovecraft. From the original poster that revealed a beast that reminded many of Cthulhu to the whole idea of secret societies and monsters that exist beyond time and space. So when The Secret World community members stumbled upon a website for the fictional town of Kingsmouth, many weren't surprised. Kingsmouth, a mash-up of Lovecraft's Kingsport and Innsmouth (and, to an unnamed extent, Arkham), is the typical New England town that Lovecraft so loved to talk about. It's sleepy, it's quiet, it's community is entrenched, and there are probably more monsters than people. Lovecraftian references are abound from the aptly named Miskatonic River (see Miskatonic University) to the town's presence as a port on the coastline. Of course, with the addition of a brand new website, new puzzles are bound to pop up. The Secret World community is already pouring over the website, so jump into the discussion if you think you found something. Of course, for those of you who aren't into the whole conspiracy angle, we got the screenshots of Kingsmouth for you below. Beware though, the originals are small, as apparently the Kingsmouth locals don't know how to upload quality pictures. %Gallery-72395%
Maine mulling cancer warning labels on cellphones, manufacturers mulling warning label on Maine
The debate on whether mobile phones are slowly turning us into a world of ailment-riddled weaklings rages on in the scientific community, but at least one state may be ready to step up the ominous, non-actionable warnings anyway. A representative in Maine has apparently persuaded her colleagues to let her bring up a proposal during January's session of the state legislature that would require warnings on devices about the alleged link between RF emissions and brain cancer, strongly advising users to keep the devices away from their heads and bodies. At best, this seems premature, and at worst, it runs a risk of breeding a nation of 24 / 7 Bluetooth headset users -- but the politician responsible for the movement seems to have it figured out: she holds her own phone away from her head while using it and turns it off unless she's expecting a call. Could someone in her district please let us know what kind of archaic voice-only device she's using?
The Pine Tree State orders 64,000 MacBooks, with more to come
The Associated Press released an article today noting that the Maine Department of Education has placed an order for more than 64,000 MacBooks. The MacBooks are being purchased from Apple as a part of Maine's Learning Technology Initiative, which has provided MacBooks to all middle school students in Maine since 2002.The new order expands the program to high school students who did not receive a MacBook in middle school, and also provides the laptops to faculty for grades 7 through 12. Maine is expected to place an additional order for about 7,000 more laptops within a few weeks. The laptops can also be used as an economic development tool for parents as well, providing software that links the computers to the Maine Department of Labor resources, including career centers. Does your state, country, or school district provide laptops to every student? If they do, and they're providing Macs, let us know.
Maine's first Apple Store ready to open
Good news, Mainers! The long wait for an Apple Store is about to end.Apple Store Maine Mall will open on Saturday, September 13th at 9:30 AM. This will be Maine's very first store! It's located in The Maine Mall, at 363 Maine Mall Road, South Portland. You'll find it between The Loft and Victoria's Secret.If you visit Apple Store Maine Mall over the weekend, let us know! We'd love to have your stories and pictures.Thanks, Tim!
Comcast looking to sell outlying markets
Times are tough aoul over, and even cable giant Comcast isn't immune to a little tightening of the belt. Word coming out of Maine is that Comcast is looking to sell 46 of the markets on the outskirts of its footprint, mostly in Maine, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Virginia, Georgia, West Virginia and California. The move is about more than just the monies that will be generated by selling off its subscriber eyeballs, though. At a going rate of $3,000 - $4,500 per subscriber, that's not an insignificant chunk of change, either. By geographically concentrating its service areas, it should be cheaper to deliver services, including the all-important "triple play." If you're affected by this selloff, we're hoping your HD lineup won't suffer for it.
