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EARTHDATE: May 21, 2006

OFFICIAL NEWS
Page 12

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WINDING DOWN

An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton

Phew. It's been a hectic week here in Isleworth, centre of the universe (or not, as the case may be). Our servers - located at the other end of the universe in New Jersey - have been playing up, but things seem to be settling down a bit now, fortunately.

There's some varied fayre for you this week covering Microsoft, Apple, Symantec, Diebold, Dell, and VeriSign among others. In fact, there's rather more than I originally intended, since I got a bit carried away, so let's get straight down to it!


Story: Wither Windows?

I knew that Microsoft's new version of Windows was late - I've mentioned it often enough here - but I hadn't realised just how late until the other day when I came across a timeline published on TechRepublic. Vista, then known as Longhorn, was first touted in 2001, and was being slated for a late 2002 release as a cut down version of a more ambitious project called Blackcomb.

By July 2002 Bill Gates was touting Longhorn as a major breakthrough in Windows technology, but there was still no sign of the product itself. The next significant thing to happen was the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in 2003, which was called Longhorn Professional Developers Conference. However, it still didn't actually feature a working version of Longhorn!

In 2004 Gates announced the target date for shipping Longhorn was 2006, promising important advances in 'performance, security, and reliability'. Nothing much else happened until mid-2005 when Microsoft announced that the new name would be Windows Vista. It was also supposed to be launched in late 2006.

Now, of course, we know that it is not going to be launched until 2007 - early 2007 according to Microsoft, late 2007 according to all the analysts. I know who I would back over when it's going to appear!

The question is, of course, why is it so late?

If you want my opinion, I think that Microsoft has lost control of its operating system. The thing is so massive, and the different bits so intertwined, that it no longer knows what's going on. This also explains the problems the company's having with the EC and the US DoJ over documenting the interfaces for third party developers.

Forget the stupidity of the corporate leadership of Microsoft over the licences and fees. The bottom line is that they are finding it almost impossible to document their unbelievably convoluted interfaces. If they are having this amount of trouble documenting the interfaces, what do you think the chances are of anyone understanding the code behind the interfaces?

The truth is that Windows is out of control and Microsoft is riding a tiger. It daren't let go of the existing code and develop anew because of the number of applications that depend on the bugs and idiosyncrasies of the current system. But if it continues with the current code, then time between new releases it going to carry on growing geometrically. At this rate we can expect to see Windows Vista's successor sometime around 2020...

http://ct.techrepublic.com.com/clicks?t=2355221-
18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0


Shorts:

Oh dear, it was sue and sue again this week. Apple may have won the first round of its legal tussle with the Beatles UK record company, but that didn't mean it was out of the lawsuit frying pan. Early in the week Creative made good on their sabre rattling over the last year and filed a suit alleging that the iPod violates Creative's intellectual property. Creative, it seems, has a patent that covers selecting songs using a side scrolling menu system.

By the end of the week Apple had hit back and counter-sued. So far they haven't revealed any details, but no doubt we will find out soon.

While all this was going on Symantec was taking the bold step of suing Microsoft over the alleged infringement of Symantec's Volume manager technology. What's special about this is that Symantec is also trying to obtain an injunction against Microsoft that would probably halt the much delayed launch of Vista. (I'll overlook the suggestions that Microsoft might have somehow tried to get this to happen so that it has a cast iron excuse, unrelated to its development processes, to postpone Vista yet again!)

Frankly, surveying the scene, I'm irresistibly reminded of children's squabbles in the school playground...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/19/symantec_vs_microsoft/
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/19/apple_sues_creative/
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/ewe70FypUC0FrK0EXBk0EU
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/16/creative_sues_apple/

In other Apple news, serious flaws have been revealed which could cause security problems for users. On Thursday Apple released a list of no less than 31 flaws covering the Mac OS X operating system and the QuickTime media player. You can find updates and patches on the Apple Downloads Web site.

In a probably unrelated move Apple has removed the Mac OS X Intel based open source code from its web site. Although it could be to do with trying to hide vulnerabilities, most observers seem to feel that what is really worrying Apple is the code being used to port OS X to cheap Windows boxes. The bottom line for Apple is that it makes hardware. It doesn't mind you running other software - like Windows - on Apple hardware, but it draws the line at helping others to run its software on someone else's hardware!

And finally in this round up, reports are filtering out that Apple is digging its heels in over the attempts by the French to open up Apple's Digital Restriction Management (DRM) to Apple's competitors. The French have backed off somewhat from the original proposals, but, it seems, not enough to satisfy the Apple powers that be. Who will win? Only time will tell.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/12/french_drm_concessions/
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/17/apple_closes_key_x86_osx_code/
http://ct.techrepublic.com.com/clicks?t=2319702-
18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0

In a long predicted move Dell have decided to start shipping servers that use non-Intel (in this case AMD) processors. Dell have long resisted using AMD processors in spite of their increasing popularity, especially the multi-core server chips which use less power than their Intel equivalents. Dell have long held out as an Intel only shop, but, as Bob Dylan once said, "The Times they Are A-Changin'", and AMD now controls over 10 per cent of the market. It will be interesting to see how much this latest decision by the largest supplier of PCs will increase AMD's market share.

http://ct.news.com.com/clicks?t=2352752-
18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0

I mentioned earlier that Microsoft was having difficulty in convincing the European Commission (EC) that it was properly documenting the Application Interfaces to Windows. It turns out that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has similar doubts about the same issue. Big enough doubts, in fact that the Judge overseeing the anti-trust settlement has extended the monitoring of the settlement by two years.

Ironically enough, at the same time as Microsoft is insisting to the EC that its documentation is adequate, it is admitting to the DoJ that its documentation program needed "a reset". One can only assume that they think the bureaucrats of the EC can't read the US press!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/18/ms_antitrust_compliance_extension/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/12/microsoft_doj_extension/

One piece of very bad news that emerged this week was that VeriSign is tightening its stranglehold on the market for issuing Security Certificates. These certificates are needed for secure web severs, among other things, and VeriSign charges a hefty price for them, as well as making applicants jump through hoops.

They bought up their only other major competitor, Thawte, a few years back, and now they are buying the remaining significant competitor, GeoTrust which has most of the market that VeriSign doesn't yet control. This deal will give VeriSign a stranglehold on the e-commerce market, since certificate holders have to go back for a new certificate every year. The prognosis is not good.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/18/verisign_geotrust_acquisition/

I wouldn't have thought you could fake silicon chip designs, but that's exactly what has happened in China. A senior academic, Chin Jin of Shanghai Jiaotong University, has been dismissed for faking an entire series of chips, spanning four generations, in order to get state funding. An enquiry was launched after someone spilled the beans on the scam. That's totally amazing when you think about - didn't anyone notice that the chips weren't working?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/15/chinese_chip_fake_claims/

Bad news for my US readers. New, and very serious, problems have been found with Diebold voting machines. It seems that if you know what you are doing, you can use a company provided back door to change the voting machine's programming. With this you could reprogram the machine to drop votes cast for certain candidates and add them to other candidates totals.

I don't understand why US voters don't object to these machines - even the fruit machines at Las Vegas have more stringent legal requirements than the machines that take and record the ballots for the people being elected!

http://www.theregister.com/2006/05/14/diebold_e-voting_flaw/


Personal Losses:

UK - ISP Wanadoo managed to mis-configure its web servers so that hackers could obtain customer data including names and password.

Japan - A Japanese nuclear power station run by Chubu Electric power managed to leak personal information about its security personal, and other security data, via a file sharing virus. This is the second such incident this year.


Geek Toys:

Here's a little something that looks nice - video sunglasses. An Israeli technology company has developed a personal video display that looks just like a pair of sunglasses (though the article about them didn't have a picture...).

I confess I'm more than a little suspicious about this story, it has a distinct whiff of hype about it. Apart from anything else the company name, Mirage Innovations, isn't guaranteed to inspire confidence. And then there is the technique used which the company have called 'NanoPrism' technology - a dodgy name if I ever heard one. Perhaps, it's all done with smoke and mirrors :)

http://www.physorg.com/news67098809.html


Scanner - Other Stories:

IT: the world's most stressful profession
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/16/most_stressful_profession/

Copyright reforms strike a balance in Oz
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/16/oz_copyright_reforms/

LibDems attack UK National Health Service IT programme
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/19/libdems_attack_npfit/

US State department pulls China-made PCs from secure networks
http://www.physorg.com/news67185357.html

Banish those mislaid ex-offender blues with ID Card!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/17/id_card_prison_deportations/

Wanadoo in customer data security flap
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/18/wanadoo_security_flap/

Japanese power plant secrets leaked by virus
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/17/japan_power_plant_virus_leak/


Acknowledgements:

Thanks to readers Barbara, Fi and John for drawing my attention to material used in this issue.

Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
21 May 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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