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Filed under: Business, Web services

Amazon is now searching for Mr Fossett

Amazon is now searching for Mr FossettAmazon has joined the search efforts for Steve Fossett after his balloon small plane trip ended in a disappearance somewhere in the Nevada desert last week. This news comes after Steve's friend British Billionaire Sir Richard Branson has reportedly contacted his friends at Google to see if they would join the search efforts of over 6 airplanes and three helicopters.

Now Amazon has enlisted its Mechanical Turk system to search for the pilot. They're using human researchers to complete tasks that cannot be automatically analyzed, such as photo analysis, surveys and audio transcriptions. Amazon is also asking volunteers to look through satellite images and mark any areas that could demand any closer looks. 53,000 locations are currently awaiting further investigations.

Sure, lives are irreplaceable, and money should be of no concern when dealing with the lives of people. But how much money and time can be spent on one person alone? And if this person was someone less known that Steve Fossett would anyone care? Would Amazon and Google be putting all of this time and money towards searching for them?

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google

Google Earth being used to find Steve Fossett

Google Earth being used to find Steve FossettSteve Fossett, the "greatest aviator in the world" has been missing for a while now in the Nevada desert. Friends and air patrols have been frantically searching for him, and now Google could be in on the search.

Fossett's friend, Sir Richard Branson, of Virgin fame, has tried to locate his buddy by using Google Earth to track his path. Branson has been in communication with his friends at Google to see if they can look over images of the last few days to see whether they can see which direction Fossett had been flying, and if they can pinpoint any disturbances that could have caused any issues.

So far three helicopters and six airplanes are involved in the search, focusing on a 600 sq mile area.

Filed under: Security, E-mail

Nevada governor's Outlook password posted online

Nevada Governor loginIn blatant disregard of password security, the governor's office of Nevada uses a surprisingly predictable Outlook login and password. How do we know? Because the information was posted in a Word document available for download from the state website.

Apparently the document was intended for gubernatorial aides responsible for sending out emails from the governor's office. The document has since been removed from the website.

The password, "kennyc" appears to be a reference to former governor Kenny C. Guinn, showing both that the governor's office lacks creativity and that the password may not have been updated in some time. The current governor is Jim A. Gibbons. Now that the snafu has been uncovered it's almost certainly the case that the password has been updated, although it's not clear wither the new password is more secure than "JimA."

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