WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
Phew, I'm back after an unpleasant encounter with one of the myriad viruses that seem to be doing the rounds this summer. My thanks to those of you who sent me digital get well soon wishes. I kept the noughts and ones on my bedside table while I was ill.
Talking of illness, at least I survived. I note that a Taiwanese man who had an argument with his wife, died of a heart attack last week, after living in the RS Cyber Cafe in Tansu, Taiwan for three months. Hsu Tai-yang passed the time playing video games, chewing betel nuts, and eating noodles. I suspect McDonalds are thanking their lucky stars that the man wasn't living on a diet of Big Macs!
As usual, I have some varied fare for you this week - everything from mechanical copyright law to whether VoIP wrecks multi-player games, with a dash of Microsoft, big media screams of anguish, and loony snail-mail ideas thrown in for good measure.
So, without further ado...
Shorts:
Sometimes I wonder whether I'm living on the same world as US corporations. Inventerprise LLC has asked the US Postal Service to conduct a trial of Inventerprise's Shelmail e-mail-to-snail-mail addressing system. Oh just great - spam through the front door. Frankly I can't imagine a more stupid idea, all the disadvantages of e-mail combined with all the disadvantages of snail-mail, and none of the advantages. One of the great advantages of e-mail is that it is -not- linked to my personal, physical, address. I think this is the most loony idea I've heard for a long time, and I get to look at some real doozies when I put together Winding Down.
http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/2006/06/07/shelmail_proposes_email_to_snai/index.php
I can't believe it. The first decent proposal for the reform of copyright law for umpteen years comes along and the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) hitch up with the Recording Industry Ass of America (RIAA) to try to sabotage it!
The US Copyright office is trying to put forward a proposal to clean up the way mechanical copyright works for broadcasters and digital media services. It's an excellent proposal that cuts through all the existing tangle of split rights, side agreements and historical antiquities, and sets out a single unified systems.
The RIAA oppose the new proposals because it would effectively remove the high level of control that big media currently exercises over copyright. Clearly, the RIAA can read the history books. The EFF, it seems, don't read history books, so they don't understand either mechanical copyright, or how historically these sort of proposals have freed content from the shackles of existing vested interests.
The ideas of mechanical copyright go back to the pianola - the mechanical piano which ran via a roll of paper with punched holes - at the turn of the last century. At the time the existing music business fought the mechanical copyright laws because they would destroy the existing business model. The idea is that in return for a guaranteed, fixed, copyright fee, an artist is not allowed to limit who, or what, can perform the work.
Very simple, very straightforward, but it cuts out the control of the work by the media companies, which is why they hate the idea so much.
On the other hand, perhaps there is a bright side to the EFF's opposition - the EFF have an impeccable track record of losing out on the campaigns that they support!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/07/another_effing_own_goal/
Oh oh! Things aren't going well in the Microsoft v the EU 'settlement'. I'm using the word 'settlement' in a rather loose sense, I hope you understand, because with each passing week a mutually agreed settlement looks even further away. Last time I looked at this issue, settlement was 'weeks away', now, I note, it's 'months away' according to Microsoft's European President, Jean-Philippe Courtois.
As a result, the EU commission has taken to reminding Microsoft that since Microsoft has failed to provide the required documentation, the two million Euro (US$2.5 million) per day fine is likely to be backdated to last December. The fine may be only pocket money for Microsoft, but I'm sure they would prefer not to pay it. I guess Microsoft are just going to have to provide some real documentation if they want to get out of this one. You never know, it might even prove useful for Microsoft and help them figure out what their software is actually doing!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/06/microsoft_eu_homework/
Now here's a major punch-up in the offing - one that's going to be well worth keeping an eye on. US company Flying J Inc is using technology to strip out commercials from major broadcast and cable companies, and replace those commercials with its own local commercials, and all in real time. The technique is called 'ad subbing', and is being applied to the big screens you see at truck stops round the US.
The media companies are, not unnaturally, furious, and are crying 'foul', and threatening legal action. But what legal action can they take? As Flying J points out, its technology is more like a remote control that allows users to switch away from programming. Its technology doesn't copy, modify, or redistribute the incoming signal, and thus does not constitute copyright infringement.
That's true, very true. So, watcha gonna do about it, Mr Big Media?
http://www.physorg.com/news68999198.html
Oh joy unbounded. Over here in the UK a new project with the harmless sounding name of 'TINA' has been set up to develop the 'intelligent airport', and just to put the cream on the cake, they're going to use RFID chips to track everything.
I thought it wasn't possible to screw up air travel any more than it currently is, but with an 'intelligent' airport the possibilities are limitless. I can see it now, arriving at JFK from Heathrow, and standing by the carousel waiting for my luggage.
"Your luggage sir? It will be here next week. It is on its way via Reykjavik, Cape Town, Moscow, Bejing, Manila, Mandalay, Katmandu, Casablanca, Rio de Janeiro, and Orlando. I think they are using Microsoft AutoRoute to decide how and where to send it...."
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/exBZ0FypUC0FrX0EaMX0Af
Personal Losses:
USA - The names and credit card numbers of nearly a quarter of a million Hotel.com customers were compromised last February after Hotel.com's auditors, Ernst &Young, had a laptop stolen. It has taken until now for the company to get round to telling the 243,000 customers who were compromised as a result. The company claim that there is no need to worry because the computer was password protected. Password protected? What a joke. These people must live in cloud cuckoo land if they think that will make any difference...
USA - A hacker stole a file containing 1,500 names and social security numbers of employees at the Energy Department's nuclear weapons agency. This was last September, and none of the victims has been notified. This seems to me to be yet another case where senior administration officials believe the laws of their country don't apply to civil servants!
USA - The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) admitted this week that it, or to be more accurate, FedEx Corp, had lost a hard drive containing data on all 330,000 of its members. The data is unencrypted on a hard drive, and includes, names, addresses and social security numbers. The drive was sent for repair and was being returned via FedEx when it went AWOL last February. According to FedEx spokesman, Jim McClusky, "At this point we are looking for it as a missing shipment; that doesn't mean it's lost." I think Mr McClusky must have been taking lessons in logic from Lewis Carroll's Red Queen!
Homework:
Those of my readers who play multi-player games (and possibly others who don't) will be interested by an article from my old friend Richard Bartle on gamegirladvance.com. Richard, for those of you who don't know, wrote the original MUD way way back in the 1980s. It was the first MUD ever, and it was the first online game I ever played. You could only play it late at night, because it ran on university computers, and it had a limited number of access lines, so you had to be there as soon as it was open to get in!
Richard's article is about the game design implications of including voice chat in multi-player games. To cut to the chase, he is opposed to it, given the current level of technology. Why? Because it will break the spell. It's difficult to remain immersed in a virtual world when you can hear the real voice of the person you're talking to!
I don't totally agree with Richard, but I think most of his argument is valid. In any case it's well worth a read.
http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2003/07/28/not_yet_you_fools.html
Geek Toys:
This week I have a neat little something for you that will have all your fellow geeks gasping with envy.
How about a carbon fibre and leather Formula 1 mouse mat? It's a snip at UK 260 pounds (about US$400). It's solid, polished, carbon fibre, with a black Italian suede backing and the carbon is embossed with the F1 Formula 1 logo.
Oh, and we mustn't forget the wrapping! As the sales spiel puts it, "Wrapped in F1™ tissue paper and presented in a luxury matt black box subtly highlighted with the F1 Formula 1 logo."
Go for it!
http://f1store.formula1.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=155
Scanner - Other Stories:
Virgin hires robot doctor
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/02/virgin_robot_doctor/
Hotels.com credit card numbers stolen
http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/02/news/companies/hotels.com_theft/index.htm
US DOE personal data stolen
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_DOE_File_Theft.html
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1949014,00.html
CPA group says hard drive with member data missing
http://www.trimmail.com/news/elsewhere/data/1149795156.61/
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1799791142;fp;16;fpid;0
Taiwanese man spends three months in net cafe
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/05/net_cafe_death/
Computer screw-up finds -censored- hard to handle
http://society.guardian.co.uk/localgovt/story/0,,1786189,00.html
Europeans rail against SMS and email tax plan
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/02/european_sms_and_email_tax/
Analyst predicts Intel price war, profit warning
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/ew2y0FypUC0FrK0EZdR0Eu
Getting your site sorted for IE 7
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2006/06/02/support_ie7/
US government Lenovo ban is misguided say security experts.
http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=126ACB0:1F69382
UK NHS IT costs hospitals dear
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/06/nhs_contract_chaos/
EU seeks control of radio spectrum, says report
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/exBZ0FypUC0FrX0EaMJ0AR
Bleak outlook for IT outsourcing
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/06/bleak_outlook_for_govit/
Vista drains the life out of your laptop even faster than XP
http://ct.techrepublic.com.com/clicks?t=2487344-18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to readers Barbara, Fi, James and Sean for drawing my attention to material used in this issue. Please send suggestions for material to alan@ibgames.com.
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
11 June 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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