WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
It's a slightly shorter issue this week - with my real life work moving into beta-test the pressure is on.
You know, I think Borland must either think its customers are incredibly stupid, or simply don't read the trade press. This week I received a letter inviting me to spend a cool 480 UK pounds (about US$800) upgrading my copy of C++ Builder Professional. Have they forgotten that just a couple of months ago they announced that they were getting rid of it to anyone who wanted to buy it?
On a non-IT topic, I was fascinated to see that fossils of sabre tooth kangaroos, ten foot tall birds, and tree-climbing crocs have been discovered in Australia. Plenty of material there for a 'Jurassic Park Meets Crocodile Dundee' film, I suspect!
And before we go on to this week's stories, here is an advance warning - I will be taking my summer break the week after next, so there will be no Winding Down on July 29 or August 6. I'll be back again on August 13.
Shorts:
The big story of the week was undoubtedly the US$357 million fine levied on Microsoft by the EU. It generated masses of comment and analysis, but little that hasn't been said before. I've covered the issue extensively before several times in this column, so I'm not going to repeat what I've already said. I've just rounded up a representative sample of the reports for people who've been living on Mars for the past year!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/10/ec_ms_fine/
http://ct.news.com.com/clicks?t=2869130-18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/12/microsoft_ec_fine_analysis/
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/ex2x0FypUC0FrX0EevS0AZ
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/12/commission_announces_fine/
I was pleased to note that the realities of the net and computers are gradually penetrating into the high echelons of the education system. The University of California-Santa Cruz has approved a new science major in computer game design. Only a couple of problems. For a start, game design is not yet a science - game programming is, but not design. Secondly a quick scan of the blurb reveals that the course mostly consists of material about artistic technique, programming technique, etc. Doesn't seem to be much on design!
It reminds me of when I was at school. The stage lighting for the school play was always given to the physics teacher, because it involved electricity!
http://www.physorg.com/news71908189.html
Over here in Europe the war over software patents is about to break out anew. Last year the European Parliament threw out an attempt to make patents more like the US system, which everyone admits is badly broken. Now the EU internal market commissioner McCreevy is trying a new route - by establishing a new European Patent Court. This attempt at an end run round the European Parliament hasn't gone unnoticed by his opponents, and, amid cries of 'foul', a campaign is being organised against the idea.
I will report on this in more detail as information becomes available, but in the meantime I'm reminded of a discussion I once had with a very experienced local politician. "Once the government bureaucrats decide to do something it never dies," he told me. "When you defeat them they merely stick the plans into a filing cabinet until there is a change of administration. Then they bring the plans back out, dust them off, make a few cosmetic changes, and try to get them through again."
He was talking about a proposal to drive a six lane highway through the middle of a residential area, but over the years I've discovered that this observation applies to virtually everything which touches transnational, national and local bureaucracies...
http://lwn.net/Articles/191287
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/11/patent_litigation_treaty/
The results of two interesting surveys on mobile phones came out this week. The first was a survey of 15,000 'faulty' phones which revealed that 63 per cent of the one in seven mobile phones that are returned as faulty have nothing wrong with them!
I'm not surprised. Most people want a mobile phone for talking to other people, but it's virtually impossible to get a phone that just does that these days. Cameras, text messaging, Bluetooth links, data facilities and the like are de rigeure. And as for this year's new thing - mobile television... No wonder people can't figure out to use the ornery beasts.
The second survey only reinforced the fact that phones are too complex for users. It revealed that nearly half the people who used mobile phone data services for the first time during the 2006 World Cup say they won't ever use mobile data again! Cost and ease or use (or lack thereof) were the two most frequently cited reasons.
All in all, it doesn't make good reading for the mobile phone companies who are desperate to sell extra services over and above the basic telephony. I really do feel for them. Honest. Well... Maybe not :)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/11/mobile_virgins/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/13/no_fault_found/
A few issues back when discussing Vista, the next version of the Microsoft Windows operating system, I predicted that it would fail to meet its latest January 2007 launch date. Sadly no one would take me up on a bet to that effect. Now evidence for my prediction has come from the horse's mouth. Well, from Bill Gates' mouth anyway. This week Gates told partners in South Africa that there was an 80 per cent chance that Vista would be ready in January. My sums say that means he is already admitting a 20 per cent chance that it won't make it...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/12/windows_vista_gates_delay/
The FBI is suffering from severe problems with its IT systems according to a string of recent reports. Problems include managerial blunders, financial indiscretions, hacking and hundreds of millions of dollars in written off projects. Now the beleaguered agency is asking Congress for US$100 million for the start of another attempt to get its IT systems fixed. Given that this comes more or less at the same time as a government contractor goes down for three years for successfully using his network admin privileges to crack 30,000 user names and passwords, I suspect that some people are going to be looking very closely at the request.
http://ct.techrepublic.com.com/clicks?t=2893394-18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0
And talking of IT-clueless government organisations, over on this side of the pond the UK's very own Foreign and Commonwealth Office is attempting to force its former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, to remove a collection of documents from his web site. The offending documents are supporting material for his book 'Murder in Samarkand'. Murray was removed as the ambassador for helping to expose vicious human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.
The net result of the government's attempts to force Murray to remove the files is, of course, that they have now been replicated far and wide over the Internet - and of course Murray's revelations are being far more widely disseminated that they would otherwise have been. Classic!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/10/murray_fco_injunction/
Windows 98 and ME are dead! Long live Windows XP! This week Microsoft announced that it would no longer provide support or security fixes for Windows 98 or ME. The problem is that both are riddled with bugs - security or otherwise - and by general consensus there are somewhere between 50 and 70 million computers running the two operating systems out there.
Can you imagine what the furore would be like if Ford announced that it wasn't taking any more responsibility for cars over seven years old, and that it was not producing any more spares, or fixing faults in the original design and engineering?
I think it's long overdue for software companies to be pulled up for abandoning customers in this fashion. Perhaps a law that the code for such abandoned programs must be placed free into the public domain would encourage the perps to think again, or at least provide some opportunity for third parties to take up the slack.
http://ct.techrepublic.com.com/clicks?t=2870935-18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0
Personal Losses:
US - The Federal Trade Commission is notifying 110 people that two laptops containing their personal data were stolen. The data included Social Security numbers, birth dates and possibly financial account numbers.
US - A contractor installed hacking software in the FBI's computer system and cracked 30,000 agency user names and passwords.
Scanner - Other Stories:
Fantastic error message!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/13/fish4_goes_down/
34 states sue DRAM companies
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/ex3Z0FypUC0FrK0EeyE0Ek
Dell savaged over unacceptable Terms and Conditions
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/08/dell_oft/
FTC laptops stolen, along with personal data
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/06/23/79580_HNftclaptops_1.html
UK Extends Data Protection Overseas
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/ex2x0FypUC0FrX0EevE0AL
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/12/outsourced_data_protection/
US moves to restricts online gambling
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/12/house_bans_gambling/
Backdated share options task force probes Bay Area companies
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/ex3Z0FypUC0FrK0EeyD0Ej
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to readers Barbara, Carl, Fi, and Jon for drawing my attention to material used in this issue. Please send suggestions for material to alan@ibgames.com.
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
16 July 2006
Alan Lenton is an on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist. His web site is at http://www.ibgames.net/alan.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
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