WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
My suspicions last week were correct. If this week's lack of news is anything to go on, we are entering a period of IT news scarcity. The creative juices are obviously going to have to work overtime in the next few months. (The previous sentence comes to you courtesy of 'Mixed Metaphors R Us'.)
I had some difficulty getting through to the Patent Office this week. It seems that they were out for most of the week, celebrating the roll out of a new loony patent for Amazon. My cheese on toast patent, is, I gather, still pending, but has moved up in the queue. In the meantime would I send in a replacement example, because the previous one was accidentally eaten by a clerk suffering from the munchies.
Such are the tribulations of obtaining a patent these days.
Meanwhile, strange, shadowy shapes are stirring in the depths of Googleland...
Shorts:
Google's desktop search application is reported as having a security vulnerability. This isn't the first, and from their generally laissez-faire attitude to security and their habit of allowing the public to try out alpha and beta test software, I doubt it will be the last such problem.
Interestingly enough, most, if not all, of the security problems Google has suffered from have come from its attempts to branch out from its core business as a search engine and advertising company. Perhaps if it stuck to those basic competencies there would be less cases of endangering people's home computers.
My recommendation? Don't play with Google toys, and only use the search facilities if you don't object to the rest of the world finding out what you are searching for...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/03/google_vulns_stack_up/
And while we are on the subject of Google, here are a couple of other snippets...
Google's new 'Street View' mapping facility is probably illegal in Europe. In the UK for instance guidance from the Information Commissioner to CCTV users is quite clear, 'Signs should be placed so that the public are aware that they are entering a zone which is covered by surveillance equipment... [These signs] should be clearly visible and legible to members of the public.'
You can't get more specific than that! Anyone like to take a bet on Google moving into sky writing in the near future?
Google has recently joined the band of whingers complaining about the paucity of visas for foreign IT workers. Actually, Google, there is a much better solution. Start hiring IT staff over 30. Interestingly enough, older workers tend to be much more au fait with such tricky and boring issues as security and code maintainability, and there are plenty of them available.
You are planning to be here in ten years time, aren't you Google? Ask your old friends Microsoft what happens when your code base is a mess of spaghetti and the people who wrote it have moved on to pastures new!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/05/google_street_view_legality_in_europe/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/07/google_visa_congress/
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is at it again. Even while being threatened with a serious shake up by congress and the Bush administration, they have issued Amazon with a follow up to its hotly disputed 'one click' patent. This time they've granted a patent for 'a method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network', and it includes following up an order by contacting the customer by phone or e-mail!
The lunacy of granting patents for this sort of common business method (or any business method, for that matter) is so obvious - large companies have been buying and selling electronically for at least 20 years - that the granting of such a patent can only hasten the re-organisation of the USPTO. The sooner the better, I say.
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/06/07/uspto_shake_up/
I've mentioned in the past a number of the more spectacular IT disasters perpetrated by the UK government, who persisting in using incompetent contractors like EDS and Capita (the latter known over here to their long suffering victims as Crapita). Now a report out by UK MPs fingers the lack of trained high level civil servants for the job of properly supervising the contractors.
Unfortunately, the report makes no attempt to look at the reason how this state of affairs came to pass. Actually, that's not surprising, most politicians are notorious for forgetting what's happened in the past as soon as it's over, which is why their activities are redolent of the film 'Groundhog Day'!
The reason for the lack of skills is simple. Twenty to thirty years ago, the government got rid of all its IT staff by outsourcing them. As a result the people who should have come through the government IT system and learned to manage large complex contracts are not there. The result is that the government has no idea how to run these contracts, or how to supervise the contractors. Its solution? Hire some different contractors to watch the first batch of contractors. And who will watch the watchers?
Caveat Emptor!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/05/pac_government_ict/
http://www.kablenet.com/kd.nsf/Frontpage/ABCE416DA504130A802572F0004F742F?OpenDocument
And while we are talking about the UK government, perhaps I should mention that there is one thing at which it excels - shredding embarrassing documents. Shortly before the Freedom of Information Act was due to take effect millions of documents were shredded because they were supposedly no longer needed. Now, the powers that be have issued instructions to shred a bunch of documents which are reviews of the (possible) forthcoming ID card system.
The general consensus is that the reviews confirm the view of everyone not in the government or contracting for the work, that the whole thing is an expensive turkey that isn't fit for its alleged purpose. If this is the case, not only will the government be shown to have been wasting taxpayers money on a truly massive scale, but they will also be proved to have been telling porkies to parliament and the public.
No wonder they want to shred the evidence, which the courts have already told them to make public!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/04/identity_shredding_order/
http://www.computerweekly.com/Home/..%5C/Articles/2007/06/01/224487/
civil-servants-told-to-destroy-reports-on-risky-it-projects.htm
Homework:
Reporting on Microsoft's US$10K 'tabletop' multi-touch computer last week reminded me that somewhere I'd seen a historical summary of multi-touch systems. I couldn't track it down for the piece last week, but eventually, too late for publication, I did, and it was just as interesting as I remembered.
The first part of the article deals with some of the issues involved - more laying out the problems, than offering solutions. The second is a chronological set of portraits (both written and photographic) of the various attempts at producing multi-touch machines, starting in 1982.
Definitely recommended.
http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html
Scanner: Other stories
iPhone Buyers Most Likely To Be Male College Grads
http://update.techweb.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/e8cN0HiOOq0G4V0FJCi0Eb
Why Apple won't sell 10 million iPhones in 2008
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/02/apple_iphones/
Spammers' use of Artificial Intelligence has only just begun
http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=17B5B41:215D3E184FC552DCAB9901731F841D10EFF29049075316B4
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi and DJ for drawing my attention to material used in this issue. Please send suggestions for material to alan@ibgames.com.
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
10 June 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
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