The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: September 23, 2007

Official News page 13


WINDING DOWN

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

Greetings from sunny London. Summer has made a belated appearance over here - we've had most of this year's summer over the last month, something which is confusing the hell out of the local flora and fauna.

I recently got a note through about a new project from Bentham Science Publishers. They've launched a series of Open Access Journals - peer reviewed publications, free to read on the Internet and full text. It sounds interesting, and one of the titles due for launch is 'The Open Information Systems Journal'. I for one will be following this to see how well it works. Point your browser of preference at www.bentham.org/open/ for more information.

Reader Ken took me up over the Google/AdBlock story last week pointing out that the Google ads aren't the banner ads that AdBlock normally blocks. That's true; although AdBlock can block Google text style ads, it isn't normally used for that purpose. Perhaps that's the basis on which Google, Firefox and AdBlock co-exist?

I got a leaflet through the door the other day advertising on-line plumbing training. Apart from the large sums of money it suggested I could earn as a plumber (I'm clearly in the wrong business!), I was fascinated to discover that it was offering online training that you could carry out from the comfort of you own home! The course offered 'Unique 3D interactive virtual reality software for real-world plumbing experience'.

I wonder how they synthesise the smells?

Here in the UK we had our first bank crash since the 1860's. The most fascinating thing about it was looking at pictures of the queues of middle aged and elderly people waiting to draw out their savings. There were hardly any young people. Why not? Therein lies the rub. It's not that trendy young things don't save (although often they don't), it's that they, being trendy young things, do the Internet banking thing, maaaan. Oh, and by the way, the bank web site was unavailable for the whole duration of the crisis! Sometimes Mama really does know best :)

And so on to the week's business, the highlight of which was undoubtedly the decision of one of the EU courts to slap Microsoft's wrists for anti-monopoly violations. The matter was widely covered and analysts declared that it was:

1. The best thing since sliced bread.
2. Irrelevant since Microsoft is, like, so uncool man.
3. The worst thing since the Inquisition stopped torturing people.
4. Everything in between.

I've picked out some different views for people to look, should they not yet be completely sated by Micropunditry - the URLs are in the Scanner section.

And as for the rest of the news, starting with a look at security issues that nearly got lost in the Microsoft mongering...


Security Roundup:

News of massive customer data losses emerged this week when online broker Ameritrade revealed that one of their database had been hacked, putting the information for 6.3 million customers at risk. The company claimed that the hackers didn't seem to have copied more sensitive information, including account and social security numbers in the same database. This seem to me to be a pretty implausible claim!

While not quite on the scale of TJX data thefts (42 million credit card numbers) this is a lot of information to be stolen. Not only that, it has emerged that the company has known about the breach since at least May, when two of its customers sued the broker because they were receiving spam on accounts only used for Ameritrade. It's now late September and Ameritrade have only just fessed up. That's four months it's taken then to come clean and fix the problem. Definitely not good enough.

Still on the subject of computer security, I note that California are tightening up their laws on data security by insisting businesses storing payment related data have to have a data retention and disposal policy which limits the amount of data held. It also mandates, among other things, that data cannot be sent over the Internet unless it is, 'encrypted using strong cryptography and security protocols or otherwise rendered indecipherable'. It says a lot for the sloppy habits of businesses that it's necessary to mandate encryption.

Stepping down to the level of the PC, the CEO of Symantec, John Thompson, speaking to the EU regulators about privacy, attacked the misuse of browser cookies, which he claimed, 'are just as much an invasion of privacy as someone peering in my bedroom window.' Well, yes, as it happens I agree. But perhaps the it would sound a little less hypocritical if Symantec's web site stopped using cookies...

Meanwhile, reports are coming in of new vulnerabilities affecting Windows, IE and media players. The problems are caused by sloppy programming in Microsoft Foundation Classes, a framework provided by Microsoft for writers of applications for Windows. It seems there's a buffer overflow problem with the code that handles searches across the file system. There aren't any reports of viruses using this as I go to press, but I'd guess it's only a matter of time.

Incidentally, have you bought a new laptop recently? From Medion by any chance? Yes? Guess what - it's probably infected with the 13 year old boot sector Stoned.Angelina virus! Yes, I know the machines are shipped with Bullguard anti-virus software. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have heard of this virus. Oooops!

And at an even lower level, security researchers have identified ways in which the timing of instructions in the new generation of multi-core processors can be manipulated to allow breaches of security.

All in all, it doesn't make for very happy reading. Hopefully one day I'll be able to announce some good news on the security front.

http://www.physorg.com/news109071529.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/17/vista_hit_by_stoned_angelina/
http://www.physorg.com/news109438184.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/18/california_security_breach_bill/
http://www.physorg.com/news109353010.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/19/new_vulnerability_reports/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/14/system_call_sploits/


Shorts:

Apple have finally backed down over the Danish Consumer Complaints Board (CCB) report saying that there is a design flaw in the iBook G4. The CCB originally investigated the iBook because of complaints by Danes to the effect that the computers lose power and the screens go blank after about a year. According to the CCB this was caused a soldered joint loosening when the power is turned on or off. Eventually the joint breaks and the machine stops working.

Apple have been disputing the conclusions for several months now, although there is evidence that not only Danes have been affected by this problem. Now it has decided to cooperate with the CCB and refund the customers with faulty iBooks - although, in true Apple style, it refuses to admit any fault. Lets hope this encourages Apple to pay more attention to quality assurance in the future.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/20/apple_refunds_ibook_g4_in_denmark/

And while we are on the subject of Apple, the fallout from the options backdating scandal continues with a subpoena served on Steve Jobs to testify at the trial of Nancy Heinen, Apple's former top lawyer. I'll be interested to see how this one pans out, with Steve Jobs facing a hostile SEC lawyer, rather than an adoring Mac fan club.

For those of you who missed it, Apple, and a whole bunch of other high profile US hi-tech and other companies were caught fiddling the books to make share options for their executives more valuable. Share options are a way of giving staff of a company bonuses in a situation where shares are rising in price. What they do is give you the option to buy the shares at the price they were on the day they were granted. The idea is that you can then buy them at a later date when the prices have gone up, immediately sell them at the current price, and pocket the difference!

The crucial factor is when the options were issued, because that determines the buying price. Apple, and other companies, were caught red handed fiddling the minutes of board meetings to backdate the issue of the shares to an earlier period when the price of the shares was lower. Lower buying price = more profit. Very simple - illegal too. Naughty Apple!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/20/jobs_apple_backdating_subpoena/

Telephone services went out this week for 130,000 residents of Hays County Texas, following a determined attack by a swarm of bees! It seems that the swarm attacked a construction worker, who jumped off his tractor to escape, and in so doing knocked against one of the control levers. The lever dropped the tractor's auger and it sliced through one of the main fibre optic lines, taking out land lines, cellular phones and 911 emergency services.

One has to ask why everything was going through a single fibre optic cable with no redundancy? In the event, service was restored after a seven hour break, but the question remains, and I'm sure the locals will be asking it and other hard questions. In the mean time rumour has it that Texan disaster recovery managers are seeking to recruit apiarists to their teams :)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5148125.html

Remember Moore's Law? In 1965 Gordon E Moore predicted that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double roughly every two years. He was right - that's exactly what has happened. Moore was the founder of Intel, and is still the company's chairman emeritus, and he took the stage at the Intel Developer Forum this week to offer his thoughts on everything from cubicles to ecology. You can read an excerpt from the fascinating material here:

http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBDC40FypUC0FrK0FWZi0EU

It looks like we could be in for a new ultra-fast version of the ubiquitous USB connector. The current version, USB 2.0 has a data transfer rate of around 450 Mbits/sec, but now a new consortium is producing a spec for USB 3.0 which will run at around 2.4 Gbits/sec. Since the companies involved in the consortium currently include Intel, HP, Microsoft, NEC NXP and Texas Instruments, I'd say this one is likely to fly. I wonder how long before desktop connections are fibre-optics, rather than copper wire?

http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBDC40FypUC0FrK0FWZh0ET
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/09/19/idf_usb_3_announced/

MySpace (prop. NewsCorp) have come up with a crafty new wheeze to make money. They plan to use the personal details contained in user profiles and blogs to sell what is described as highly targeted advertising. I nearly snurfed my coffee when I read this one.

No one, but no one, dahling, tells the truth on the net.

I suspect a more accurate description would be 'highly inappropriate advertising'!

Gypsy Bella Lee peers into her pure silicon crystal ball. 'The future is murky... But wait it's clearing, I see an interesting time coming soon. I see a future where many middle aged men are having to explain to their wives just why they, the husbands, have started receiving spam for teenage lingerie of a rather unusual design...'

http://www.physorg.com/news109399530.html


RoundUp: Of Microsoft & Money

Why Microsoft vs Mankind still matters
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/21/microsoft_vs_mankind/

European court dealt a severe blow to Microsoft's competitive ambitions in Europe Monday
http://ct.news.com.com/clicks?t=40190326-18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0

With Microsoft ruling, a precedent for IT in Europe
http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=198BF41:
215D3E184FC552DC6E5D63B735E50E04EFF29049075316B4

EU victory leaves questions for Vista
http://www.physorg.com/news109319542.html

What does Microsoft's European defeat mean?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/18/microsoft_lost_appeal_impact/


Scanner: Other stories

Google's Secret Patent Portfolio Predicts gPhone
http://update.techweb.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBDHz0HiOOq0G4V0FWv80ER

Countervailing forces propel patent reform
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBC580FypUC0FrK0FWCV0Eb

Intel offers vision on the future of virtual worlds
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBDIU0FypUC0FrK0FWxo0Ej

Supermicro debuts super quiet server blade
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/19/supermicro_debuts_officeblade/

Mozilla creates start-up to recruit email developers
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/09/18/mozilla_thunderbird/


Acknowledgements

Thanks to readers Barb, DJ and Fi for drawing my attention to material used in this issue. Please send suggestions for material to alan@ibgames.com.

Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
23 September 2007

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


Fed2 Star index Previous issues Fed 2 home page