WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
I was travelling on London's Piccadilly (my spelling checker suggests 'Peccadillo') Line tube (subway to my American readers) the other day, when a notice from the police asking people witnessing a crime to contact them caught my eye. Actually, it was the logo that I found interesting - an outline of a video camera and a helicopter. To me it seemed to symbolise the inappropriate use of technology that seems to permeate everything these days.
One of the reasons there is more crime on the tube lines and busses is because they no longer have conductors on either type of transport. Instead there is a reliance on technology, video cameras in particular, to provide information. Doesn't work, of course. To deal with criminals you need police. Same on the roads - traffic laws are routinely flouted in this country, because there are no longer any traffic police, just speed cameras.
Still, at least my journey was livened up by mental images of the police trying to fly their helicopter down the tube tunnel to arrest a perp!
Happy Birthday!
Yesterday (June 21st) marked the 60th anniversary of the first stored program computer - The Small Scale Experimental Machine, a.k.a. 'Baby' - in the UK's Manchester University.
Unlike earlier machines, Baby was a general purpose computer. It could change what it was doing by storing different programs in its capacious 128 byte memory. Yes, that's bytes, not megabytes, or even kilobytes. Previous computers were dedicated to a single task - ENIAC computed artillery trajectories and Colossus decrypted Enigma messages - and you had to re-wire the hardware if you wanted to change the program.
Baby changed all that by storing its programs in memory, and so became the one ton predecessor of all modern computers - including the desktop and laptop PCs on which you are reading this newsletter.
The URL includes a clip from the BBC's announcement of the computer. It's well worth a listen - it's a classic piece of period reporting.
Also released by the BBC to coincide with the 60th anniversary is the earliest recording of a piece of computer music. It consists of a chunk of the UK National Anthem (a true dirge if there ever was one), 'Baa Baa Black Sheep', and part of the song 'In the Mood'.
You can hear it on the second URL, and it sounds like the technicians were having a ball recording it. Nice to know that using computers for 'frivolous' purposes goes back to the dawn of computer history!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7465115.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7458479.stm
Shorts:
I see that ministers and officials from the OED group of countries have issued a proclamation agreeing to make the Internet more accessible and 'safe'. Lest anyone be under any illusions, perhaps I should explain that when politicians talk about making the Internet 'safe' they are referring to a process of neutering it so that it can't be used for anything they don't like. In particular, it means making sure that it can't be used to mobilise opposition to their policies and re-election!
http://www.physorg.com/news133011331.html
Well, my congratulations to Stockholm's Umea University, who have managed to get a computer powerful enough to run Windows Vista! The beast, nicknamed 'Akka', incorporates IBM power processors, Cell Broadband Engines, and Intel processors to make it roughly 3,000 times faster than yer average laptop. At 46 trillion calculations per second it's possible that its users might be able to turn on Vista's Aero 3-D interface...
http://www.physorg.com/news133019027.html
With four appeals from national bodies to the ISO in the works, and an inability to program Office to handle its own OXML document format, Microsoft appears to be conceding defeat on the open document standards front. In fact, Microsoft's own national technology officer, Stuart McKee said as much during a panel discussion at the Red Hat Summit in Boston this week. Referring to Microsoft's decision to support the Open Source ODF standard, but not its own OXML standard in next year's new version of Office, he said, "ODF has clearly won."
I doubt that anyone, least of all the Microsoft Office programmers, will shed a tear over the demise of the horrendously complex OXML standard. Of course, Microsoft have a long history of 'embracing' open standards - perhaps it's time to go back and have a look at the infamous 'Halloween Papers' again...
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/06/19/red-hat-summit-panel-who-won-ooxml-battle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_Documents
I see that Dell is extending the number of computer lines on which it is to make XP available. You can now also get XP professional on the low cost 'Vostro' line - for a price. A price of US$50 to be precise. That's the cost of 'downgrading' from Vista to XP.
My first thought was that Dell were trying to make a fast buck, but the situation is more complex. It seems that the Vostro line normally ships with the lower end version of Vista, which Microsoft doesn't allow to be downgraded, so the downgraded Vostros have to be shipped with the more expensive high end versions of Vista, which are then downgraded to XP. In other words Microsoft is making money out of the fact that people don't want its power and memory hungry latest operating system. What a surprise.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9099178
There is an interesting survey just published. it was commissioned by British Music Rights, and it seems to show that most people (about 80%) would rather get their music legally, but the music biz is not providing the sort of services they want to use to do so. Most of all, those surveyed made it clear that having paid for songs, they wanted to be able to own and keep that song. Just the thing that the music biz doesn't want to hear!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/16/bmr_music_survey/
Capping band width for Internet use has been much in the news recently. As I pointed out a few weeks ago this doesn't really stem from 'misuse' by users, it's caused by the hard sell from the ISPs pushing 'all you can eat' broadband while failing to update their equipment to meet the resulting demand.
What goes around comes around. This is not a new debate. It happens at regular intervals when the providers fail to update their equipment.
In fact the 'brief' command in my Federation 2 game was originally added when the game was running on AT&T's long defunct Istel network, which charged our customers by the X25 data packet used. One might also note that charging by the byte is one of the options being purveyed to 'solve' the self-made crisis.
Of course the real eye opener is that in Korea and Japan, where fast fibre is commonplace, there is no capping or per byte charging...
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1034_3-5079624.html
http://www.networkperformancedaily.com/2008/06/bandwidth_caps_and_the_cogniti.html
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Will-FiOS-Eventually-See-Caps-PerByte-Billing-95129
InfoWorld has been running a series on stupid user trick in the IT business. Its latest installment covers the stupidities of IT vendors and administrators. It makes interesting, and amusing (as long as it didn't happen to you) reading. Vendors shipping virus ridden computers, backups that no one checked to see if they worked, unencrypted Social Security numbers, pointy haired bosses repeatedly installing malware, it's all there. Duh!
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/16/25FE-stupid-users-part-3-admins_1.html
And talking of sysadmins, I noted an interesting report of a hacking case in the US this week. It was about Jon Paul Oson, a disgruntled network engineer who logged on to his former employer's servers and disabled the backup software. The employer was the San Diego based Council of Community Clinics and a week later Oson logged back in and deleted patient data and appointment material.
Oson was fined US$409,000 and sentenced to more than five years in jail.
Frankly, I'm of the opinion he fully deserved it. However, the real question that doesn't seem to have been raised at all is very different. Why wasn't his access to the system cut off when he left? Whose fault was it, and why weren't they also prosecuted? Those who left the system vulnerable should also bear their share of the blame, whether it was the admin who failed to carry out the procedure for removing ex-employees access, or the managers who failed to put a proper procedure in place.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/it_manager_rampage_sentence/
Homework:
There is an interesting discussion on why more than half the women in computing drop out of computing completely as a career. The two most obvious problems of macho work environment and family responsibilities are covered, but the article also covers risk taking, mentoring and a host of other issues. It's well worth a read, although it doesn't cover one of the things that to my mind is a substantial reason for the problem.
Many women take a couple of years out to start a family. The problem is that things are so fast moving that a two year out of date skill set is not very useful. Sadly, in today's computer business environment training and retraining is not considered a priority, even though it must be easier, and cheaper, to retrain returning women with a computer background, than to start from scratch.
In the meantime, given the screams about lack of qualified staff - caused by the increasing demands for more and more complex applications - can we really afford to allow this sort of hemorrhaging of talent?
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId
=319212&pageNumber=1
Geek Toys:
First, a device -not- to buy. A Jura F90 Coffee maker with the Jura Internet Connection Kit. It seems that the talents of this marvel of engineering are not confined to making coffee - it's also hackable, and can give the hacker access to your PC through which it connects to the Internet. Gulp!
http://www.amazon.com/Jura-Capresso-Impressa-Automatic-Coffee-Espresso/dp/B00008I8NT
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/493387
And here is something you should definitely get. Those amazingly creative people at Polaroid have done it again. A practical pocket printer to print 2" x 3" copies of the mobile phone pictures you've just taken! it's called PoGo and it retails at a mere US$149. I think this device will take off just as soon as it's readily available. I wonder if I can get it to work with my Samsung digital camera?
http://www.physorg.com/news133108644.html
Scanner: Other Stories
UK appeal court dismisses mod chip conviction
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/13/appeal_court_weighs_in_on_modchips/
MPAA wants to prevent recording movies on DVRs
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080608-mpaa-wants-to-stop-dvrs-from-recording-
some-movies.html
Spyware bill cloaks a mini-UCTIA
http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/3295647/121542016/120531/0/
US school cheat hack suspect faces 38 years jail
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/19/teen_school_hack_charges/
Data losses round up:
Stunned UK commuter finds more secret papers on train
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/16/more_papers_go_missing/
London hospital loses 20,000 unencrypted patient files
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/18/tooting_hospital_data_theft_a_lula/
http://www.kablenet.com/kd.nsf/Frontpage/5B3236F94D084DBF8025746C0053500B!
OpenDocument
UK government claims 'password protection' OK for sensitive docs
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/18/blears_pc_theft/
Finjan finds health and business data being auctioned online
http://update.techweb.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBJuF0HiOOq0G4W0GAFS0Ej
Thief swipes UK cabinet minister's laptop from Salford office
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/17/blears_laptop/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, David, Fi, Lois and 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
22 June 2008
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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