WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
I was just watching a video of someone sharpening a pencil with a numerically controlled lathe. I guess it must qualify as serious overkill.
Presumably, there are a lot of second hand lathes out there in the US, these days. There aren't any left in the UK, ours were all sold for scrap in the early 1980s. ("Lathes are sooo passe, darling...") That means that we can't re-industrialise in the UK, even if we wanted to. Neither the means of production, nor the skills to use the tools, are out there any more.
Our government is, however, very good at giving bankers massive bonuses as a reward for wrecking the banks they were in charge of.
All, however, is not doom and gloom. Careful searching with a large magnifying glass revealed at least one non-gloomy story. I've included it in this issue, since causing your readers to commit suicide because of an unremitting diet of gloomy stories is considered to be bad form.
More importantly, it brings the readership numbers down.
So, here we go...
Shorts:
Evidence is seeping out of a new major credit card breach. For some weird reason the credit card companies are refusing to state which card processor has been compromised. The breach seems to have mainly affected credit unions, judging from the reports coming in of card replacements. The fraudulent transactions seem to mainly be pre-paid phone cards, gift cards, and money orders from Wal-Mart.
Until the card processor company comes clean, or the card companies decide to finger the processor, we won't know either the full extent of the breach, or who was responsible. Unless, of course, if someone comes up with a class action...
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/02/another-credit-card-processor-
breached-fraud-extent-unknown.ars
OSNews has some interesting slides from a presentation by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. They show two pieces of crucial information. The first was that Microsoft considers Linux to be more of a competitor than Apple. The second was that Linux and Apple pale into insignificance beside the threat of unlicensed use of Windows - ie commercial piracy.
Balmer was pretty blunt about the problem. He said, "Number two market share goes to Windows pirated, or unlicensed. That's a competitor that's tough to beat, they've got a good price and a heck of a product, but we're working on it."
You can't put it much more clearly than that!
http://osnews.com/story/21035/Ballmer_Linux_Bigger_Competitor_than_Apple
The three way war between cell phone makers, service providers and application vendors is heating up. At stake is who 'owns' the customers.
The service providers want to own and control what the customers can do, otherwise they will be reduced to the status of a mere utility.
The handset manufacturers want to add features, so that they can build a brand reputation in a notoriously fickle market. The most desirable features are those which allow the users to do their own thing. Take a look at the ongoing iPhone unlocking war if you don't believe me.
The people who write applications for the smart phones want to build up a customer base for future applications. And the most desirable applications are the ones that give the users a measure of freedom from the handset manufacturers and the service providers!
And the customers? They want to control their own phone, switch providers at the drop of a hat, and they want cool applications. They want it all, they want it now, and they want it for free :)
So, into this quagmire, steps Nokia with its new N97 handset - complete with Skype software. Skype software allows phone calls to be made over the internet. Orange and O2, in particular, consider that this will siphon away profitable cell usage, and have dug their heels in. They won't carry the handset unless the Skype stuff is removed
Other service providers, such as T-Mobile and '3' have gone some way to embracing the idea of internet telephony (aka VoIP). After all most of the current generation of smart phones come equipped with WiFi networking. VoIP is the obvious use of this facility.
How this will play out remains to be seen, but the fact that some of the service providers have already broken ranks suggests that the service provider hold-outs won't be the winners.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/02/cellular-providers-want-nokia-to-
drop-skype-from-cell-phones.ars
The case of San Francisco's most notorious system admin, Terry Childs, who was banged up in jail for refusing to hand over the passwords for the city's FiberWan network to people he felt weren't qualified, has now reached court, and some interesting facts are starting to emerge.
It turns out that when he refused to divulge the password, there were not only people who didn't work for the San Francisco IT department present, but also there was an open speaker phone connection with unknown people at the other end!
From the sound of it, the guy in charge of the IT department is a complete security illiterate who should be sacked forthwith. More revelations in this truly fascinating trial as they come out.
http://weblog.infoworld.com/venezia/archives/021007.html
And talking of trials, the PirateBay trial is still rumbling on, with the prosecutor still shuffling round the charges in an effort to get something that makes sense onto the charge sheet. The sentence "All components are necessary for users of the service are able to share files with one another." has now been removed.
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's (IFPI) CEO John Kennedy took to the stand this week, and admitted that although he has been the boss of the IFPI for over ten years, he only understood the BitTorrent technology in, "very vague terms". This is what we in the trade call 'the blind leading the blind'.
If the trial goes on much longer there won't be anything left to try!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/25/pirate_bay_prosecutors_amendments/
In the US, telecoms companies are suddenly discovering that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is about to fine over 600 of them US$20,000 apiece for failing to file details of how they protect subscriber information, including the numbers that subscribers call.
I guess the telcos thought the FCC was just making gestures when the new rules were introduced in the wake of the HP bugging and pretexting scandal. How wrong can you get! Good work there on the part of the FCC.
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/02/fcc-fines-telcos-for-blowing-off-
data-protection-reports.ars
The curmudgeons amongst my readership will be depressed to know that recent research has shown that sending vowel free text messages on mobile phones is not wrecking children's command of the English language.
A study of 88 Brit kids aged between 10 and 12 has revealed that those who do a lot of texting have better reading skills than those who don't do much texting.
Hmm... Frankly I'd be more convinced if the study had used rather more subjects and took into account how much reading they did, and what their backgrounds were.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/26/txt_spk/
And finally in this section, a blast from the past. Remember in those heady days of President Clinton, the Justice department took Microsoft to court for anti-trust activities? (Hint: it was after the Jurassic era.) Well, the judge in that case is apparently still keeping an eye on whether Microsoft is behaving itself, and she is now looking at the new version of Windows, due out soon (for some definition of 'soon').
Windows 7 is currently in public beta, and U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, is casting her beady eye over the documents relating to it, to see what it involves.
This case is now over eleven years old, and still going on strong!
http://www.crn.com/software/214502927
Homework:
There's a short but interesting article on the Register looking at network-centric warfare. It's by James Harkin and uses the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon as an example.
Over the last 30 or so years the world's militaries have started to integrate ideas on networks and communication into military theory. These ideas are heavily influenced by the cyber-jargon of the 1950s and 60s. They produced the idea of 'smart' mobile units that would swarm round the enemy, with superior communications eliminating the fog of war and superior technology eliminating the enemy's ability to do the same.
These theories have permeated the upper levels of both the US and the Israeli armies and were put to the acid test in the invasion of Lebanon. The were found wanting. For a start, the opposition weren't using sophisticated communications to control their troops. They were, however, using tracking of Israeli communications to piece together what the Israelis were doing. Also the jargon of 'network-centric' warfare, meant that orders were passed down in cyber-gobbledygook, causing even more confusion.
Significantly, the Israelis, unlike many military hierarchies, appear to have learned the lessons, and their recent action in the Gaza strip, shows an entirely different way of fighting, based more on classical military theory, and less on cyber theory and mobile phones.
The question now is whether other armies will learn the lessons, or whether they will only be learned the hard way in actual battle.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/23/james_harkin_cyburbia/
This is only marginally hi-tec, but I thought it was fascinating when the URL was passed on to me. It's an article from Forbes magazine about how water pipes are being fixed without having contractors dig up the roads (leaving the holes there for months).
What Insituform Technologies, who developed the technology, do, is to turn off the water and empty the pipe. They then slide a plastic tube down the pipe, and once it's in place inflate it so it presses up against the existing pipe. The inflated tube then hardens and seals to the pipe, and water can start flowing again.
That's really cool and neat. I just wish someone would tell Thames Water, here in Olde London Towne, all about the modern way to fix leaking pipes. There's nothing picturesque about holes in the road and piles of the legendary, ultra-sticky London clay strewn all over the sidewalks.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/24/insituform-water-robotics-technology-
breakthroughs_insituform.html?partner=technology_newsletter
Looking for a job? Join the club. However if your skills tend in the direction of building and looking after digital material, you might like to slide a little sideways and look at jobs for digital archivists.
Not only are massive amounts of old analog material being converted to digital assets requiring storing and archiving, but more and more regulation, combined with fast moving technology means that more and more material has to be safely stored. Of course, not only does it need storing, it also needs to be able to be retrieved when needed. Something you can't find when you want it might as well not have been saved in the first place!
"Hey, I used to do that sort of thing every day," do I hear you say? Then all you need is a bit of boning up on the more formal aspects of being a digital archivist, and voila - a new skill set for your job search.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/jobs/08starts.html?_r=1
The O'Reilly website has a fascinating interview with Carl Malamud, who has recently launched a grassroots campaign for the office of Public Printer of the United States.
Among other things the Public Printer, as the official head of the Government Printing Office, is responsible for the publication and dissemination of the code of Federal Regulation, the Congressional Record, and the United States Code, as well as a host of other things.
The job has an enormous influence on how and what is made available to the public, and how easy it is to access. Even if you are not interested in Carl's campaign, it's worth reading the interview to find out how one of the key pieces of open government works!
http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2009/02/carl-malamuds-grassroots-campa.html
Geek Toys:
I usually tell you guys about supercomputer type toys. Here's one at the other end of the scale. The SheevaPlug is a fully functional Linux computer that is about the same size as one of those power adapters that plug directly into the wall - 4" x 2.5" x 2" - and it really does plug into the wall in the same way!
It's a completely open design - hardware and software - and contains a 1.2GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM and a similar amount of Flash memory, and it only draws five watts of power. Furthermore the development platform only costs $100 - peanuts in these days of $1,000+ platforms. Sounds like a really nifty device.
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9634061300.html
This definitely is a large geek toy - Sharp's LB-1085 LCD TV - rolling in with 108 inch screen. (That's nine feet for those of you who can't remember their 12 time tables.) So, if you happen to have US$143,000 to spare on your sole unmaxed out credit card, what more could you want?
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/02/25/sharp_108in_lcd_uk/
Scanner: Other Stories
World's coolest pencil sharpener
http://www.buzzfeed.com/reddit/worlds-coolest-pencil-sharpner-vid
UK boffin: Social networking causes cancer, heart attacks, lupus, dementia...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/20/social_networking_heath_threats/
Ad click-through rate lower than previously thought
http://www.physorg.com/news154786609.html
Google blames Gmail outage on data centre collapse
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/25/google_gmail_data_centre_fail/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi, lois, and to Slashdot's daily newsletter for drawing my attention to material used in this issue.
Please send suggestions for stories to alan@ibgames.com and include the words Winding Down in the subject line, unless you want your deathless prose gobbled up by my voracious Spamato spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
1 March 2009
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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