Category Archives: Tech

Legal records creating potential safety hazard for state courts

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Law suits, criminal prosecutions, and the legal proceedings of all kinds produce mountains of paperwork. And after years of relative neglect, all that paper could appears to now pose a hazard to both court workers and the public.

The potentially dangerous conditions are apparent in the public records room at Honolulu’s 1st Circuit Court on Punchbowl Street. This is where the public has to come to inspect the original, certified legal files produced in civil and criminal court cases. Obviously, in our litigious society, keeping up with the ever-growing amount of paper is difficult but vitally important.

But document storage and retrieval is one of those areas in which the Judiciary appears to be falling further and further behind, most likely because of budget constraints. Despite the fact that certain types of files can now be submitted electronically, with documents filed and available online, the paper records keep stacking up.

Eventually, boxes of older files are supposed to be moved to storage, and then scanned. In the meantime, they fill more and more of the space in the public records room and elsewhere in the court building, as well as in rented spaces off site.

It’s now appears to have gotten to the danger point. If a fire were ever to break out, both employees and the public would be at risk.

Remember back in the 1990s when the Honolulu Fire Department released scathing inspection reports showing that “every Oahu high school was found in violation of minimum state fire-code standards,” according to a February 1992 headline in the Honolulu Advertiser?

HFD inspections at that time found that most Oahu public high schools at the time had “unsatisfactory” fire alarm systems, and had a number of other common dangers, including blocked fire exists, missing or broken fire extinguishers, improper storage of flammable materials, and poorly maintained electrical appliances.

If fire inspectors would pay a serious visit to the public records room at Honolulu’s First Circuit Court on Punchbowl Street, I’m sure they would find much the same thing.

Here are a couple of photos taken in the public records room when I stopped by last month to check out a couple of recent civil lawsuits.

The top photo shows the staff-only area separated from the public area by a counter that runs the length of the room (a bit of it is visible in the foreground. Case files are stored on the tall shelves that fill the room. Older files are stacked in boxes within the rows between shelves.

It has gotten to the point that staff searching for a particular case can’t easily walk up and down the rows. They now have to squeeze past the boxes of older records to get to more recent ones.

The bottom photo shows the area just inside the public entrance to the file room. As you enter or leave the room, you walk past more stacked storage boxes filled with paper files. I didn’t count, but judging from the photo, there are probably close to 300 boxes that fill the corner just inside the entrance. If a fire were to break out there, the only visible public exit would be blocked.

I’ve been told court workers have complained about the situation, but that hasn’t been enough to prod judiciary administrators to make cleaning up this mess a priority.

And I would also guess that the court building, like other older state facilities, relies on extension cords and other makeshift arrangements to make up for the lack of a modern electrical system. Typically, you will find those extension cords running behind, under, and around furniture, equipment, and carpets in order to power coffee cups, computers, desk lamps, and other electrical items. To a fire inspector, I would guess it’s not a pretty sight.

And I seriously doubt the neighbor island courts have it any better.

The Judiciary has made several attempts in the past to address the situation. Back in 2003, the courts launched what they hoped would be a modern data system that would include digital imaging of paper records that would be available to the public.

Today, appellate and criminal cases use an electronic filing system, but the sprawling civil court system still generates those mountains of paper.

Tracking the migration of the Pacific Golden Plover

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We were on the mainland during the week of April 22-28, which is the period when most of Hawaii’s Kolea, or Pacific Golden Plover, make their spring migration back to their summer nesting grounds in Alaska. When we left, the birds were very much in evidence, all sporting fine spring plumage. When we returned and went out for our early morning walk on Monday, April 29, we saw only a couple of stragglers that were still here.

I spotted this handsome fellow on Tuesday, April 30. He apparently missed taking off with the rest of the plover in the area. But this sighting was the last we saw of him.

It got me interested in reading more about these amazing birds.

Scientists have been studying the plovers’ migration patterns for at least a decade using miniaturized tracking devices.

A study published in 2011 reported on the successful tracking of plover making the annual round trip between Hawaii and Alaska. Interesting stuff. The group of scientists included three from Brigham Young University in Hawaii. Here’s the abstract of the article:

This study is the first in which light level geolocators (data loggers) were deployed on Pacific Golden-Plovers Pluvialis fulva. In spring 2009 and 2010, we logger-equipped a total of 24 plovers at wintering grounds on Oahu, Hawaii; 22 returned in the subsequent fall migrations, and of these 20 were recaptured. Almost all of the recovered geolocators had archived the full roundtrip to Alaska including nesting locations. Transpacific flights were nonstop along direct north–south pathways. On average, the northward passage required approximately 3 days and covered about 4,800 km; the southward around 4 days and 4,900 km. Ground speeds fluctuated widely during flights (almost certainly because of variable winds); mean ground speeds were estimated at 63 kph in spring, 58 kph in fall. The capacity of this plover for nonstop flight remains unknown; however our results indicate that it exceeds 5 days. All 20 birds nested in southerly parts of the Alaska breeding range, from the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta to nearly the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, indicating major migratory connectivity between Hawaii and those regions. Geolocator archives during the time birds were on breeding grounds showed periods of successive days with erratic light level patterns (“noise”). Such noise seemed a clear indicator of nesting activities, and also of hatching success or failure.

This year, the Pukorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre near Auckland, New Zealand, succeeded in placing tiny satellite tracking devices on three plover, and they are now tracking the migration of the three birds, dubbed Amanda, Jojo and Jim.

Here’s their latest report:

All three of the Kuriri – or Pacific Golden Plovers – we fitted with satellite tags have been successfully tracked across the Pacific and are now well on their way to their breeding grounds in the Arctic.

Amanda and JoJo are both now resting and refuelling in Japan after their record-breaking flights of almost 10,000km from P?korokoro Miranda to Japan’s main island of Honshu. Jim, who left a couple of weeks later, has just landed on the island of Guam, in Micronesia, after flying some 7,500km.

Amanda touched down not far from Tokyo on 16 April after an eight-day non-stop flight. JoJo, reached Japan on the 20th after flying at least 9,990km, which is the longest recorded flight for a PGP. Jim finally left on 23 April and seems to have reached Guam on 2 May. It is likely that Amanda and JoJo will stay in Japan for around three weeks, resting and refuelling, before heading for their nesting grounds which are probably be in Alaska. Jim, however, looks to be from Siberia so he will probably continue to follow a different timetable.

You can follow them on Facebook, and can also track them live via Google Earth, which is very cool.

You can watch with us as we follow the Pacific Golden Plovers on their journey up to the arctic to breed and back to us in summer. Download Google Earth and use the interactive maps to see exactly where the Kuriri are.

Keep up with the latest at “Where’s Goldie?”

HPD joins Honolulu 311 service

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Reports of non-emergency incidents can now be sent to the Honolulu Police Department using the Honolulu 311 app on your smartphone, the city announced in an email blast this morning.

If you’ve never used the app, it’s a pretty good system. I previously filed several reports using the 311 app, including reporting new graffiti in the neighborhood and, in another instance, water gushing from a broken sprinkler head at Waialae Beach Park. In both cases the Parks Department responded quickly, provided updates, and corrected the problems with little delay. So adding HPD to the mix seems quite a good move.

The free app is available for Apple’s iOS or Android mobile devices.

You can also make reports from your computer computer via the Honolulu 311 website.

Here’s the city’s email sent this morning:

As of today, we’re excited to announce that the Honolulu 311 mobile application is now being used by Honolulu Police Department to report non emergency issues, such as: Homeless Concerns, Parking Issues, Abandoned Property, and more. In addition, to make the app more user friendly, we now support submitting Service Requests without requiring a photo or video (although it really helps us when you do!). Also, you can now choose to submit reports anonymously, however, this may decrease our ability to contact you if our staff has follow up questions. Please note, if you’re already logged into the app, you’ll have to first sign out before you can begin using the app anonymously.

HPD’s website provides additional details.

The HPD service requests will include:

• Illegal parking – No blocking fire hydrant or driveway

• Homeless concerns

• Noise complaints – Vehicle alarms, construction

• Abandoned Property – Excluding vehicles/mopeds

• Gang/Drug Activity

• Game house/Gambling

• Traffic complaints

• Submit a Crime Tip (Set to Private by Default)

• Graffiti

Users will be able to view nearby requests from other users. There is an option to “Keep Request Confidential” so only you and the city can view the request and status. Or you may report anonymously.

HPD also has this warning prominently posted: DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE IF THIS IS AN EMERGENCY AND/OR IF YOU REQUIRE IMMEDIATE POLICE SERVICE. CALL 911 FOR ASSISTANCE.

Guarding against hacking gets more complicated

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My post yesterday describing someone’s attempt to get access to my Facebook account brought a very interesting response from longtime techie Ryan Ozawa.

I’m taking the liberty of reposting his comment here, both because it describes a hacking technique I’m sure most people are not aware of, and for the great advice it offers on how to defend your online accounts.

Here’s Ryan’s comment:

Two-factor authentication is a must these days, and SMS-based codes are better than nothing. But this post is pretty timely for me, in that my Instagram account was hacked and stolen last month through SIM hijacking, also known as port-out scams.

The security of SMS as a second factor (“something you have,” your phone) is only as secure as your mobile phone carrier account. Someone called AT&T, pretended to be me, and had my phone number disconnected and assigned to a phone SIM they controlled. Bam, all accounts secured by text message were vulnerable. Fortunately (!), my hacker was only after one.

This is a great series of articles on these phone hacks. The one about Instagram is exactly what happened to me.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/topic/sim-hijacking

You’ll definitely want to read the one on how to protect yourself from SIM hijacking. Short version? Set a separate PIN for account changes with your mobile carrier. And don’t use SMS as a second factor if there’s another option, usually a separate authentication app like Authy or using a VOIP service as your number like Google Voice (no SIMs to hack).

I was able to get my account back, against all odds, and was lucky. I lost all my photos posted since 2010, though. Starting over now.