ZoomSafer Raises $1 Million, Could Be Your Next Personal Safe Driving Assistant

Last Updated on Monday, 12 April 2010 08:28 Written by Daisy Harley Monday, 12 April 2010 08:28

ZoomSafer, developer of safe driving software for mobile phones, has raised an additional $1 million round of financing from SugarOak Holdings. Daniel Baker, CEO of SugarOak Holdings, has joined the company’s board of directors as part of the funding deal.

Zoomsafer markets what it refers to as a “personal safe driving assistant”, software for mobile phones that aims to prevent distracted driving.

Once downloaded to a mobile phone (Blackberry and selected Windows Mobile devices only for now, with support for Android, iPhone and other smartphones in the works) the ZoomSafer software detects when the user is driving and automatically puts the phone into ’safe drive mode’. That way, inbound alerts are suppressed and the phone’s keypad and screen are locked to eliminate the temptation to text, email or dial while driving.

Additionally, ZoomSafer offers a variety of customizable and hands-free services so users can stay connected while driving, including auto-replies to incoming texts and emails to let others know that you’re driving, one-touch access to voice dialer for making hands-free outbound calls and the receipt of hands-free inbound calls from priority contacts.

The company says it will use the additional capital to expand marketing and sales and deliver enhanced policy controls and analytics to help consumers, large-scale corporate fleet customers and everything in between ensure safe, legal and hands-free use of mobile phones while driving.

Here’s a pretty explanatory video of how Zoomsafer works:

Article source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/12/zoomsafer/

David A. Love: The Catholic Church: A Safe Haven For Criminals?

Last Updated on Thursday, 1 April 2010 01:31 Written by Daisy Harley Thursday, 1 April 2010 01:31

Let us explore for a moment the notion that the Catholic Church is a safe haven for criminals — if not a criminal organization, then at least an organization whose leadership engages in criminality.

Such a topic goes beyond the comfort level of some people because it is interpreted as an attack on religion, or specifically on the Catholic Church. People are entitled to their own expressions of faith, to express God in the manner in which they choose, or to refuse to acknowledge the existence of a higher power or Supreme Being. With that said, religious organizations, of which the Catholic Church is an example, are merely social constructions, entities devised by human beings to meet certain goals. No institution is sacrosanct and beyond the laws of nations. There is no mysticism involved, no divine hand sweeping down to make the rules, just people with their selfish motives. Their policies for self-preservation, including maintaining power and the status quo, may or may not correspond with the needs of their followers. Often, the followers be damned so that the corporation can remain intact.

The recent news coming from the Catholic Church does not bode well: when he was a cardinal, the current Pope refused to defrock a Wisconsin priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys. Another priest faces extradition to Ireland for raping a 15-year-old boy 40 years ago. European politicians are calling on the Church to hold sex abuse inquiries in Ireland and Germany. Germans want to know what the Pope and his brother knew about the decades-long abuse in an elementary school and a German boys’ choir that the Pope’s brother once directed. And new abuse scandals have cropped up in Switzerland, Austria, and Brazil. Once viewed as solely an American phenomenon, the problem is going worldwide. The Vatican tells its bishops to cover up the sex abuse cases or risk being thrown out of the church. Child victims are forced to sign statements vowing that they will remain silent about the abuse they suffered. Pedophile priests are not fired or turned in to the authorities but are transferred to other parishes, where they continue to prey on children.

In a game of bait and switch, the Vatican has pushed back at the criticism, attacking the media for a “conspiracy” against the Church for focusing on allegations of the Pope’s role in covering up the abuse. But those who themselves are engaged in a criminal conspiracy are in no position to blame their accusers of a conspiracy. That’s just getting to the facts.

Surely, some will point to the good deeds of the Church, and good deeds exist, to be sure. A track record of charity, of helping the poor, and of improving society exists alongside a troubling history of participating in slavery and colonization and maintaining indifference towards the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. All institutions are human and therefore flawed. But to whitewash a systemic problem of child sex abuse and pretend it doesn’t exist? What is there to fear in the truth, and whose interests are protected by covering up the scandal? The interests of the children? Certainly even the most ardent parishioners cannot excuse the inexcusable and must realize that there is no wiggle room when it comes to the rape and torture of children.

I have concluded that any nonreligious organization with such a track record of abuse would have been indicted under the RICO Act a long time ago. Racketeering, pedophilia, rape, assault, and criminal conspiracy to cover up all of the above — these are the things for which prisons were made.

The Vatican and its agents are a major worldwide repository for child abusers and pedophiles. Surely, part of the reason for this is the environment of secrecy and sexual repression. Another part of it is a vow of celibacy that encourages an unhealthy attitude towards human sexuality. And it always comes back to sexuality, doesn’t it? A policy of homophobia forces gay priests to remain in the closet, in a church where a sizable proportion of priests is likely gay. The church condemns contraception, an irresponsible stance given the rampant spread of AIDS in Africa and elsewhere. And the subjugation of women allows an all-male club of crusty old dudes to dominate the Church hierarchy. Certainly, one can envision a more open atmosphere if women were allowed to become priests and provide leadership to a Church badly in need of new leaders.

The Catholic Church is hemorrhaging money due to the billions of dollars in compensation required to settle the sex abuse claims. And no one wants to become a priest, for obvious reasons. This is an anachronistic institution that refuses to change to meet the realities of a modern world. Such institutions eventually die under the weight of their own irrelevance, intransigence, and corruption. And if Church authorities’ top priority is saving the Church rather than saving lives, protecting children, and weeding out the criminals in their midst, then it is a fitting demise indeed. Ultimately, those who truly care about the future of this or any other Church should strive to change it.

David A. Love is the Executive Editor of BlackCommentator.com, and a contributor to The Progressive Media Project and theGrio. He is based in Philadelphia, and is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His blog is davidalove.com.

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-a-love/catholic-church-criminal_b_520930.html

Automattic Opens Up VaultPress, A Safe Place To Back Up Your Blog

Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 March 2010 07:36 Written by Daisy Harley Tuesday, 30 March 2010 07:36

Over the past few months, Automattic’s popular blog platform WordPress.com has taken an in-depth look at their blogging ecosystem, and realized that one of the major pain points for the 12.1 million users who self-host their WordPress blogs is security and restoration. WordPress.com backs up all of the blogs that it hosts, but those users who self-host their WordPress-powered blogs need to download outside plugins, such as this one, or use backup services like Mozy or Backupify to protect their data and content. Today Automattic is changing that with the launch of its own blog protection and restoration service for self-hosted blogs, called VaultPress.

Currently in private beta, VaultPress is a plugin users can download that acts as a backup service for your blog. Not only will the software help keep your blog up and running, but it will also soon monitor your site to alert you if their is suspicious activity or a hacking. Alternatively, VaultPress will eventually update your blog with security hot-fixes automatically. VaultPress will be a paid service and will probably be in the ballpark range of $15 to 20 per month, according to Automattic VP of User Growth Paul Kim. At first VaultPress will be extended on an invitation only basis and will eventually be open to the public in the near future.

While users can still use outside services or WordPress community plugins, VaultPress will be the only WordPress.com branded offering. And the plugin is tightly woven into WordPress.com infrastructure, promising greater operability, says Kim.

Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg says VaultPress is one of the most advanced technologies that he’s seen interact with WordPress. The vision of the service is to ensure that every piece of content on WordPress-powered blogs and sites are safe, with WordPress-aware, real-time, multi-cloud backups.

VaultPress as a product makes sense for WordPress.com and frankly, I’m surprised that the blogging platform didn’t roll this out earlier.

Disclosure: TechCrunch uses the VIP hosted version of WordPress.com.

Article source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/30/wordpress-opens-up-vaultpress-a-safe-place-to-back-up-your-blog/