Tag: safety

ramblings

Right Rides

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I learned yesterday of a very interesting option for women in New York City who need a safe way of getting home after a long night out. A non-profit called Right Rides runs two programs about which I will spreading the word, through this site and through my own word-of-mouth, because they might save someone I know from a potentially horrid situation.
These programs are RightRides, where they offer women, transpeople and gender queer individuals a free, late-night ride home to ensure their safe commute to or through high-risk areas, and Safe Walk, where they offer walking escorts for any one who doesn’t want to walk alone. The cars are donated by ZipCar and the organization even won NY1’s New Yorker of the Week award last month.
If you wind up using either of these services, drop me a comment and let me know what they experience was like, how long it took to get picked up, etc.
Via Kirsten

tech

SMS Security

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I found today a new blog to read. It’s titled Red Tape, it can be found on MSNBC’s site and its purpose is to unmask government bureaucracy, corporate sneakiness and outright scam artists. A lofty goal from a site owned by General Electric but anyway…
A post today talks about whether or not the SMS messages that you send can be “captured” and then read by others. In one word: yes. Its a fascinating read. One part that liked was:

Cell phones and pagers also can be “cloned,” meaning the clone will receive a copy of every text message sent to the original device. In the most famous case of pager cloning, alleged Israeli organized crime figure Assaf Waknine obtained a clone of the pager carried by a Los Angeles police detective who was investigating him.

Read all about it for yourself. You will make sure that you never text a bank account or credit card number again.